Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOFT (Steering organic farming transition)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-09-01 al 2022-08-31
This project SOFT (Steering organic Farming Transition) aims to contribute towards shortening the transition period from conventional farming to a more organic type of farming that maintains high crop yields while having less negative environmental impacts. This will be achieved by understanding the role of soil microbial biodiversity and soil microbial network configuration in driving the functioning of sustainable agroecosystems. This will also be achieved by investigating the role of whole-soil inoculation to drive the fast conversion to high-yield organic farms.
My results from the Vital Soils chronosequence showed that Carbon cycling-related enzymes are higher in organic fields, and that this effect increased with time since conversion. My results from the Kellogg experiment showed that treatments showing more tightly coupled soil networks are those correlate with higher soil functioning. Thus, identifying pathways of soil microbial community interactions disruptions may help to improve the functioning of agroecosystems.
SOFT's communication goal was to target different audiences and increase public awareness of the importance of fast conversion of conventional agricultural systems obtained from high-producing organic farmlands to aid in this transition. The results of this research are relevant to a broad scientific community, including those with interests in the conversion from conventional to organic agriculture, soil biodiversity, community ecology and ecological networks.
The results from my research have been disseminated in conferences, international workshop and academic sector. Currently there are also two manuscripts in progress to submit to peer-review scientific journals. Exploitation of research results SOFT laid the foundation of agricultural programs aimed at favoring the sustainability of food, feed and bioenergy production with minimal biodiversity and functioning losses. Identifying soil microbial groups that are key for soil network coupling and functioning allowed me to start a novel research program aimed at synthetically recreating key connections for the fast transition of conventional to organic agriculture.
It is increasingly acknowledged that enhancing the sustainability of agriculture will require a transformation of the soil and its associated biota, as they play a major role in how energy and materials from soils are transferred to crops through their control of nutrient cycling. These microbes live in close association with the rhizosphere, the thin layer of soil around the roots. This close association results in a high degree of co-occurrence, also named ‘coupling’. Paradigmatic examples of the importance of coupled connections between keystone soil organisms and plants through complex interaction networks involve mycorrhizal fungi and plant-growth promoting bacteria (PGPRs), which are key for plant nutrition, defence against pathogens and stress tolerance. By revealing how soil networks relate to functioning in agroecosystems, SOFT resulted in a major advancement compared to previous efforts to understand the transition from conventional to organic systems and may serve as a baseline for downstream manipulation studies.
The impact of this research is of high relevance for both the primary productivity sector (agri-food companies and farmers) and for the scientific community (basic and applied research). This project tested the novel hypothesis that the transition from conventional to high-yield organic agroecosystems is allowed due to the regeneration of tightly coupled soil networks that may allow for a more efficient C uptake and transfer of energy and matter through the entire system.