ROOTED IN RESEARCH
PLANTS AS ARCHITECTS OF SOIL By Cale A. Bigelow, PhD Here we are again for another exciting installment of “Rooted in Research.” At this time “Spring should have sprung” for much of the United States and that means a new growing season is upon us. I don't have a crystal ball but as with every year, certainly something exciting and unexpected is likely to happen for turfgrass managers in 2022, it always does. It is mid-March as I write this article, and for me and my educator colleagues, most of us are taking the final lap on the winter continuing education/conference season. I have to admit it was really nice to get back out and talk in person with turfgrass managers and producers in all manner of Covid-safe educational environments. More importantly, it was a pleasure to hear from so many of you and think about what kinds of issues are on your mind for the upcoming season.
physicist at The University of Aberdeen and has a strong interest in plant-soil-root interactions, the relationship between soil microorganisms and the rhizosphere and how all of these factors may affect the physical behavior of soils. For this review article, he and his colleagues describe plants as “Architects of soil” and highlight their capacity to “build soils.” They review numerous research examples and encourage plant breeders to consider providing more attention to below-ground plant traits, in particular roots (e.g., root hairs, etc.). They outline and suggest selecting/ breeding plants not only for high yield but also for more robust root systems, especially seeking plants with an abundance of root-hairs. Why? because root-hairs can influence soil properties in numerous ways (Figure 1).
For those of us working in “The Ivory Tower” of the University I can honestly say my research program is invested in your input since it helps us give some “research with purpose” toward some of our more practical research studies. Thank you for your input! Side note: A shameless plug for the Purdue Turf and Landscape Field Day which will be held on Tuesday 26 July at our W.H. Daniel Turfgrass Research Center in West Lafayette, IN. Event information can be found at www.mrtf.org. Now on to the good stuff from the world of research. So let’s roll up our sleeves and “Get Down and Dirty” and dig into some fact-based information. I came across a personally fascinating review article “Building soil sustainability from root-soil interface traits” recently published in the Journal-Trends in Plant Science in February 2022: https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tplants.2022.01.010. It is authored by a team of plant-soil science colleagues located in The United Kingdom and led by Dr. Paul Hallett. Dr. Hallett is a well-respected soil
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Figure 1. From the review article - How root surface traits influence soil properties.
The main benefit is the impact of roots on soil structure and the capacity of roots to restructure/improve soil. Now this fact really caught my attention because for those of us managing turfgrass systems we are often TPI Turf News May/June 2022
