Since the Green Revolution in the 1960s, mineral N fertilizers have been a key factor in boosting crop yields and feeding a growing population. Low-carbon approaches to agriculture constitute a pivotal measure to address the challenge of global climate change. In agroecosystems, rhizosphere exudates are significantly involved in regulating the nitrogen (N) cycle and facilitating belowground chemical communication between plants and s...
Industrialization brought about significant changes in pollution patterns, introducing new contaminants into the environment such as heavy metals, industrial chemicals, and particulate matter. The rise in environmental pollution is driven by rapid global development, which often prioritizes human needs over the health of the planet. Despite efforts to control legacy pollutants, the continual introduction of new substances poses a significant threat to both people and the environmen...
Saline–alkali land is an important cultivated land reserve resource for meeting the challenge of feeding the increasing global human population. Saline–alkali land is an important cultivated land reserve resource for tackling global climate change and ensuring food security, partly because it can store large amounts of carbon (C). However, it is unclear how saline–alkali land reclamation (converting saline–alkali land into cultivat...
Soil inorganic carbon (SIC) (supplementary materials, soil carbonate system) is conventionally viewed as a relatively stable carbon pool with an assumed turnover time of millennia. This view is shifting as evidence of accelerated SIC dynamics is growing, revealing substantial perturbations to...Global estimates of the size, distribution, and vulnerability of soil inorganic carbon (SIC) remain largely unquantified. By compiling 223,593 field-based measurements and developing machine-learning models, Prof. ZHANG Ganlin from the ISSCAS and his team report that global soils store 2305 ...
Recent field studies on chemical feedbacks between plant species have focused more on non-kin species defense, and less on how chemical cues may alter the rhizomicrobiome and microbially mediated functions that affect the plant fitness of the species involved.Biological nitrogen fixation by free-living bacteria and rhizobial symbiosis with legumes plays a key role in sustainable crop production. Here, associate professor CHEN Yan and his team study how different crop combinations influence the interaction between peanut plants and their rhizospher...
Microbial interactions are key to maintaining soil biodiversity. However, whether negative or positive associations govern the soil microbial system at a global scale remains virtually unknown, limiting our understanding of how microbes interact to support soil biodiversity and functions.In a study published in PNAS, researchers from the ISSCAS, the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS), and the University of Cádiz analyzed 151 ecosystems across six continents, delving into the intricate coexistence network among diverse species including bacteria...
