Project
On the use of cover crops to stimulate the indigenous soil microbial communities.
In this project, several cover crop species from different plant families grown in monocultures and mixtures, will be investigated for their role in influencing the assembly and activity of the indigenous soil microbial communities (also called microbiome), with focus on the fraction of pathogen antagonists.
Background
The soil can be considered as a microbial seed bank in which up to 80% of the soil life is in a dormant state. Part of it might become active when stimulated by the growth of the right crops. A well-considered choice of (combinations of) cover crop species can therefore stimulate natural antagonists present in the soil. The stimulation of the naturally occurring antagonistic soil microbiome is of great interest as it could lead to more sustainable pest and pathogen management as an alternative to chemical pesticides.
Project description
In this project, we will use high-throughput molecular techniques (MiSeq and NovaSeq) to determine i) the assembly of the microbiome associated to different cover crop species, ii) the presence of pathogen antagonists and their status in the soil (active or dormant) and iii) the persistence in time of the ‘cover crop effect’ on the soil microbiome. This project contributes to the optimization of the current protocols for microbiome analysis but also aims at its application to scientifically understand the effects of cover crops on soil resilience.