description
- Persistent precipitation regimes (PRs) characterized by frequent wet and dry spells can severely disrupt crop production by alternating patterns of drought and waterlogging stresses, posing a serious threat to future food security. In the MiBioCrop project, I aimed to explore the potential of a classical cereal/legume intercropping (IC) system (i.e., wheat/pea) as a PR-resilient cropping system and test if such resilience is mediated by IC-induced shift in wheat rhizosphere microbiome. To achieve its main objectives, MiBioCrop will be implemented through three work packages (WPs) comprising 28 specific tasks, covering both research activities and an extensive communication and dissemination strategy. In WP1, I will expose wheat monoculture and intercropped plants to different PRs under ambient or elevated atmospheric temperature in the Free Air Temperature Increase (FATI) facility. Besides measuring crop yield, soil nutritional profile, soil denitrification activity, and nitrous oxide accumulation, I will use next-generation sequencing to study the wheat rhizosphere microbiome comprehensively. To study plant stress responses to PR during IC, I will use metabolomics, transcriptomics and quantitative PCR in WP2. In WP3, I will validate the microbial role in wheat productivity by using wheat rhizosphere soil from WP1 as soil inoculum and studying wheat yield and plant responses using transcriptomics and quantitative PCR in another FATI experiment under PRs. These results will enhance our understanding of the dynamics of plant-interspecific interaction, the role of rhizosphere microbiome in plant health under PRs, and the effectiveness of legume-based intercropping as a PR-resilient cropping system. This knowledge may be used for the development of sustainable agroecosystems in the face of novel altered weather patterns caused by climate change.