DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF WATER STRESS BY ANALYZING THE INFLUENCE ON THE MICROBIAL COMMUNITY

• Grant number: 25/06464-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 16, 2025
• End date: February 15, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Soil and Water Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Ferrari Putti
• Grantee: Gabriel da Silva Teodoro
• Supervisor: David Leonard Jones
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Engenharia. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Tupã. Tupã , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Bangor University, Wales
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/01064-7 - Influence of hydrogels on grass crops under water stress, BP.MS

Abstract

Due to global warming, climate change has been intensifying increasingly, altering the rainfall regime and increasing the heat that reaches the planet, which consequently affects food production in general. Thus, in this way, managing the soil with new technologies for water retention is necessary to make it available at the ideal time for the development of the plant. Thus, the use of hydrogels is a new and promising technology to alleviate the effects of irregular rainfall. Associated with this, another aspect to reduce the effects on plants due to water stress is the application of bio-inputs. Thus, this present project aims to evaluate the application of hydrogels associated with microorganisms Bacillus aryabhattai and Azospirillum brasiliense in soil microbial activity. In Bangor, analyses will be carried out with the soil that was the environment for the association of the hydrogel with the microorganisms, in this way the determination of organic carbon and total nitrogen dissolved in the soil will be carried out, analyzes to observe the changes in microbial activity and its metabolism, analyzes with the soil substrate through the substrate method labeled with 14C-glucose and the determination of microbial removal of this substrate, determination of soluble microbial biomass and investigate the stable fraction of organic solvents in the substrate to be able to measure the mineralization of the substrate. The request for an internship abroad at Bangour University seeks to evaluate how soil microbial activity will be impacted in the presence of hydrogels, thus complementing training and mainly answering the scientific question of how hydrogels impact soil microbiota.