This $119,880 federal Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports a predoctoral research project to analyze the potential benefits to soil health of reintroducing native arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in prairie restorations on post-agricultural lands. The research will examine soil structure, nutrients, the AM fungal community composition, and...
This $749,764 federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) aims to develop new knowledge that will guide targeted management approaches for consistently reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils. The project will focus on soil organic amendments as a management practice, developing biophysical and biochemical conceptual models to understand key driving processes of GHG production during...
This federal Project Grant award, with a total funding amount of $220,231.00, was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) CFDA program. The project, titled "Interest in the Promises of Soil, and Agricultural Soil in Particular, to Sequester Carbon is Skyrocketing, Often Framed by Proponents Through the Slogan, 'Soil Will Save Us!'", aims to conduct ethnographic...
This $749,846 Project Grant was awarded on August 1, 2023 by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310). The goal of this project is to quantify the effects of carbon allocation to different plant tissues, symbionts and exudates on its turnaround and resilience in the ecosystem. The key products and services to be delivered include: (1) validating estimates of carbon...
This $500,000 Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports research to advance the understanding of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis between plants and fungi. The project aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of phosphate transport and its role in regulating this nutritionally-based mutualism, which has significant implications for...
This $300,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) will fund research to identify arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species and isolates that can confer drought tolerance to agricultural and rangeland plant species. The University of Kansas Center for Research Inc., a non-profit subsidiary of the University of Kansas, will lead this 2-year effort to leverage AMF culture collections,...
This Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) provides $225,000.00 to Colorado State University to investigate how different farming practices, particularly integrated crop-livestock systems, affect soil health. The research aims to identify practical ways to enhance soil health, increase crop yields, and contribute to climate change mitigation by improving...
This $846,562 federal Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program supports research at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to assess the impacts of climate change and land use on soil microbiomes, carbon storage, and plant productivity in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. The 3-year study will use novel microbiome analyses and greenhouse experiments to quantify the genomic and...
This $299,959 Project Grant, awarded on April 1, 2025 by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program, focuses on understanding how four forage species can improve soil health up to a depth of 1 meter. Through greenhouse and field experiments, the research will explore the relationships between root traits, rhizosphere and soil microbiomes, and overall soil health. The findings aim to benefit forage crop producers,...
This USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Program Grant, valued at $879,831 and awarded on August 1, 2024, supports research to investigate organic and inorganic carbon cycling in a grassland agroecosystem of the Southern Great Plains. The project aims to unravel the roles of climate and land management in controlling deviations between soil CO2 efflux and respiration rates, which are key indicators of soil health. The project...