Milda Pucetaite
Researcher
Microfluidic chips provide visual access to in situ soil ecology
Author
Summary, in English
Microbes govern most soil functions, but investigation of these processes at the scale of their cells has been difficult to accomplish. Here we incubate microfabricated, transparent ‘soil chips’ with soil, or bury them directly in the field. Both soil microbes and minerals enter the chips, which enables us to investigate diverse community interdependences, such as inter-kingdom and food-web interactions, and feedbacks between microbes and the pore space microstructures. The presence of hyphae (‘fungal highways’) strongly and frequently increases the dispersal range and abundance of water-dwelling organisms such as bacteria and protists across air pockets. Physical forces such as water movements, but also organisms and especially fungi form new microhabitats by altering the pore space architecture and distribution of soil minerals in the chip. We show that soil chips hold a large potential for studying in-situ microbial interactions and soil functions, and to interconnect field microbial ecology with laboratory experiments.
Department/s
- Microbial Ecology
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- MEMEG
- Department of Biomedical Engineering
Publishing year
2021-07-20
Language
English
Publication/Series
Communications Biology
Volume
4
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Topic
- Soil Science
Status
Published
Research group
- Microbial Ecology
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2399-3642