Research Questions: How do altered soil moisture and nutrients influence the microbial community composition of a degraded dryland soil? Does the altered microbial community composition affect native plant germination and growth? Project Description: Claire Karban designed this field experiment and we set it up Fall 2020. Claire is testing various approaches to dryland restoration including soil pitting (shown in the photo above), biochar, and seed coating. I am curious whether these treatments have an indirect effect on native plant establishment through altering microbial communities. In particular, we expect that the pits will improve soil moisture status and will collect nutrients via dust collection. This may alter the microbial community structure. We would also like to know whether that altered microbial community structure contributes to seeded plant establishment. In the spring, I will be collecting soils from the pits, from control plots, and from healthy nearby soils. I will be extracting an intact microbial community (using methods from Corinne Walsh in Noah Fierer's Lab) from each soil type, applying them to the native seeds we used in the field experiment, and measuring plant growth in growth chambers and in the greenhouse. I will follow-up with marker gene sequencing for both bacteria and fungi. I'll link my findings to the field site, where Claire and Sallie will be measuring plant success (plant densities and biomass) for each treatment as well as fungal infection rates. Our overall goal is to improve dryland restoration strategies in ways that can be used at a large-scale.
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AuthorSierra is a graduate student in the Barger Lab at CU Boulder studying microbial ecology for dryland restoration. Archives
August 2023
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