Model-Driven Datasets for Plant-Soil-Microbe Interactions using a RhizoCell Experimental System
EMSL Project ID
50453
Abstract
A critical aspect of SSA system-level studies is the iterative integration of models and experiments (ModEx) across multiple physical scales and processes. This project will produce holistic multiscale datasets describing a plant-microbe-soil system to develop, test, and validate the event-driven multiscale model/data integration framework being developed by the SSA System Thrust. This will be done by targeting the systematic understanding of processes controlling the flow of water, energy, carbon and nutrients in a novel plant-microbe-soil experimental RhizoCell (intermediate-scale "flow cell") system under a range of environmental conditions (e.g., water and nutrient limitation, elevated temperature and CO2). The experiments, performed in laboratory growth chambers, are designed to leverage activities and interests across the SSA on a common plant-soil-microbe experiment focused on carbon uptake, transformation, and utilization. These datasets are expected to address a) whole plant biophysics, b) root zone hydrobiogeochemistry (e.g., variably saturated flow, multicomponent geochemical reactive transport, carbon- and nutrient-mineral interactions), and c) microbially-mediated transformations that control carbon respiration rates and the bioavailability of carbon and nutrients. An integrated dataset for a plant-soil-microbe system such as this does not currently exist. The RhizoCell apparatus and experiments will also provide a system-level context for evaluating the results of process studies in other SSA Thrust areas. Those projects typically study specific processes (e.g. root exudation) in relative isolation in order to exert sufficient experimental control for hypothesis testing. However, such processes in the context of a complex system may exhibit unexpected emergent behaviors that can only be observed in a system-scale experiment. Key system-scale science questions to be addressed through integrated experiments and models include a) How much photosynthate is allocated to plant-derived rhizodeposits (exudates, mucilage, sloughed off cells) and how does this change with growth stage and environmental conditions? b) How do litter, rhizodeposition and root water uptake affect the rhizosphere microbiome, biogeochemistry, availability of water, carbon, and nutrients? c) How is the plant phenome affected by changing rhizosphere hydrobiogeochemistry and metabolite profiles?
Project Details
Start Date
2018-10-19
End Date
2020-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members
Related Publications
Maier K.H., M.I. Borkum, D. Brown, and T.D. Scheibe. 2019. "An Event-driven Notifications System for Orchestration of Loosely-coupled Scientific Workflows." In The 14th Workshop on Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science (WORKS19). PNNL-SA-146306.