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Tracy Valentine

Staff picture: Tracy Valentine
Ecological Sciences
Ecological Sciences
Research Leader Plant:Soils interactions
tracy.valentine@hutton.ac.uk
+44 (0)344 928 5428 (*)

The James Hutton Institute
Invergowrie
Dundee DD2 5DA
Scotland UK

 

Tracy has over 20 years experience in applied and basic research at the plant root:soils interface.

Plant roots are highly dynamic, and the shape or root system architecture is both genetically determined and highly influenced by the growing environment.  Soil of agricultural systems is impacted by management, including tillage (ploughing or direct drilling of seeds), pesticide and herbicide usage (an the weight and timing of the machinery used) and the sequences of crops gown on the land.  Thus, the interaction of the management, crop genetics, soil management and local environment interact affecting the soil physical and biological status, the success of the crop, and the local environment (through for example biodiversity and fertiliser run off).

Tracy’s expertise is in utilising image analysis, molecular and soil physical analysis methods to investigate the processes and impacts of nutrient and soil physical and biological management on plant root growth and development, and root:soil biological and physical interactions and wider ecological impacts.  Her research aims to facilitate improved crop breeding and improvements in the management of cropping systems, via increasing knowledge of root:soil biological and physical processes at a range of scales.

The current direction of her research includes specific effect of climate change on cropping rotations, and the adaption of crop varieties to no-till systems (reduced fuel usage), and the implementation and diversity of cover crops in northern climates for increase biodiversity and resilience, together with multiscale mechanistic understanding of the direct physical interactions of plant roots and soil.

Current research interests

    • Tracy currently manages - Grieves House Tillage Trial – This long-term trial was instigated in the Autumn of 2017, it is a full replicated trial, with a spring rotation (with fallow soil over winter) and a winter rotation (where soil is covered as much as possible).  Each rotation includes four years of cropping.  The winter rotation currently includes two winter period of cover crops.  Each rotation has plots managed under traditional inversion plough or no-tillage.  More details can be found at Grieves House Tillage Trial (hutton.ac.uk) [2] and GrievesHouse (hutton.ac.uk) [3]
    • Optimisation of cover crops for Scottish climatic conditions – This project aims to investigate and overcome some of the climate change and abiotic stress relating issues in establishing of winter cover cropping in northern climates.  Examples include shorter days, potentially establishing in drier period of the year, cooler temperatures.  Methods include root (and plant) phenotyping, investigations of impacts on the soil environment, and interactions between soil management and cover crop seeds and roots.
    • Healthy Soil for a green recovery - Understanding how changes in agriculture impact on the performance of crop plants, as well as the impact of the management on soils is key to developing more sustainable farming practices in terms of crop yield, long-term soils sustainability and farm income sustainability.
    • Development of imaging and image-analysis based methods for root and soil phenotyping.  These projects include image analysis of soil structure utilising flat bed scanners, and multispectral scanners, development of rhizotron and model soil systems for analysis of plant and soil physical interactions including root meristem growth (Transparent soil, PlantVis) and root hair phenotyping at multiple scales.

    Over the last 10 years Tracy has supervised eight Ph.D. students and have examined Ph.D. students’ theses from multiple countries.  The groups funding has been obtained from multiple sources:

    •             Nov 2023 – Oct 2025 HORIZON Postdoctoral Fellowship 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01) Fellowship, UKRI Postdoc Guarantee -Uncovering the mechanisms of the root gravitropic set-point angle and its application in agriculture. €220K

    •             Oct 2021 – Sep 2025 HydroNations PhD studentship Scholarship.  Optimising water use and soil carbon sequestration – can agricultural co-cropping systems provide multiple benefits to address climate change?  Total Value £172K

    •             Oct 2016 –Mar 2020 BBSRC PhD studentship funding via STARS PhD programme.  Modelling Variety Dependant Least Limiting Water Range: Assessing the Limits to Root Elongation in Field Soil

    •             Apr 2016 – Mar 2021       AHDB Management of Rotations –Total value £1760K, Value to JHI £411K. (Proj Number 91140001)

    •             Apr 2014 – Mar 2018       EU NASSTEC– The NAtive Seed Science, TEchnology and Conservation Initial Training Network. Lead - University of Pavia, MUSE, Trento, Italy; JHI Total Value £2699K Value to JHI £230k PITN-GA-2013-607785

Past research

  • Movement, replication and suppression of Tobacco mosaic virus and Tobacco rattle virus in tobacco and Arabidopsis. Utilisation of Tobacco rattle virus as a vector for inducing gene silencing of endogenous root development genes (Mylnefield Research Services).
  • Growth and development effects of cell wall carbohydrates (University College London)
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Bibliography

Source URL (retrieved on 2023-12-05 06:02): https://www.hutton.ac.uk/node/2221

Links:
[1] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9064-2896
[2] https://ghplatform.hutton.ac.uk/Grieves_House_WebPages_About.html
[3] https://virtualtours.hutton.ac.uk/grieveshousetour/