In a refreshingly rare departure from the recent routine of online meetings, Lancaster Environment Centre hosted Tony Peloe of Delta-T Devices for a workshop covering the theory and practice of measuring soil and plant water status. To comply with University regulations on social distancing, workshop numbers were restricted to 12 (maximum capacity of the room) but nevertheless included 6 SHui-affiliated researchers: Jaime Puertolas (now a lecturer at La Laguna, Tenerife), Ryan Edge (currently Lancaster’s PDRA), Cristina McBride-Serrano (still in a technical role at Lancaster but moving to PhD studies shortly), Jing Chen (visiting from Yangzhou University, China), Yingying Ma (visiting from Northwest Agricultural & Forestry University, China) and Leonardo da Silva (visiting from University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Each researcher was able to appraise the suitability of Delta-T’s extensive instrumentation range to help them address their research objectives.

Researcher familiarity with these instruments ranged from novice to highly experienced, so it was possible to pair researchers of different experience to swap best practice. Yahya Khan (visiting from University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan to research the impact of rhizobacteria on legume drought tolerance) won the “porometer calibration competition” with an error of just 3.3%, although further studies are needed to determine the influence of operator and specific porometer used, and any interaction ! In addition to briefing the group on porometer best practice, Tony introduced the extensive range of soil moisture instrumentation: PR2, SM150, WET sensor and the new digital WET150 soil sensor. After calibration exercises, sensor outputs were compared to understand the capacities of different sensors.

Selected attendee reflections were:

• Although I am an experienced user of most of the equipment shown, there were some interesting new features and gadgets that I could learn of.
• The workshop was already well managed and well organized. I don’t believe it needs further improvement but, it would be good if these types of workshops are arranged frequently to provide recent advancement in instrumentation and working principles.
• Tony was incredibly knowledgeable, patient and helpful and I know my confidence has grown when using Delta-T equipment.
• In China, such workshops would have had much greater attendance, so the smaller number of participants and relatively large numbers of the instruments allowed us hands-on personal experience and instruction.

First Shui book release!

“Best management practices for optimized use of soil and water in agriculture” is now available and free to download.

This document provides a comprehensive review of Best Management Practices for optimized used soil and water in agricultural systems within the context of the SHui project.

The book will be soon available in Spanish and Chinese.

Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/13964

Author: Dr Ryan Edge

Rhizosheath, an unfamiliar word with a simple definition. Rhizosheath is simply the soil that gets stuck to the roots of a plant. Below- ground, this rhizosheath is the medium through which the plant interacts with its environment. Think of it like a glove, a very muddy root shaped glove. Bad analogies notwithstanding, scientists have suspected for some time that it’s pretty important and probably has a big impact on how plants grow, but we are not sure why exactly. There is some evidence that a larger rhizosheath may enhance plant drought resistance, by increasing the contact area of the roots with the surrounding soil, making it easier to drink up the limited water in the ground. So, a muddy root shaped glove with straws attached …. This analogy is truly getting out of hand.

Often it’s incredibly difficult to study the interaction between plant roots and soil, as it’s pretty difficult to see what’s happening underground. Despite this, it certainly seems worth the effort. With water scarcity set to become a near global problem in the next decade or two, we urgently need to find new ways of growing crops using less water. Understanding and exploiting these plant soil interactions could be key to doing just that. I’ve recently joined the SHui project, but have been working as a postdoctoral researcher at Lancaster University for almost 2 years. My current experiments (pictured) are investigating whether rhizosheath development of maize plants affects their physiological and biochemical responses to drought stress.

Our colleagues at Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University have recently identified the importance of plant hormone responses in regulating rhizosheath development https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.14036

&

Previous work at Lancaster has suggested that enhanced rhizosheath development may limit soil erosion  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejss.13042

Root hairs enhance rhizosheath development in a range of species

(https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcab029/6149919 )

and Scottish colleagues recently showed the importance of in stabilising crop yield in dry years

https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcaa181/5920680

Certainly it’s an exciting time for me to be joining the SHui project to work on rhizosheath development.