NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The buried solution for agricultural resilience: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Longer and more extreme drought periods pose a substantial challenge for agriculture globally.

At the same time, the dominant farming model has dramatically reduced crop diversity leading to a decline in soil biodiversity, especially in an important group of fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). These organisms are known for alleviating plant drought stress. Therefore, the goal of the proposed research is to (1) determine the mechanisms by which crop diversity and soil fungi are connected, and in turn, (2) understand the functional mechanisms by which plant-fungi interactions buffer crops against drought stress.

This research will engage underrepresented students in the local rural communities and at the sponsoring institution. Specifically, the Fellow will develop a novel and integrative approach to simultaneously support future STEM educators in rural high schools and develop an experiential learning program for high school students in minority-majority rural communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Crop diversification has emerged as a strategy to harness the potential benefits of soil biodiversity, especially AMF, to buffer crops against drought, a current and growing threat to agricultural productivity. However, while greater crop diversity can enrich AMF communities, linking soil biodiversity to ecosystem functions in the contexts of agricultural systems remains a fundamental challenge.

Therefore, more studies are needed to understand how agricultural management may alter fungal community composition and select for fungal traits may or may not alleviate drought stress. This research seeks to fill this knowledge gap by using a novel approach that integrates soil fungal ecology, functional genomics, and plant ecophysiology to test whether crop diversification can positively alter the functional composition of fungi and plant-fungal interactions to alleviate drought stress.

By comparing fields with varying levels of crop diversity (monoculture versus polyculture) and manipulating water availability, this research will examine the contribution of mycorrhizal fungi (versus non-mycorrhizal fungi) to crop productivity under drought directly in the field. The Fellow will also develop an experiential learning program for rural minority-majority high schools to empower underrepresented high school students to pursue STEM careers and support future STEM educators in rural high schools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.