From the Ground Up: Revealing How Regenerative Agriculture Nurtures Soil Arthropod Communities

Commodities

Practices

From the Ground Up: Revealing How Regenerative Agriculture Nurtures Soil Arthropod Communities

Farmers play a crucial role in society, not just as food producers but as stewards of the land. Despite the enthusiasm surrounding RA and implementation by farmers around the U.S., there remains a gap in documenting the on-farm benefits of regenerative practices, particularly for soil biodiversity. This knowledge gap is likely due to the complexity and costliness of traditional monitoring methods, which are ill-suited for widespread implementation in commercial agricultural settings.

To bridge this gap, I propose utilizing soil environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to monitor soil arthropod biodiversity in commercial agroecosystems. I have partnered with 16 farmers across Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa to sample soil in 25 commercial fields (>25 acres) representing a regenerative spectrum. All decisions regarding management practices, including tillage, chemical use, and crop rotation, will remain with the farmers. Crops vary from agronomic row crops to alfalfa to horticultural crops, but all fields include corn as part of their rotation scheme. I will sample soil from each field, extract DNA, and sequence a well-known, effective arthropod metabarcoding region. I will then use multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to assess relationships between RA practices and soil biodiversity.

To communicate how farmers can support and benefit from soil biodiversity, I will host an informational webinar during the post-harvest pre-planting period. I will also collaborate with the Purdue University Extension Office to create a publication for large-scale commercial farmers in the Midwest that clearly describes RA practices that maximize biodiversity and natural pest suppression. Pre- and post-webinar surveys will gauge changes in farmers’ knowledge and attitudes.

This research will elucidate regenerative agriculture (RA) practices that maximize soil arthropod biodiversity and provide a rapid assessment tool to facilitate future research and increase awareness of emerging technology. The knowledge provided by this research will streamline adoption of RA practices to maximize soil arthropod biodiversity, ecosystem services, and soil health. Furthermore, this research builds upon previous SARE-funded research examining how RA practices impact biodiversity and investigates barriers to RA adoption. By increasing adoption of RA, I propose to improve environmental stewardship, prosperity, and quality of life for farmers and rural communities.

This research will develop a rapid, standardized and reproducible method to monitor soil biodiversity in agroecosystems. This will allow rapid monitoring for specific taxa, such as invasive species, or disease vectors, as well as soil faunal communities within agricultural fields. This project also provides farmers with a novel method of soil health monitoring, giving them access to real-time biodiversity data for making informed management choices. I aim to analyze insect biodiversity as a proxy for soil health in 25 agricultural fields representing a regenerative gradient to discern which RA practices maximize biodiversity. I will create a webinar and an extension publication to inform farmers and other stakeholders of the agricultural benefits of biodiversity. In those resources I will communicate which RA practices maximize biodiversity to promote adoption of those specific strategies. Farmers will understand the benefits of arthropod biodiversity in their fields and be empowered to adopt practices that maximize those benefits. I will use pre and post webinar surveys to evaluate how farmers’ knowledge and attitudes of insect biodiversity and RA have changed. Questions will also address likelihood of adopting specific practices. The intended action outcomes from this study include increased adoption of RA practices that support  biodiversity and increased ability to monitor biodiversity at the commercial field-scale.