Seminar: Nitrogen accumulation, recycling, and uptake: a framework for optimizing soil carbon storage and nutrient use efficiency in agroecosystems

Stuart Grandy is professor and co-director of Center of Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology (Soil BioME), at the University of New Hampshire

Agroecosystems lose carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions and compromised soil health. Central to these losses is the stoichiometric constraint imposed by microbial communities, wherein mobilizing organic N for plants often depletes soil carbon stores. This seminar will:

1. Establish a framework elucidating the mechanisms to augment soil organic carbon, detailing the pools and processes facilitating its accumulation.
2. Show that new biogeochemical insights hold promise for maximizing both soil carbon sequestration and nutrient use efficiency in agroecosystems, which we term nitrogen multifunctional efficiency (NMFE).
3. Provide insights into enhancing nutrient use efficiency at the ecosystem level, emphasizing the role of synergistic interactions among plants, minerals, and microbes to target specific bioavailable N reservoirs.
4. Synthesize these perspectives, suggesting that by navigating the ties between soil C storage mechanisms and bioavailable N mobilization processes, we can maximize the conversion of new agroecosystem N inputs to yield and SOM and minimize environmental loss.

To recieve a Zoom link to the seminar, please contact Fede Berckx.