Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Soil microorganisms as a tool for fast forecasting of the impact of arable practices on soil quality

Country of Origin: Moldova
Reference Number: TOMD20150206001
Publication Date: 6 February 2015

Summary

A Moldovan research institution has developed a microbiological method of forecasting the impact of arable practices on soil organic matter content. The method has the advantage of being at least 4 times faster and much cheaper than existing practices. The research institution is interested in research and technological cooperation with other European research institutions as well as agricultural or environmental companies.

Description

A research institution from the Republic of Moldova developped a new method  for forecasting the impact of arable practies on soil.The method is offered to those who are interested in assessment, protection and enhancement of arable soil quality, in development and assessment of sustainable arable practices, in solving problems related to soil degradation, in prevention of climate change, etc.This method can be used in such fields as prevention of arable soil degradation, monitoring, protection and enhancement of soil quality, sustainability assessment of arable technologies, development of sustainable arable technologies, sequestration of soil organic carbon..

The method is designed for forecasting the long-term impacts of arable practices on soil organic matter content, and involves assessment and monitoring of changes in the soil microbial biomass caused by these practices. Its working principle is based on (a) the difference between the turnover rates of the soil microbial biomass and soil organic matter and (b) the fact that for any given climate and arable soil the soil microbial biomass and its activity are largely conditioned by the same factors that control soil organic matter accumulation (the amount, quality and timing of incoming organic inputs), the factors that are mostly determined by the peculiarities of arable technologies. The method involves the well known techniques that were specifically designed for timely detection of changes in soil organic matter turnover induced by soil management.

The parthers sought should provide research and technical support for finalising and validating the result of the method. Also the partners shoul dhelp in identifying the end users for field testing the method.  

Further joint implementation of the project is envisaged.

Advantages and Innovations

The practicability of the method is based on the possibility of establishing the specific correlations between microbial parameters and organic matter content that develop with time in soils, depending on climate conditions, soil type and the peculiarities of the arable management. 

The major advantage: it permits timely impact assessments and predictions. Traditionally, the impact of arable practices on soil organic matter content is studied with the help of long-term field experiments that are extremely costly and demand decades of years (because the turnover rate of soil organic matter is from 20 years and longer). Since the offered method is based on a relatively shorter turnover rate of soil microorganisms (from 0.5 to 5 years), it permits to obtain the needed information at least 4 times faster and for a substantially smaller price.

Stage Of Development

Field tested/evaluated

Requested partner

Type of partner sought:

1.	Research institutes, environmental and agricultural companies to finalize the method and to do the independent validation;

2.	Research institutes, environmental and agricultural companies, farmers that will use the method for development/testing of sustainable arable practices, soil/environment monitoring/protection, 

3.	Owners of arable fields and long-term field experiments for validation of the method;



Specific area of activity of the partner: research, service provider, end user

- Task to be performed: further development, testing, implementation