Root-soil interactions
This page is no longer updated. The information presented here formed part of our previous areas of research. This has included research carried out on behalf of our research partners, commerical contracts and also the Scottish Goverment's Strategic research programme during the period 2011 - 2016.
We have left these pages here to provide background information on our previous areas of research. Further details on the RESAS strategic programme of research (2016-21) will be made available.
Further details on why we archive pages can be found on the following page.
This interdisciplinary research examines below ground interactions between plants and soil, focusing on root growth and the rhizosphere. Research includes root growth processes in relation to environmental stresses, nutrient and water capture by roots, nutrient and carbon cycling by rhizosphere microbes, the role of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi, soil stabilisation by plant roots and root traits to overcome the physical stresses of compaction, drought and water-logging .
Much of our research in this area untangles quantitative processes, which provides information vital to modelling of root growth in soil. Links to genetics research, who can provide novel germplasm with different root properties, provides an excellent tool to unravel root traits to target in the development of new crop varieties. Our work on root phenomics is applied to develop crops for specific soil environments, such as reduced tillage or compacted soils.
This research was funded by the Scottish Government RESAS Strategic Research 2011-2016.
