SOIL MICROBIAL ECOLOGY GROUP

Introduction

The SOIL MICROBIAL ECOLOGY GROUP at NEIKER-Tecnalia is most interested in the impact of different sources of environmental stress (above all but not exclusively, pollution and agricultural practices) on soil health, defined as the capacity of a given soil to sustainably perform its functions and ecosystem services from both an anthropocentric and ecocentric point of view.

In particular, we focus on the utilization of soil microbial properties (mainly, those related to the biomass, activity and structural/functional biodiversity of the soil microbial communities) as biological indicators of (i) the impact of disturbances on soil health and (ii) the efficiency of remediation methods (bioremediation and phytoremediation of soils polluted with heavy metals and/or organic compounds). Regarding agricultural practices (fertilization, tillage, pesticides application, etc.), we work on the utilization of soil microbial properties as biomonitoring tools for the assessment of the improvement in soil health resulting from the application of more environmentally-friendly agricultural practices (e.g., no-tillage, organic fertilization, and so on).

To these aims, among others, we use the following set of techniques as microbial indicators of attributes of soil health (stability: resistance, resilience; fertility; suppresiveness) and soil health/quality itself: microbial biomass C, basal respiration, substrate-induced respiration, potentially mineralizable N, potential nitrification rate, enzyme activities (β-glucosidase, β-glucosaminidase, urease, amidase, arylsulfatase, acid and alkaline phosphatase, dehydrogenase, protease, FDA-fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis), ATP content, PCR-DGGE, RT-PCR, community-level physiological profiles with different Biolog™ plates, viable plate counts (CFU), etc.