Scientists from the Southern Federal University (SFU) have created an online map of the content of various microbes in the soil of the Rostov region. It indicates what type this or that piece of land belongs to, what kind of microorganisms live there, the degree of their resistance to antibiotics.
Data is needed to search for areas with the most fertile black soil, contaminated areas, assess the ecological situation and how a person affects the environment. Now the territory of the Rostov region has been studied, but in the future such maps can be created for other regions of the country.
“The use of modern methods of metagenomics will make it possible to study all the diversity and functions of the soil microbiome, since it is currently studied by a maximum of 5%,” said the head of the SFedU strategic project “Soil Management and Agroclimatology”, head of the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Assessment at ABIB SFedU Tatyana Minkina.
It turned out that soils that are practically not subject to human influence have the greatest biodiversity compared to those actively used in agriculture, and can serve as standards for soil quality. Also, based on the data obtained, scientists will be able to create special formulations.
“We can develop biological products to improve soil fertility,” said Andrey Gorovtsev, Associate Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology of the Southern Federal University.
