Keynote: Build your own soil: Micro-structured Soil Chips allow to investigate soil functions at microbial scale

Description

Soils form the foundation of life on earth and are likely the most species dense habitats on our planet. But despite their fundamental importance, soils and their complex microbial communities have historically been one of the most challenging habitats to study because of their blend of diverse materials and organisms in a complex spatial arrangement, and their opacity. We recently developed microfluidic and micro-engineered model systems that simulate the spatial microstructure of soil microbial habitats in a transparent material, which we call Soil Chips. They allow us to study soil functions at relevant micro-scales: Microbial behaviour and interactions in response to a spatially refined habitat with heterogeneous nutrient distribution, and soil functions such as e.g. physical soil carbon stabilization in the labyrinth of the soil pore space. We can colonize our chips with fluorescent microbial strains and fluorescent substrates to e.g. study foraging strategies and organic matter cycling, or with a whole natural soil including the complex microbial community and soil mineral particles. The chips act like a window into the soil, through which we can eaves-drop on a world that otherwise is largely hidden to us: Jostling protists, tsunami-like drying-rewetting events, and fungi with character. Beyond the scientific potential, the chips can also bring soils closer to people and hopefully increase engagement in soil health conservation.

Period	2019 Sept 28
Event title	Wageningen Soil Conference 2019
Event type	Conference
Location	Wageningen, NetherlandsShow on map