Collaborative Research: RII Track-2 FEC: Supporting rural livelihoods in the water-stressed Central High Plains: Microbial innovations for climate-resilient agriculture (MICRA)

合作研究：RII Track-2 FEC：支持缺水的中部高原地区的农村生计：气候适应型农业的微生物创新 (MICRA)

• 批准号: 2316296
• 负责人: Seunghee Kim
• 金额: $ 210.18万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2027-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2316296&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RII; Track; FEC

Supporting rural communities in the Central High Plains region of the Midwest is critical. Agriculture is responsible for direct economic impacts of $21.3B, $26.3B, and $7.6B in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, respectively (USDA ERS data for 2021). This agricultural region is facing increased frequency and severity of drought due to climate change; as an example, in October 2022, 100% of Nebraska, 98.5% of Kansas, and 100% of Oklahoma experienced drought conditions, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: U.S. Drought Monitor. The MICRA project brings together researchers from Kansas State University (KSU), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and Langston University (LU) with a wide range of expertise (e.g., engineering, science, agricultural science, and social science). The project team will conduct research with the goal to preserve soil moisture and improve water quality under drought conditions. Corn is the target crop for study due to its economic importance in the Midwest, and its substantial demand for water and nutrients. Researchers will investigate the impacts of adding amendments to improve the soil (i.e., soil wetting bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, and biochar); understand plants’ behavior in response to drought; understand the impacts of climate change on agricultural workers; and determine farmers' willingness to adopt new irrigation practices relative to differing water rights and policies. The MICRA project will investigate the impacts of soil amendments at the lab-scale, greenhouse-scale, and field-scale, and will conduct surveys and focus groups. The MICRA team will recruit students from historically excluded groups; mentor and train undergraduate and graduate students to conduct interdisciplinary research; teach interdisciplinary courses at the graduate level; support early career faculty at KSU, UNL, and LU; and conduct educational outreach to rural K-12 science teachers.The MICRA team will generate fundamental knowledge regarding the impacts of soil amendments (i.e., soil wetting bacteria, B. subtilis, and biochar) to increase the water holding capacity of soil, thereby improving agroecosystem productivity as water becomes more limited due to climate-change-driven droughts. Interdisciplinary research is focused in three research thrusts. Research Thrust 1 will test the hypothesis that spatial and temporal soil wetting behavior of B. subtilis is driven by soil type, initial soil moisture levels, soil hydrophobicity, and administration methods, thereby generating new knowledge regarding soil wetting, evapotranspiration, and development of predictive, genome-scale metabolic models for soil-microbial interactions. The central hypothesis of Thrust 2 is that B. subtilis-mediated surfactant production (i.e., which changes the surface tension of water), when combined with biochar-mediated soil aggregation, can synergistically improve soil water retention. Thrust 2 will determine the impacts of soil wetting bacteria and biochar on water-holding capacity, nutrient transformation, and the rhizobiome under deficit irrigation. Thrust 3 focuses on the hypotheses that producers (i.e., farmers) having lower quality soils (e.g., high sand content) will be more willing to adopt new precision irrigation technologies and practices, particularly in regions where curtailments to historical water use amounts have been put in place. Focus group and survey data will yield fundamental insights regarding irrigator’s perceptions regarding soil amendments and irrigation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

支持中西部中部高原地区的农村社区至关重要。农业对堪萨斯州、内布拉斯加州和俄克拉荷马州的直接经济影响分别为 21.3B、26.3B 和 7.6B（美国农业部 ERS ​​2021 年数据）。例如，2022 年 10 月，内布拉斯加州 100%、堪萨斯州 98.5% 和根据内布拉斯加大学林肯分校的数据，俄克拉荷马州 100% 经历了干旱：美国干旱监测中心 MICRA 项目汇集了来自堪萨斯州立大学 (KSU)、内布拉斯加大学林肯分校 (UNL) 和兰斯顿大学 (LU) 的研究人员。 ）具有广泛的专业知识（例如工程、科学、农业科学和社会科学）。该项目团队将开展研究，目标是在干旱条件下保持土壤水分并改善水质。由于其在中西部的经济重要性以及对水和养分的大量需求，研究人员将研究目标作物，研究人员将研究添加改良剂以改善土壤的影响（即土壤润湿细菌、枯草芽孢杆菌和生物炭）；应对干旱的行为；了解气候变化对农业工人的影响；并确定农民相对于不同水权和政策采取新灌溉做法的意愿。 MICRA 项目将在实验室规模上调查土壤改良的影响。 , MICRA 团队将从历史上被排除在外的群体中招募学生；指导和培训本科生和研究生进行跨学科研究；以及KSU、UNL 和 LU 的职业教师；并对农村 K-12 科学教师进行教育推广。MICRA 团队将生成有关土壤改良剂（即土壤润湿细菌、枯草芽孢杆菌和生物炭）影响的基础知识提高土壤持水能力，提高农业生态系统生产力，因为气候变化驱动的干旱使水变得更加有限。跨学科研究的重点是三个研究重点，即检验土壤的时空润湿行为的假设。枯草芽孢杆菌受土壤类型、初始土壤湿度水平、土壤疏水性和管理方法驱动，从而产生有关土壤润湿、蒸散的新知识，并开发土壤微生物的预测性基因组规模代谢模型推力 2 的中心假设是枯草芽孢杆菌介导的表面活性剂产生（即改变水的表面张力）与生物炭介导的土壤聚集相结合，可以协同改善土壤保水性。土壤润湿细菌和生物炭对缺水灌溉下的持水能力、养分转化和根瘤菌的影响侧重于生产者的假设。土壤质量较低（例如沙含量高）的（即农民）将更愿意采用新的精准灌溉技术和做法，特别是在已经实施历史用水量削减的地区。将产生有关灌溉者对土壤改良和灌溉的看法的基本见解。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。