Soil Ecology

Map will help farmers to improve crop production.

Not everyone knows that plant roots have symbiotic relationships with certain types of fungi. These mycorrhizae help the plant absorb nutrients from the soil that are otherwise difficult to obtain and often provide some protection against soil-borne diseases. In exchange the plant suppliesfood to the fungus. To learn more about mycorrhizae, read this article...

The rhizosphere is the interface between plant roots and soil where intense, varied interactions between plants and microbes influence plants' health and growth through their influence on biochemical cycles, such as the carbon, nitrogen, and iron cycles. The rhizosphere is also a changing environment where oxygen can be rapidly limited and anaerobic zones can be established. Microorganisms successfully colonize the rhizosphere when they possess specific traits referred to as rhizosphere competence. Anaerobic respiration flexibility contributes to the rhizosphere competence of microbes. Indeed, a wide range of compounds that are available in the rhizosphere can serve as alternative terminal electron acceptors during anaerobic respiration such as nitrates, iron, carbon compounds, sulfur, metalloids, and radionuclides. In the presence of multiple terminal electron acceptors in a complex environment such as the rhizosphere and in the absence of O2, microorganisms will first use the most energetic option to sustain growth. Anaerobic respiration has been deeply studied, and the genes involved in anaerobic respiration have been identified. However, aqueous environment and paddy soils are the most studied environments for anaerobic respiration, even if we provide evidence in this review that anaerobic respiration also occurs in the plant rhizosphere. Indeed, we provide evidence by performing a BLAST analysis on metatranscriptomic data that genes involved in iron, sulfur, arsenate ...

The rhizosphere is the narrow region of soil or substrate that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms known as the root microbiome. Soil pores in the rhizosphere can contain many bacteria and other microorganisms that feed on sloughed-off plant cells, termed rhizodeposition, and the proteins and sugars released by roots, termed root exudates. This symbiosis leads to more complex interactions, influencing plant growth and competition for resources. Much of the nutrient cycling and disease suppression by antibiotics required by plants, occurs immediately adjacent to roots due to root exudates and metabolic products of symbiotic and pathogenic communities of microorganisms. The rhizosphere also provides space to produce allelochemicals to control neighbours and relatives.

Diggin’ in with Concept AgriTek is a new conversation for an age-old solution: soil! In this new series of podcasts, we sit down with some of the most engaging thought-leaders in agriculture to explore new research and applications in soil health and productivity. We’re diggin’ in to learn more about the Rhizophagy Cycle, microbiome function, Haney testing and putting those test results to work.

The Soil Health concept is complex. In this blog, we gather key elements of soil health. This glossary is an ongoing project that we will continue to update with new relevant soil health principles to help create a comprehensive understanding of this key element in regenerative agriculture.

The fungi kingdom is understudied, but there’s an effort underway to change that