Microbial communities provide useful information about environmental change. Microorganisms are present in virtually all environments and are typically the first organisms to react to chemical and physical changes in the environment. Changes in microbial communities are often a precursor to changes in the health and viability of the environment as a whole.
The yield increase in plants are due to better uptake of nutrients from soil. Better uptake of nutrients means improving soil conditions and increased availability of nutrients for the plants and this is proved to be, due to increased microbial activity in soil.
So how do we show this in numbers?
Studies have been done in diverse applications of microbial ecology and have demonstrated the fundamental utility of Biolog EcoPlates™ in detecting population changes in soil, water, wastewater, activated sludge, compost, and industrial waste. Biolog EcoPlates™ have been found to provide a sensitive and reliable index of environmental change. Each plate measures the metabolism of 31 carbon sources per assay. Each assay panel tests in triplicate per plate. This approach, called community-level physiological profiling, has been demonstrated to be effective at distinguished spatial and temporal changes in microbial communities. In applied ecological research, the MicroPlates are used to detect and assess changes following the onset of an environmental variable. Communities of organisms will give a characteristic reaction pattern called a metabolic fingerprint. These fingerprint reaction patterns rapidly and easily provide a vast amount of information from a single Biolog EcoPlates™.
The community reaction patterns are typically analyzed at defined time intervals over 2 to 5 days. The changes in the pattern are compared and analyzed using statistical analysis software. The most popular method of analysis of the data is via Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of average well color development (AWCD) data. The changes observed in the fingerprint pattern provide useful data about the microbial population changes over time.
We can compare the effect of Fusion 360 or any fertilizer/ nutrient products usage on fields using this method. We can analyze the microbial activity of the soil in treated and untreated areas and compare the microbial activity. We will be able to show the growers the increase in microbial activity.
Please contact Sunburst PDC Inc. or Fusion360 Inc. for more information.
