Understanding the processes regulating carbon and nutrient flow through the plant-soil-microbe system is increasingly important as soil systems are under escalating stress from a changing climate as well as from unsustainable land use practices. Soil is an integral part of our socio-economic fabric and degraded soils lead to increased risk of food scarcity, decreased water quality, decreased plant/microbe diversity and other negative impacts on ecosystem services. In fact, with current land use practices the world’s topsoil will be diminished in 60 years (Semedo, FAO, 2015). This workshop is focused on experimental platforms available at the National User Facilities NSLS-II and EMSL, which can each provide molecular insights to the biogeochemical and microbial processes that lead to carbon stabilization or destabilization. We wish to explore how, through use of joint capabilities (enabling research programs), EMSL and NSLS-II can help generate the knowledge that leads to improved processes for sustainable agriculture and biocrop production as well as to a capacity increase in soils as a long-term carbon reservoir.
Workshop Organizers: R. Tappero, J. Thieme, & S. McSweeney (NSLS-II); N.Hess, J. Evans, and T. Varga (EMSL)
Plenary Speaker: Donald L. Sparks, Unidel S. Hallock du Pont Chair, Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Marine Science and Policy Director, Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN)