Disease suppressive soils would be another system in which transferring soil (that is, the microbes in soil) between locations is sometimes used to improve plant growth. As a jumping off point for this topic, I would suggest:
Kinkel, L.L., Bakker, M.G., and Schlatter, D.S. 2011. A coevolutionary framework for managing disease-suppressive soils. Annual Review of Phytopathology 49:47-67. >From pg. 59: "This suggests that the deliberate development of a series of microbial coevolutionary hot spots, established with very high nutrient availability, microbial density, and microbial community diversity, may offer a significant means for jumpstarting the creation of disease-suppressive soil communities in agricultural fields. This idea is consistent with research showing that suppressive soils can be established or spread by mixing small volumes of already suppressive soils into nonsuppressive soils, or via targeted inoculation of soils with antagonists (for example, see References 56, 94, 102, 117, 128)." Matt Bakker http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Bakker On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 8:46 AM, David Inouye <[email protected]> wrote: > A microbiologist in India from the Central Plantation Crops Research > Institute in Kerala saw the editorial I wrote about ecology that was > published in Science and had a question: > > "You mention in your editorial 'The new field of synthetic ecology, in > which ecologists and medical professionals design beneficial microbial > communities, has its origins in century-old ecological field studies'. > Here too in India, in many instances it is mentioned that yesteryear > farmers used to transfer soil from highly productive fields to low > productive fields and reap a good harvest from the latter. However, I have > failed to get any publications hinting this practice. > I will be much grateful to you if you can send me some publications which > mention such practice by farmers." > > I've heard of people spreading mycorrhizal fungi around to encourage plant > growth. If you know of studies of a similar practice for other soil > microbes, I can pass those on to the Indian scientist. > > Inouye, D. W. 2015. The next century of ecology. Science 349:565. < > http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6248/565.full> > http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6248/565.full
