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Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health

Soil health is a complex phenomenon that reflects the ability of soil to support both plant growth and other ecosystem functions. To our knowledge, research on extracellular electron transfer processes in soil environments is limited and could provide novel knowledge and new ways of monitoring soil...

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Autores principales: Mohamed, Abdelrhman, Sanchez, Eduardo, Sanchez, Natalie, Friesen, Maren L., Beyenal, Haluk
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36311278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56
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author Mohamed, Abdelrhman
Sanchez, Eduardo
Sanchez, Natalie
Friesen, Maren L.
Beyenal, Haluk
author_facet Mohamed, Abdelrhman
Sanchez, Eduardo
Sanchez, Natalie
Friesen, Maren L.
Beyenal, Haluk
author_sort Mohamed, Abdelrhman
collection PubMed
description Soil health is a complex phenomenon that reflects the ability of soil to support both plant growth and other ecosystem functions. To our knowledge, research on extracellular electron transfer processes in soil environments is limited and could provide novel knowledge and new ways of monitoring soil health. Electrochemical activities in the soil can be studied by inserting inert electrodes. Once the electrode is polarized to a favorable potential, nearby microorganisms attach to the electrodes and grow as biofilms. Biofilms are a major part of the soil and play critical roles in microbial activity and community dynamics. Our work aims to investigate the electrochemical behavior of healthy and unhealthy soils using chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry. We developed a bioelectrochemical soil reactor for electrochemical measurements using healthy and unhealthy soils taken from the Cook Agronomy Farm Long-Term Agroecological Research site; the soils showed similar physical and chemical characteristics, but there was higher plant growth where the healthy soil was taken. Using carbon cloth electrodes installed in these soil reactors, we explored the electrochemical signals in these two soils. First, we measured redox variations by depth and found that reducing conditions were prevalent in healthy soils. Current measurements showed distinct differences between healthy and unhealthy soils. Scanning electron microscopy images showed the presence of microbes attached to the electrode for healthy soil but not for unhealthy soil. Glucose addition stimulated current in both soil types and caused differences in cyclic voltammograms between the two soil types to converge. Our work demonstrates that we can use current as a proxy for microbial metabolic activity to distinguish healthy and unhealthy soil.
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spelling pubmed-96083372022-10-27 Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health Mohamed, Abdelrhman Sanchez, Eduardo Sanchez, Natalie Friesen, Maren L. Beyenal, Haluk J Electrochem Soc Article Soil health is a complex phenomenon that reflects the ability of soil to support both plant growth and other ecosystem functions. To our knowledge, research on extracellular electron transfer processes in soil environments is limited and could provide novel knowledge and new ways of monitoring soil health. Electrochemical activities in the soil can be studied by inserting inert electrodes. Once the electrode is polarized to a favorable potential, nearby microorganisms attach to the electrodes and grow as biofilms. Biofilms are a major part of the soil and play critical roles in microbial activity and community dynamics. Our work aims to investigate the electrochemical behavior of healthy and unhealthy soils using chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry. We developed a bioelectrochemical soil reactor for electrochemical measurements using healthy and unhealthy soils taken from the Cook Agronomy Farm Long-Term Agroecological Research site; the soils showed similar physical and chemical characteristics, but there was higher plant growth where the healthy soil was taken. Using carbon cloth electrodes installed in these soil reactors, we explored the electrochemical signals in these two soils. First, we measured redox variations by depth and found that reducing conditions were prevalent in healthy soils. Current measurements showed distinct differences between healthy and unhealthy soils. Scanning electron microscopy images showed the presence of microbes attached to the electrode for healthy soil but not for unhealthy soil. Glucose addition stimulated current in both soil types and caused differences in cyclic voltammograms between the two soil types to converge. Our work demonstrates that we can use current as a proxy for microbial metabolic activity to distinguish healthy and unhealthy soil. 2021-08 2021-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9608337/ /pubmed/36311278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Mohamed, Abdelrhman
Sanchez, Eduardo
Sanchez, Natalie
Friesen, Maren L.
Beyenal, Haluk
Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title_full Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title_fullStr Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title_full_unstemmed Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title_short Electrochemically Active Biofilms as an Indicator of Soil Health
title_sort electrochemically active biofilms as an indicator of soil health
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9608337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36311278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56
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AT friesenmarenl electrochemicallyactivebiofilmsasanindicatorofsoilhealth
AT beyenalhaluk electrochemicallyactivebiofilmsasanindicatorofsoilhealth