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Crop & Soil Systems Team Profiles
Barley spikes (opens in new window)
Within the Crop and Soil Systems Group, research effort is primarily driven by four teams covering different aspects of crop systems. The Soil Science & Systems team (led by Dr Christine Watson), the Crop Protection Team (led by Professor Dale Walters), the Agronomy, Physiology & Genetics Team (led by Dr Steve Hoad), and the Applied Practice Team (led by Dr Fiona Burnett). These teams are supported by an overarching Modelling Team (led by Dr Kairsty Topp). The Group currently has 68 members of staff of whom 30 are research scientists. The majority (44) are based at SAC's facilities in Edinburgh at both King's Buildings and Bush Estate, with 18 members of staff at Craibstone Estate (Aberdeen), and the remainder of staff at Auchincruive and Perth.
Our research interests are integral to understanding the function and health of crop systems; these link to wider SAC interests that span across all farming systems. The development of sustainable crop systems is also driven by key policy changes such as the desire for reduced dependence on pesticides and more efficient use of fertilisers and nutrients; these are central to meeting requirements of environmental policies such as the EU’s Water Framework Directive and Thematic Strategy for Pesticides. Our team approach allows for a synthesis of the underlying science on nutrient and disease interactions, crop diversity and more durable disease resistance to address whole system and policy objectives.
An important output at the systems level is the design of crop rotations for sustainable agriculture. Optimising crop choices and sequences in the rotation is essential for managing plant disease and nutrition in arable and mixed farming systems. This includes improved resource use efficiency and plant health within each crop, but also crop-crop and crop-soil interactions across the rotation. This system focus is strongly represented in integrated modelling activities between Crop & Soil Systems and Land Economy & Environment.
Therefore, research in Crop & Soil Systems contributes to Competitive Agriculture, Environment & Rural Landscapes, and Rural Development. The Group also contributes to Educations & Skills, with members of staff contributing to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and in the supervision of research students.
Agronomy, Physiology & Genetics
Research in the Agronomy, Physiology & Genetics Team brings together quantitative approaches to crop management, plant physiology and population genetics.
Applied Practice Team
Crop Protection
Work on Crop Protection focuses on:
• Understanding and exploiting knowledge of durable resistance of the host plant to pathogen infection
• Understanding the expression of induced resistance of plants to pathogens and pests with a view to practical exploitation
• Alternatives to conventional (chemical) approaches for disease and pest control
• Understanding the biology and epidemiology of major pathogens of barley, oilseed rape and potato
• Elucidating the molecular basis of fungicide insensitivity in major pathogens
More specifically, researchers in the team are involved in the following areas of work:
• Induced resistance to pathogens and pests (Dale Walters, Andy Evans, Neil Havis, James Fountaine, Ruairidh Bain, Clement Gravouil)
• Development of innovative approaches to controlling pests and diseases (Andy Evans, James Fountaine, Dale Walters)
• Elucidating the life cycle of Ramularia collo-cygni on barley, and studying its epidemiology and methods of control (Neil Havis, James Fountaine)
• Investigating the biology, epidemiology and control of the leaf scald pathogen Rhynchosporium commune on barley (Neil Havis, James Fountaine)
• Studying the epidemiology and control of the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans on potato (Ruairidh Bain)
• Unravelling the molecular basis of fungicide resistance in major pathogens of barley, wheat, and oilseed rape (James Fountaine)
• Studying the influence of conventional and innovative treatments on leaf surface microflora (James Fountaine, Clement Gravouil)
The main thrust of our research is the development of more sustainable approaches to crop protection and production.
Soil Science & Systems
• Long-term impact of rotations on production and environment
• Role of inter-crops in nutrient cycling
• Improving phosphorus and nitrogen use efficiency in sustainable cropping systems (see Adas)
• Improving the sustainability of cropping systems design
• Organic farming systems
• Measuring and modelling GHG emissions from agricultural land (see GHG Platform)
• Using bulky organic fertilisers in agriculture (see Wrap)
• Legumes in European Agriculture (see Legume Futures)
• Managing micronutrients in agricultural systems
Our Services
The teams in the Crop & Soil Systems Research Group have expertise in the following areas:
• Interactions between plants and pathogenic bacteria
• Interactions between plants and pathogenic fungi
• Interactions between plants and phytophagous insects
• Induced Resistance
• Physiological response to and host tolerance of plant disease
• Use of cultivar mixtures for disease control
• Spread of fungal pathogens within cereal crop canopies
• Interactions of microbes with leaf surfaces
• Sustainable approaches to plant disease control
• General plant and crop physiology
• Tolerance to plant disease
• Using crop genetic diversity to enhance disease control
• Long-term impact of rotations on production and environment
• Role of inter-crops in nutrient cycling
• Improving phosphorus and nitrogen use efficiency in sustainable cropping systems
• Improving the sustainability of cropping systems design
• Organic farming systems
• Measuring and modelling GHG emissions from agricultural land
• Managing micronutrients in agricultural systems
As well as a controlled environment suite comprising heated glasshouses, two large walk-in growth rooms and several growth cabinets, we also have excellent facilities for field work at both small and large plot levels.
We also possess a large, fully operational wind tunnel for use in experiments on pathogen spore movement in simulated crop canopies and are able to carry out physiological investigations (photosynthesis, transpiration using Infra Red Gas Analysis, for example), insect electrophysiology, histology, biochemical work, including enzyme analysis, metabolite determination, using stable and radioisotope labelling techniques, spectrofluorimetry, spectrophotometry, gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and molecular biology.
Our very well equipped molecular biology suite includes facilities for rapid, reliable DNA extraction (FastPrep), electrophoresis, PCR, gel documentation, and apparatus for biolistics.
We have excellent facilities for culturing invertebrates and plant pathogens in vitro and in vivo and have image analysis facilities for accurate and reliable determination of lesion development on plants.