Allocation and persistence of microbial necromass in temperate and tropical soils

• Grant number: 23/06313-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 23, 2023
• End date: February 22, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Dini Andreote
• Grantee: Alberto Vinicius Sousa Rocha
• Supervisor: Kathleen Buckeridge
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/10276-2 - Interaction between microbiome and soil organic carbon (SOC) in integrated systems of agricultural production (ISAP), BP.MS

Abstract

Agriculture faces one of the greatest challenges in its history, that is, producing quality food and reducing its environmental impacts. To this end, integrated agricultural production systems (ISAP) and smart cropping (SC) have been listed as sustainable, productive and resilient strategies, capable of producing food, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sequestering part of the dispersed CO2 in the atmosphere in soils of Brazil and Luxembourg, respectively. However, it is unknown how these methods of sustainable agriculture will impact the persistence of soil microbial products and residues (hereinafter referred to as microbial "necromass") and its contribution to soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in different soils (temperate and tropical). Thus, this study aims to understand the influence of land/soil management on the allocation and persistence of microbial necromass and its respective potential use as an indicator of soil organic carbon (SOC) in temperate and tropical soils. For this, isotopic and elemental approaches will be used to unravel the phenomena involved in these biotic and abiotic processes in contrasting environments. The results obtained in this study may, therefore, reveal microbial processes and shape the adoption of ISAP and SC-based strategies to reduce the environmental effects of the agricultural sector via CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere and storage in the form of SOC. Moreover, this internship will complement the scientific findings from the ongoing FAPESP scholarship in the country, that involves nationally and internationally connected projects that aim to establish meaningful collaborations for future research in this scientific field. (AU)