The soil microbiome, that is, the community of tiny organisms called microbiota that live in the soil, contribute to everything from nutrient cycling to crop fertility. In other words, the microbiome is important not only for the soil, but also for us. Problems arise when we deplete the soil through things like monoculture farming and pesticide use. “We don’t want another dust bowl situation,” Gallagher said. “We need to think long term, about how generations after us will continue to farm the same soils and feed the global population into the indeterminate future.”
This grant builds off of Gallagher’s Danforth Seed Grant, which he received as a graduate student PI in fall 2023. Now, with this additional funding, Bose’s team will be able expand the project. “Having the money from the Here and Next grant will help us build collaborations as we look toward submitting a competitive proposal to USDA this fall,” Gallagher said.
The team from WashU consists of PI Arpita Bose, Associate Professor of Biology, co-PIs Joshua Blodgett, Associate Professor of Biology, Fangqiong Ling, Assistant Professor in the McKelvey School of Engineering, and Christopher Topp from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Joining the WashU-Danforth team are outside collaborators, including Frank Nelson with the Missouri Department of Conservation and Kyle Steele from the United States Forest Service. The issue of soil health is relevant to a wide range of researchers and professionals, as well as stakeholders in the broader populace like farmers and conservationists. The Bose Lab wants to bring together an interdisciplinary team to study the soil microbiome and how we can leverage it to help save our soils.
The Here and Next funded research led by Bose and her team is centered around the soils of Missouri’s unique Ozark fens, whose microbial communities are unstudied.
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Categories: Missouri, Crops