Dr. Soledad Benitez Ponce of Plant Pathology presented a seminar on Friday, January 24th entitled Exploring the Links Between Microbial Communities, Soil Carbon, and Diverse Cropping Systems. At 3:00pm in Kottman Hall 460, 16 researchers, students, and faculty convened in-person, while 17 attended online.
She discussed her work studying broadly defined agricultural microbiomes and their interaction with different environments and agricultural productivity. Currently, Dr. Ponce's laboratory has two main foci: soybean production and leafy green hydroponics. In this seminar, she focused on soybean production because of its relevance to carbon.
The soybean research examines reduction in diversity among agricultural crops and this kind of how intensive effects soil and the agricultural microbiome. She discussed the ways diversity can be brought back to agriculture, which can be more challenging for larger farms. She outlined the different rotations her research has compared and discussed the varying impacts they had on yield, fungal community, and biomass. In terms of carbon, her research did not show significant impact on carbon stores in the soil. Overall, her results indicated that location and agricultural diversity had an impact on the fungal communities in the soil.
To learn more, you can access a recording of the lecture here.
The Lal Carbon Center is so honored that Dr. Ponce gave the inaugural Soil Seminar in 2025. We appreciate the inspiration her lecture provides future lecturers, and we hope to hear from her again in the future!