Engineering Center for Resource-Saving Fertilizer, Ministry of Education Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Solid Organic Waste Utilization (ECRSF-MOE/JKL-SOWU)
The Engineering Center of Resource-saving Fertilizer was approved by the Ministry of Education in 2007; meanwhile it was named Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Solid Organic Waste Utilization as well. Since their establishment, a lot of research funds have been obtained during the past years, such as 973 and 863 Programs from the Ministry of Science and Technology, P.R. China; 948 and Special Project for Agriculture from the Ministry of Agriculture, P.R. China; and many projects from National Natural Science Foundation of China. Each year we receive more than ten million Chinese Yuan as research funds, which allows us to enroll 30 master degree students and 20 PhD students. We have about 150 papers published in International Journals and got 35 patents, most of which were transferred to enterprise. We achieved a second-class National Award and a National Golden Medal of patent. The engineering center concentrates on the following issues:
Managements of soil microbial communities and populations
Behavior of beneficial microorganisms with different functions
Interaction mechanisms between plant roots and microorganisms
Bio-synthesis of functional substances in different microorganisms.
Specifically, the research team of the engineering center has devoted to study and reconstruct microbial communities and populations in the process of composting by adding different composting microorganisms to different composting materials, and we thereby design different functional bio-organic fertilizers and organic-mineral fertilizers and trace the fates of labeled functional microorganisms and labeled nutrients in soil-plants system. We also attempt to design and construct the criteria of soil microbial populations with high yields for grain production and with high disease depressive ability for cash crop production with 454 sequencing or illumina. Based on an insight into the interaction mechanisms between plant roots and microorganisms, we made a great success in bio-synthesis of functional substances in different microorganisms, and eventually examine the effect of organic-based fertilizers on soil fertility.
Director: Dr. Qirong Shen
Chair of academic committee: Dr. Daoji Cai
