Surveying unexplored soil biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa to enhance agricultural productivity

PI’s: Diana H. Wall (CSU), Noah Fierer (CIRES, University of Colorado)

Project website here.

Project summary: This project looks to provide the first-ever continental-scale assessment of soil biodiversity, utilizing newly- developed methods to survey the enormous diversity of soil organisms in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project will represent a bold attempt to survey this diversity, most of which remains undescribed and unknown to science, with the project yielding results that will be directly relevant to people living in the region. More specifically, we anticipate that the results will contribute to the emergence of a new Green Revolution that uses knowledge of belowground biological diversity to enhance agricultural productivity by improving the management of soil fertility and crop pathogens. Additionally, this study will provide critical data on the distribution of soil-borne pathogens of humans and other animals that live in the soil. All results from this proposed study will be made freely available to researchers and agricultural experts throughout Africa to ensure that this study directly benefits those individuals living in the region.

Collaborations on this project include Scott Bates (CIRES, University of Colorado), and globalsoilmap.net.  Funded by the Winslow Foundation.