Using Critical Zone Science to Enhance Soil Fertility and Sustain Ecosystem Services for Peri-Urban Agriculture in China

Lead Research Organisation: James Hutton Institute
Department Name: Ecological Sciences

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Planned Impact

This project develops a closely integrated project between research teams in the UK and China that directly addresses the following sustainable development challenges of China.

1. Economic development through innovation in agricultural practices
2. Food security through improved agricultural yields on existing productive land
3. Food safety through decreases in plant available soil contaminants
4. Water quality protection and improvement through reduced soil pollution
5. Wellbeing of urban inhabitants through peri-urban land management
6. Ecological resilience of agricultural production to environmental change
7. Meeting environmental commitments through reduced greenhouse gas emissions from land
8. Agricultural nutrient resource recovery from animal and human food consumption
9. The environmental impacts of urbanisation

The project addresses the challenges effectively by linking the research activities with innovation in farming practices through field manipulation experiments that act as testbeds and demonstrations for the use of organic fertilisers. The project addresses the challenges efficiently by focusing on the role of soil as a central control point within the integrated Critical Zone (CZ) system where positive changes in managing soil fertility can influence multiple beneficial outcomes to the development challenges. Efficiency of research investment is gained by drawing on the current investment in staff and infrastructure by the principal China partner (IUE) at the site and through collaboration with the Zhejiang Academy of Sciences Agricultural Institute in Ningbo city. The programme of impact activities includes strong UK and China stakeholders and performance metrics for immediate and long-term impact are defined. UK strengths in novel, high throughput molecular tools for soil food web dynamics will be applied with the Chinese investigators at the Ningbo CZO. This will provide the scientific evidence on how in organic fertiliser application will impact the soil N-cycle and can be pro-actively managed to improve yields and long-term soil fertility for food security. UK strengths in novel isotope biogeochemistry will be carried out jointly with the Chinese partners and will provide the scientific evidence to optimise soil management practices that reduce toxic metals uptake to food crops, to improve food safety. UK strengths for in situ quantitative analysis of emerging contaminants will develop novel biosensor technology and deploy it in the manipulation experiments in China. This will provide the scientific evidence for soil management practices to reduce the flux of contaminants to surface and groundwater. This will protect and improve water quality and help reduce the occurrence of environmental antibiotic resistance. UK strengths in mechanistic soil process modelling that is integrated with CZ flux determinations will be applied to interpret the results of the field manipulation experiments. The modelling will provide the scientific evidence to guide practice in organic fertiliser use to potentially benefit: crop yields, soil and water quality, ecological resilience to atmospheric deposition of urban contaminants, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions from land. Additional impacts include the potential for improved yields to help livelihoods and reduce poverty in farming communities. Joint design and delivery of manipulation experiments with farmers will support early identification and adoption of improved soil management practices. Organic fertilisers increase soil organic matter content which improves soil pore structure through aggregate formation. This increases plant-available water-holding capacity for drought resilience, and increases interaggregate water drainage for flood resilience. Reduced mineral fertiliser use will cut the life-cycle costs of the carbon footprint of manufacturing, greenhouse gas emissions from land, and increased water pollution from nutrient leaching.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description During this award and the associated CZO project we assessed the impacts of change in fertilisation on agricultural performance. We discovered that supplementing chemical fertilisers with composted animal slurry or sewage sludge (adding the same levels of nitrogen overall) improved yield and reduced negative impacts of agriculture such as greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxide) and leaching. This shift was associated with a shift in the microbial communities linked to nitrogen cycling.
Exploitation Route Ideally this work should be repeated on other soil types and agricultural practices. Also assessment of feasibility due to transport costs of bulky materials and availability to aid the development of a more circular nutrient economy.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Environment

 
Description Chinese partners include industry stakeholders who have been engaging with the project. This is at an early stage but support is being organised to enable further interaction
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Economic

 
Description MIDST-CZ: Maximising Impact by Decision Support Tools for sustainable soil and water through UK-China Critical Zone science
Amount £81,344 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/S009132/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2019 
End 03/2022
 
Description Ecosystem services of partial organic substitution for chemical fertiliser in a peri-urban zone in China 
Organisation Chinese Academy of Sciences
Department Institute of Soil Science
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This work is driven by a China Scholarship Council award to Quan Tang who is visiting Sheffield for one year. The design of the experiment was generated jointly between the applicant and the host at Sheffield. All work is joint and explores the N cycling activity measurements and the molecular assessment of the communities responsible for activity. Sheffield's primary responsibility is the molecular assessments for which full training will be provided to the candidate. We will also assist in data analysis and manuscript preparation.
Collaborator Contribution The ISSCAS group has primary responsibility for the activity measurements associated with the project. They will perform all connected analyses prior to the research visit to the UK
Impact The experiment is underway currently, activity measure have been completed.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Microbial process and genetic transformations - Microcosm experiment 
Organisation Chinese Academy of Sciences
Department Institute of Urban Environment
Country China 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This collaboration is part of Work Package 3 of the project programme. It relates to the design, establishment and sampling of a large microcosm experiment that explores the effects of altered fertilisation practices on soil from the projects main field site. The Hutton team drove the design of the experiment and the post-doc travelled to China to help establish the experiment and provide training to the team from IUE.
Collaborator Contribution The Chinese partners are responsible for the running and sampling of the experiment which is on-going. They also perform the preliminary analysis of data from the experiment and will supply data and samples for other analyses. This data has now been supplied and we are assessing samples for further analysis.
Impact The experiment has now been completed and we are analysing data with a view to publication.
Start Year 2016