Description du projet
In the face of enormous global challenges, the sustainability of agricultural production needs to be enhanced and fertiliser and pesticide use be reduced. A range of studies have shown that micro-organisms in soil can have a big impact on plant health and thus can contribute to sustainable agricultural production. However, how to employ soil microbial communities in a targeted way to provide agricultural benefits it is still poorly understood. This project aims at engineering, testing and applying new and innovative microbial consortia for enhanced sustainability of cropping systems.
Quelles sont les particularités de ce projet?
This project uses new scientific concepts, such as keystone-taxa theory, communities of microorganisms complementing each other for maximum effects on ecosystem functioning, to design microbial consortia. Strategies for implementing the benefits of these consortia into agricultural practice will be developed in a participatory approach together with farmers and commercial producers of biological inoculants. Therefore, this project represents a unique combination of latest scientific research developments and agricultural application, directly linking basic research with practice.
Etat/résultats intermédiaires
This project aims to at developing reliable microbial inoculants that contribute to crop production and reduce the need for fertilizer and pesticide applications. An application strategy will be developed that allows to integrate the benefits of keystone microbial taxa and beneficials into management operations of farmers in a convenient and cost-efficient way. This will be acheved by involving farmers and biotechinological companies in the development process.
Publications
Bender, S. Franz, Cameron Wagg, and Marcel GA van der Heijden. «An underground revolution: biodiversity and soil ecological engineering for agricultural sustainability.» Trends in ecology & evolution 31, no. 6 (2016): 440-452;
Banerjee, Samiran, Klaus Schlaeppi, and Marcel GA van der Heijden. «Keystone taxa as drivers of microbiome structure and functioning.» Nature Reviews Microbiology 16, no. 9 (2018): 567-576;
Bender, S. Franz, Klaus Schlaeppi, Alain Held, and Marcel GA Van der Heijden. «Establishment success and crop growth effects of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus inoculated into Swiss corn fields.» Agriculture, ecosystems & environment 273 (2019): 13-24;
Wagg,C, K Schlaeppi, S Banerjee, E E Kuramae, M G A van der Heijden. «Fungal-bacterial diversity and microbiome complexity predict ecosystem functioning.» Nature Communications, 2019, 10(1): 4841.
Revue de presse
None so far
Liens
Personnes participant au projet
Dernière mise à jour de cette présentation du projet 06.04.2021