Moteur de recherche d’entreprises européennes
Financement britannique (532 558 £) : Utiliser les racines pour bio-modifier le sol Ukri 15/02/2018 Recherche et innovation du Royaume-Uni, Royaume Uni
Vue d’ensemble
Texte
Utiliser les racines pour bio-modifier le sol
| Abstract | In order to sustainably increase crop yields to feed the growing world population, and considering the challenges we are facing today due to climate change, we need to carefully manage our soil resources. Promoting measures to manage soils better whilst reducing costs will also help farming businesses remain competitive and profitable. Instead of burning fossil fuels to drag more steel through the ground, this research will harness the power and properties of plant roots to engineer soil for optimised crop growth. Roots can bio-engineer soil because they can bind soil particles together, providing resistance against soil erosion by water. Roots can also improve soil infiltration and hence prevent runoff. Roots also absorb and release nutrients into the soil, allowing soils to improve their nutrient status and to reduce environmental side effects. Last but not least, roots break up the soil and create pore spaces when they decay. These macro-pores aerate the soil and make its structure more crumbly. So roots can act as a surrogate for machinery and hence reduce the number of tillage operations. Cover crops are a way for UK growers to address the current Greening Rules that require them to: maintain minimum soil cover, minimise land management to limit erosion and maintain organic matter levels. They are fast growing species, planted between two cash crops, which have the ability to boost soil health and reduce the negative impact of agro-management on the environment. They are usually planted immediately after harvest and left to grow all winter; they cover and protect the soil surface against erosion and die off or are destroyed in early spring to make way for the cash crop. There has been an increasing interest in research to support the application of cover crops. However, current estimates indicate that only 8% of all arable land used for spring cropping in the UK adopts winter cover crops in the rotation. This is because robust science that provides evidence of the multiple benefits of cover crops is lacking. Past research has successfully linked agronomic productivity to above ground plant traits. More recent studies also investigated root traits and demonstrated their important effect on several single soil functions such as aggregate stability and water availability. No study has looked at the effects of root properties of cover crops to synergistically enhance multiple soil functions and no study has provided a robust methodology to combine complementary root traits in plant communities and to model their effects on multiple soil functions. The main aim of this study is therefore to develop a novel framework to select and combine complementary root traits in cover crops that prevent soil resource losses and improve crop growth conditions. To develop the model, root screening will be performed with ten common cover crops (oat, rye, ryegrass, Festulolium, buckwheat, mustard, fodder radish, phacelia, Lucerne and vetch) grown in big soil monoliths, filled with real soil, under laboratory conditions. The plants will be grown in different environments prone to soil degradation. A series of root properties (e.g. rooting depth, root hair density) will be carefully determined, and we will use a DNA technique, qPCR, to determine the proportions of root biomass of each species within a plant community. The key deliverable of this research will be a novel model that will allow the design of combinations of plant species with complementary root traits that prevent soil erosion, mitigate runoff and improve soil structure and nutrient status for optimised crop growth. |
| Category | Research Grant |
| Reference | BB/R003440/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 15/02/2018 |
| Funded period end | 14/02/2021 |
| Funded value | £532 558,00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FR003440%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY | |
| Crop Health and Protection | |
| RSK ADAS Ltd | |
| Agrii (Mastock Arable (UK) Ltd.) |
Cette annonce se réfère à une date antérieure et ne reflète pas nécessairement l’état actuel. L’état actuel est présenté à la page suivante : Cranfield University, Bedford, Royaume Uni.