Soil biodiversity (INCT)

• Grant number: 24/18011-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Program to Stimulate Scientific Vocations
• Start date: January 13, 2025
• End date: March 04, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Fatima Maria de Souza Moreira
• Grantee: Emelyn Alves
• Host Institution: Escola de Ciências Agrárias. Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Lavras , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The great challenge facing humanity is to meet the needs of its growing population and future generations and, at the same time, reduce human pressure on the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to invest in actions that contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources. Understanding soil biodiversity (SB), directly involved in at least eight of the Sustainable Development Goals, its biotechnological potential and its responses to human activities is an important step in supporting decision-making that leads to the sustainable management of natural and agricultural ecosystems. In this context, it is essential to understand and intensify the contribution of biological processes to agricultural production and environmental quality. SB and its processes are influenced by the complexity, heterogeneity, dynamics and interaction of the various physical, chemical and biological factors of the soil, which requires the combination and integration of different disciplines for its study. The network of researchers from the BiosBrasil Research Group, which submitted this proposal, has been working since 2002 on network projects (multinational, multidisciplinary and multi-institutional) that were funded by GEF/UNEP, Vale/Fapemig and Fapemig, as well as CNPq, Capes and others (e.g. European Community). The group has strong interactions with other institutions in Brazil and abroad, as well as companies, which, together with the qualifications of its researchers, makes BIOSBRASIL one of the largest and most consolidated Brazilian research networks in the study of BS. The approval of resources for this INCT will contribute to the international consolidation of Brazil in its actions to understand our biodiversity, will provide subsidies for public policies for ecosystem conservation, will strengthen the process of developing biotechnological products aimed at the sustainable increase of plant production and will expand the training of human resources and the popularization of science at national and international levels. (AU)