Crops that use water and nutrients more efficiently are seen as a potential way of limiting projected falls in the levels of many of the resources that they rely on, such as fresh water and phosphate. Genetic tools can be used to modify the way a plant’s shoot or root develop to improve water and nutrient uptake. But changing these features may have significant consequences for soil structure and equally, changes to the soil structure itself may have a major impact on root development.As existing research has mainly focused on the parts of the plants that sit above the ground, little is known about how altering a plant’s efficiency will affect how it develops below ground. This project will examine plants that have been engineered to use water efficiently, and the impact that this modification has had on root development and soil structure. It will look at the physical interactions between roots and soil to determine how these forces affect the way roots develop and function.
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Modelling and experimentally testing these interactions will allow plant traits to be matched to particular soil types in a way that will improve soil sustainability. Plant roots will be imaged using non-destructive X-ray microtomography (XMT) technology to generate 3D maps of the root system, enabling better understanding of soil-plant relations.
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Publications
Nyamangara, J., Marondedze, A., Masvaya, E.N., Mawodza, T., Nyawasha, R., Nyengerai, K., Tirivavi, R., Nyamugafata, P. and Wuta, M., 2014. Influence of basin‐based conservation agriculture on selected soil quality parameters under smallholder farming in Zimbabwe. Soil Use and Management, 30(4), pp.550-559.