Cyanobacteria is expected to "activate" the soil

Cyanobacteria is expected to "activate" the soil

Cyanobacteria is expected to "activate" soil Cyanobacteria are expected to "activate" soil

Cyanobacteria Image source: Flinders University

Flinders University

While agricultural production around the world is struggling to cope with declining soil health, a research team in Australia is experimenting with a sustainable organic nitrogen fertilizer production
.

This fertilizer is made from aquatic cyanobacteria and is very suitable for severely degraded areas that rely on fertilizers

Chemosphere

"Many soils are gradually degrading and becoming less fertile
.

This poses a challenge for agriculture to produce enough high-quality food to feed a growing population, and climate instability threatens crop yields, further exacerbating this problem

Global population growth will lead to increased demand for energy and food.
This forecast encourages research on bio-fertilizer and biogas production, and sustainable energy production through the use of waste organic materials (such as microalgae and multicellular cyanobacteria) produced from controlled biomass
.

Scientists in Australia, the United States and Spain are testing a new biological fertilizer made from polypothrix, a fast-growing freshwater cyanobacteria
.

It can fix nitrogen in the atmosphere without the need for additional nitrogen fertilizer

Compared with other microalgae and macroalgae biological fertilizers, the production cost of this biomass is low
.

Studies have shown that, unlike many cyanobacteria species, tolypothrix is ​​a filamentous bacteria that can form self-flocculating aggregates, making it easy to harvest from suspension cultures, and can reduce dehydration costs by up to 90%

And the research team found that this non-toxic blue-green seaweed can be cultivated in fresh water, and even in brackish water or industrial wastewater, such as wastewater from coal-fired power plants
.

The energy input to produce this polypothrix biomass can be offset by the production of biogas
.

Biogas is mainly a methane-rich gas that is used to dry biomass to extract high-value health supplements phycocyanin, or to produce carbon and nitrogen-rich liquid and solid biological fertilizers to repair poor soils

The team studied the production of polypothrix as a sustainable solution for biological soil improvement
.

Heimann said that when it is "combined" with biogas or spirulina nutritional powder, it is expected to "bring huge economic returns to regions and remote agricultural communities

"Australian soil, especially the soil in the wheat belt on the edge of Western Australia, has undergone structural degradation.
This cannot be overcome by applying synthetic fertilizers
.

" He said, "In order to improve the soil structure, organic carbon needs to be applied to restore soil maintenance.

In addition, the researchers said that converting ponds that produce cyanobacteria biomass for arable land into a major on-site source of renewable nitrogen-rich fertilizers will also help reduce carbon emissions during fertilizer production and transportation

Related paper information: https://doi.