Sustainability: From the Ground Up

In the face of complex and pressing environmental challenges, a better understanding of soils has increasingly been recognized as a critical component to finding sustainable solutions. In New England, where increased climate change is occurring faster than anywhere else in the U.S., Soil BioME, the center of Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology (Soil BioME) is leading soils research at the University of New Hampshire, with a focus on how soil health management is affected and could help mitigate climate change impacts on sustainable agricultural production, forest management and greenhouse gas emissions.

Soil BioME was established in 2022 by Jessica Ernakovich, Serita Frey and Stuart Grandy -faculty in the UNH College of Life Science and Agriculture and scientists with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. An important component of the Soil BioME goals is leveraging public-private partnerships, which helps enable scientific discoveries to have the greatest impact.

According to Grandy, a professor in UNH's natural resources and environment department, by collaborating with industry, the Soil BioME team aims to "translate scientific discoveries into practical applications that can address real-world environmental challenges."

"Our goal is to solve major problems like elevated carbon dioxide (CO²) concentrations in the atmosphere and to figure out how we can harness microbial activity to reduce atmospheric CO²," said Grandy. "Other collaborations focus on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), or measuring and monitoring how much nitrogen is converted into crops versus runoff."

Innovative Approaches to Nitrogen Use Efficiency

One partnership Grandy highlights is with the Midwest-based firm Ag Spectrum examining how nitrogen is cycled within agricultural systems and how nitrogen fertilizers can be used more efficiently. A key focus of this work is understanding the interactions between plants, microbes and soil reserves, and how nitrogen reserves can be remobilized by plant-microbe interactions when plants need it most instead of running off the landscape and into the surrounding environment. In turn, this would improve crop productivity and reduce the costs of purchasing fertilizer.

Another public-private partnership of Soil BioME focuses on improving plant nitrogen use efficiency within agricultural operations, with the goal of reducing nitrogen loss and enhancing crop productivity. This research tests new approaches to optimize the microbial transfer of nitrogen to crops during critical periods of crop growth, said Grandy. Nitrogen, essential for plant growth, can often escape from agricultural soils, which could result in lower food production, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

"One of the key scientific discoveries related to this partnership is that plant uptake of nitrogen is an active process and involves interactions between plants and soil microbes," Grandy added. "These interactions can mobilize nitrogen from previously inaccessible pools in the soil, making it available for plants when needed. We're identifying potential interventions to help manage that nitrogen more effectively."

"Our center has global and national partners. Soil BioME's goal is to position UNH as a global leader in using soil science to address major challenges in food, human well-being, and the environment." ~ Stuart Grandy, Professor, UNH COLSA

Expanding Impact Through Industry Collaboration

These and other partnerships, including with Novo Nordisk, Nutrien, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, broaden the scope of Soil BioME's research, amplify its impact, drive advancements in soil science and sustainable agricultural practices and lead to breakthroughs in soil biogeochemistry and microbial ecology.

"Being part of these industry partnerships has helped me to see how the science we do can be applied to real-world solutions," described Ernakovich, an associate professor in the natural resources and the environment department. "It's a shift from thinking about how to address what we don't know (like seeking to inform scientific knowledge gaps) to thinking about how the advances we've made in soil biogeochemistry over the years can be applied to solving pressing issues."

The Soil BioME team plans to continue expanding its research and industry partnerships and making research accessible to a broader audience beyond the scientific community. This work will build upon Soil BioME's current initiatives focused on sharing its findings and their implications for environmental sustainability with the general public, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange within the scientific community and creating opportunities for scholars at various levels-undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral-to engage with the research, learn from its findings, and contribute to its projects.

"The vision that my colleagues and I have for Soil BioME is to create a platform that advances the science of soil ecology and biogeochemistry and that makes our research accessible to a broad audience," Grandy explained. "By fostering international collaboration with scientists, engaging with the public, and educating future researchers, we aim to ensure that the new knowledge we generate about soil will lead to real-world environmental solutions and inspire a new generation of scientists to continue this vital work."

Learn more on the Soil BioME website, including the latest news about the research center and recently published journal articles.

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