Project / Initiative
Fellowship Marie Curie
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Active
ROOTEX-C
From wild to domesticated: how do root traits and microbial communities affect soil carbon stabilization in cropping systems?
Creaf leader
Creaf leader
Participant
The ROOTEX-C project will investigate how domesticated and wild crop varieties differ in their belowground traits and examine their effects on microbial communities and soil C stabilization.
Domestication resulted in a loss of crop diversity and greater susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stressors. But did this transition to domesticated varieties also influence soil carbon (C) stabilization pathways?
To address this question, ROOTEX-C will bring together a multidisciplinary team with expertise in plant physiology, microbiology, biogeochemistry, and soil science.
The aim is to investigate how belowground plant traits, such as root architecture and exudation patterns, interact with microbial communities and influence soil C stabilization across different crop domestication statuses.
By employing cutting-edge methodologies, including metabolomics, metagenomics, stable isotope probing, and novel methods for estimating microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE), ROOTEX-C aims to significantly advance our mechanistic understanding of plant–soil C processes and gain insights into the effects of crop domestication on plant belowground traits.
