MicroBioSyn lab draws funding
The first forest fires research competition launched by the FCT approved a single project in the area of "post-fire restoration and forest management". The "GreenRehab" project is led by Paula Tamagnini, i3S researcher and a lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, and aims to develop a low cost, ecological system of easy implementation for the rehabilitation of burned soil. It was funded with 180,000 euros and will now start to be implemented with the collaboration of Mortágua City Council and two other research centers, GreenUPorto/FCUP and CIBIO-InBIO.
In 2017, several municipalities were affected by fires, which, in addition to the enormous human and material damages, had a profound impact on the forest, had a large impact on the environment as the soils became degraded and vulnerable to erosion mainly due to surface runoff. This project, which had the support of one of the municipalities affected by the fires, Mortágua, "aims to develop a system for the rapid and controlled rehabilitation of burned soils through the application of cyanobacteria and microalgae, which will function as pioneer species and start and accelerate the formation of soil biological crusts, creating conditions for the establishment of vascular plant communities, among others", explains Paula Tamagnini.
Researcher Paula Melo of U.Porto's Faculty of Sciences (GreenUPorto) also explains that "the consortium of microorganisms selected for the properties that promote plant growth and improve soil structure will curb erosion and act as a biofertilizer, promoting productivity of the soils and accelerating their recolonization after the fire".
The project, planned to last three years and expected to hire three people, will start in March 2019 with the collection of soil crusts from regions near the burned areas of Mortágua for the isolation of cyanobacteria and microalgae. These microorganisms will then be tested to select those with suitable characteristics for soil improvement and plant growth, and only by 2020 will the selected microorganisms be cultivated on a large scale (in collaboration with an industrial partner - A4F) to obtain the biomass needed to test in burned areas of the municipality of Mortágua, which will serve as a pilot. After inoculation of the soils will be evaluated its properties, restoration of the microbial community, and recovery of fauna and vegetation.
Researcher Ruth Pereira of GreenUPorto/FCUP will lead the team responsible for monitoring the evolution of the properties of soils inoculated in terms of their functionality and biodiversity of the edaphic community. The researcher João Honrado of CIBIO-InBIO will be responsible for assessing the density of the vegetation cover and diversity of the structure of the plant communities. The post-fire restoration of the ecosystem will be evaluated from in situ data combined with processing of Earth observation images (obtained by satellite and drone).
The Municipality of Mortágua, in turn, will facilitate access to burned areas and surrounding areas to collect soil samples, provide land for inoculation and will also provide the necessary conditions for monitoring, as well as tanks where the microorganisms can be stored and cultivated.
"GreenRehab" brings together a multidisciplinary team made up of specialists in molecular microbiology, soil quality, plant physiology and ecology from different research units (i3S, GreenUPorto/FCUP and CIBIO-InBIO). Together, they will carry out "the first systematic survey of cyanobacteria and microalgae present in Portuguese soils". This approach, lead researchers Paula Tamagnini and Paula Melo believe, "may in the future be applied to other areas of Portugal and other regions of the globe". With "GreenRehab" the team also intends to "contribute to the implementation of a collaboration between academia, industry and local authorities, a strategy that seems fundamental to the Portuguese forestry sector".