Research at PSU
Understanding the microbial communities that regulate weed seed mortality in the soil seedbank is a promising approach for early ecological control of annual, problematic weeds. Certain soil microbes are known to infect seeds in the soil, resulting in mortality, and act as important regulators of weedy populations.
Can we plant certain crops that indirectly support microbial-predation of weed seeds in the soil seedbank?
Research Questions
-
How does crop diversity effect weed seed mortality?
-
How does crop diversity alter the soil microbiome?
-
How does crop diversity correlate with changes in the weed seed microbiome?
-
If the soil microbiome is altered, are there similar changes in the seed microbiome?
-
Can we detect deleterious microbes in seeds? What are they?
Methods
Cover Crop Mixtures
and
Perennial Forage Mixtures
Weed Seed Bags
Mesh seed bags containing one of 3 weed species are buried in different treatments of either cover crops or perennial forages
Seed and Soil Testing
-
Seed bags are recovered after 6 mon-3 years (depending on study).
-
Seeds undergo viability testing
-
Seeds and soil undergo 16S and ITS amplicon sequencing.