Mitigating soil erosion by manipulating root system architecture
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Lancaster Environment Centre
Abstract
Sustainable agriculture requires the efficient use of available resources (e.g. water and nutrients), but especially soil retention, particularly of the upper (nutrient-enriched) layers. Water-mediated soil erosion can be minimised by maximizing vegetation cover, but recently more attention has been paid to the role of the root system.
Plant roots are a crucial yet under-researched factor for reducing water erosion rates through their ability to alter soil properties such as aggregate stability, hydraulic function and shear strength. This project aims to evaluate the effects of genotypic variation in root architecture (specifically vertical gradients in lateral root proliferation) on soil erosion rates. Should proliferation occur at the soil surface, dense mats of roots may block soil pores thereby limiting infiltration, enhancing runoff and thus erosion. Should proliferation occur at depth, local increases in shear strength may reinforce soils against structural failure at the shear plane. Furthermore, root hair development and exudation of mucilage may improve aggregate stability and decrease erodibility. The magnitude of these effects in mitigating soil erosion requires research on nutrient poor agricultural land or constructed slopes.
Moreover, there is considerable agronomic interest in "designer root systems" for specific climates and vertical soil nutrient distributions. Because vertical profiles of nutrients and water vary according to the rainfall environment (frequency and intensity) and interactions of fertiliser regime with plant uptake, selecting a specific root ideotype may have unintended consequences should environment or management change.
Our hypotheses (H1-H3) are:
1 Selecting crop genotypes with specific root system architectures can alter specific soil physical properties to mitigate soil erosion (H1)
2 Specific types of root have disproportionate effects on soil physical properties within certain soil layers (H2)
Trade-offs exist between soil erosion control and crop resource (nutrient and water) acquisition according to vertical resource distribution (H3)
Plant roots are a crucial yet under-researched factor for reducing water erosion rates through their ability to alter soil properties such as aggregate stability, hydraulic function and shear strength. This project aims to evaluate the effects of genotypic variation in root architecture (specifically vertical gradients in lateral root proliferation) on soil erosion rates. Should proliferation occur at the soil surface, dense mats of roots may block soil pores thereby limiting infiltration, enhancing runoff and thus erosion. Should proliferation occur at depth, local increases in shear strength may reinforce soils against structural failure at the shear plane. Furthermore, root hair development and exudation of mucilage may improve aggregate stability and decrease erodibility. The magnitude of these effects in mitigating soil erosion requires research on nutrient poor agricultural land or constructed slopes.
Moreover, there is considerable agronomic interest in "designer root systems" for specific climates and vertical soil nutrient distributions. Because vertical profiles of nutrients and water vary according to the rainfall environment (frequency and intensity) and interactions of fertiliser regime with plant uptake, selecting a specific root ideotype may have unintended consequences should environment or management change.
Our hypotheses (H1-H3) are:
1 Selecting crop genotypes with specific root system architectures can alter specific soil physical properties to mitigate soil erosion (H1)
2 Specific types of root have disproportionate effects on soil physical properties within certain soil layers (H2)
Trade-offs exist between soil erosion control and crop resource (nutrient and water) acquisition according to vertical resource distribution (H3)
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ian Dodd (Primary Supervisor) | |
| John Quinton (Primary Supervisor) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE/M009106/1 | 01/10/2015 | 31/03/2024 | |||
| 1643842 | Studentship | NE/M009106/1 | 01/10/2015 | 31/03/2019 |