Presented by Mary Scholes at the seminar Save our Soils on May 20, Malmö, Sweden. Read more here: http://www.siani.se/event/SOSsoil

1. At the Frontline of Soil Microbiology and Sustainable
Development
Mary Scholes
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
South Africa

2. Brief history of soil microbiology
• Chinese – Yao Chinese dynasty – “angels of the earth”
• Fungi – well know from fermentation Egyptian walls 2400BC
• Van Leewenhoek - 1700s bacteria and simple microscope
• Hooke – 1700s advanced Van Leewenhoek “cells”
• Pasteur - 1850s pasteurization
• Koch – 1910 microbial culture techniques – Koch’s postulates
• Winogradsky - 1950s “Father of Soil Mircobiology” Nitrogen
and Sulfur cycles
• Beijerinck – 1930s nitrogen fixing bacteria – “Everything is
everywhere and the environment selects”
• Fleming - 1950s antibiotics and Penicillium
• Waksman – 1970s – Soil actinomycete – Streptomyces
• Brief history of soil chemistry, soil physics and soil biology

3. Integrated System
Scholes and Scholes (2013),
Science 342

4. Sustainable Development Goals –
offer improvement over the MDGs – address some of the systemic
barriers to SD and a better balance between social, economic and
environmental for all countries.
 SDG 2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition
and promote sustainable agriculture.
 SDG 15 – Protect restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification
and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
 “The successor to GDP should be a new set of metrics that integrates
current knowledge of how ecology, economics, psychology and
sociology collectively contribute to establishing and measuring
sustainable wellbeing” (Costanza 2014b).

5. Rockström et al. (2009);
Bennett et al. (in prep.)
Global freshwater use
Change in land use
Biodiversity loss
Phosphorus cycle
Nitrogen cycle
Ocean acidification
Climate
change
Safe operating
space

6. Ecosystem Services Framework
Schematic representation of where soil carbon, nutrient and water cycles, and soil biota underpin ecosystem services
(adapted from Smith et al., 2014).
Role in underpinning each ecosystem service shown by C = soil carbon, N = soil nutrients, W = soil water, B = soil biota.

7. A new view of roots
Display at the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC
Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas, Dr Jerry Glover
2015

8. Root sheaths and Phosphorus uptake
Bailey and Scholes 1997
130 species reviewed
(23 did not have
sheaths )
80% sand 30% sand
Grass species Sheath
extent
Root
hairs/ cm
Sheath
extent
Root
hairs/ cm
Anthephora pubescens 5 75 2 55
Eragrostis pallens 5 100 2 45
Digiteria eriantha 3 11 1 5

9. Frontiers in Soil Microbiology- classical culturing
techniques and the new world of “omnics”
 Soil as a complex biological system (the next 50-100 yrs)
 Microbial – host interactions: rhizosphere and functional genomics
 Proteomics and Proteogenomics: genomes, proteins and complexity
 Metatransciptomics: gene expression of a microbial community in a
particular environment
 Metagenomics: collective genomes of the microbiota in an entire
environment – links between diversity and function – phylogenetic and
functional markers
 Soil Volatilomics VOCs produced by the plant or microbe

10. Key findings using “omics techniques”
Metatranscriptomics – preparation of cDNA and
high throughput sequencing (Warnecke and Hess,
(2009) J.Biotech 142: 91-95
These processes used for the efficient
production of biocatalysts for biofuels from
lignocellulolytic biomass

11. Key findings using omics techniques
 Metagenomics analysis of a number of soils under different tillage
and crop- management regimes (Souza et al, 2015 Appl. Soil
Ecology 106-112)
 Analysis of the number of sequences associated with each soil and
treatment – conventionally tilled soils showed more sequences related to
carbohydrate metabolism – possibly linked to lower soil organic matter
and the need to metabolize a broader range of C sources
 Crop rotation – different amino acid sequences
 High level of functional diversity

12. Key findings using omics techniques
 Soil Volatilomics -
 Analyzed the VOC emitted from different soils by using Proton-transfer
reaction time of flight mass spectrometry (PTR-TOR-MS).
 Suitable technique for this application- able to discriminate soils and
correlate VOC evolution, microbial biomass and enzyme activities.
 Active metabolic pathways and specific enzyme activities – applications
to reduce GHG emissions and the pesticide persistence
(Mancuso et al 2015 Appl Soil Ecology 86 182-191).

13. Soil additives(context specific)
Major advances in the use of biochar as a management
additive and the reduction in ammonia volatilization
(Mandal et al, 2015 Chemosphere (in press))

14. Soil erosion (context specific)

15. Climate Smart Agriculture
 Takes into account: food security, adaptation and
ecological footprint
 Foremost about development itself and address
smallholder concerns
 Crucial to deal with trade-offs
 Context matters: CSA differs widely
 Development & ecological footprint → green economy

16. Investment opportunities

17. Policy, landscape approaches, incentives to farmers and
new technologies within a shared vision of sustainable
development
Thank you