Preferential nitrogen and carbon exchange dynamics in Mucoromycotina "fine root endophyte"-plant symbiosis.

Mucoromycotina "fine root endophyte" (MFRE) fungi are an understudied group of plant symbionts that regularly co-occur with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The functional significance of MFRE in plant nutrition remains underexplored, particularly their role in plant nitrogen (N) assimilation from the variety of sources typically found in soils. Using four N-labeled N sources to track N transfer between MFRE and Plantago lanceolata, applied singly and in tandem, we investigated N source discrimination, preference, and transfer to host plants by MFRE.

Mobility and growth in confined spaces are important mechanisms for the establishment of in the rhizosphere.

The rhizosphere hosts complex and abundant microbiomes whose structure and composition are now well described by metagenomic studies. However, the dynamic mechanisms that enable micro-organisms to establish along a growing plant root are poorly characterized. Here, we studied how a motile bacterium utilizes the microhabitats created by soil pore space to establish in the proximity of plant roots.

Organic fertilization reduces nitrous oxide emission by altering nitrogen cycling microbial guilds favouring complete denitrification at soil aggregate scale.

Agricultural management practices can induce changes in soil aggregation structure that alter the microbial nitrous oxide (NO) production and reduction processes occurring at the microscale, leading to large-scale consequences for NO emissions. However, the mechanistic understanding of how organic fertilization affects these context-dependent small-scale NO emissions and associated key nitrogen (N) cycling microbial communities is lacking. Here, denitrification gas (NO, N) and potential denitrification capacity NO/(NO + N) were assessed by automated gas chromatography in different soil aggregates (>2 mm, 2-0.

Mitigating Contaminant-Driven Risks for the Safe Expansion of the Agricultural-Sanitation Circular Economy in an Urbanizing World.

The widespread adoption of an agricultural circular economy requires the recovery of resources such as water, organic matter, and nutrients from livestock manure and sanitation. While this approach offers many benefits, we argue this is not without potential risks to human and environmental health that largely stem from the presence of contaminants in the recycled resources (e.g.

Space controlled environment agriculture offers pathways to improve the sustainability of controlled environmental agriculture on Earth.

Terrestrial controlled environment agriculture (CEA) will have an increasingly important role in food production. However, present CEA systems are energy- and resource-hungry and rarely profitable, requiring a step change in design and optimization. Here we argue that the unique nature of space controlled environment agriculture (SpaCEA), which needs to be both highly resource efficient and circular in design, presents an opportunity to develop intrinsically circular CEA systems.