Monitoring Bioavailable Phosphorus with an Integrated Biosensor and Wireless Reporter System
Profile
Monitoring Bioavailable Phosphorus with an Integrated Biosensor and Wireless Reporter System
PIs: Azita Emami, Julie Kornfield, Dianne Newman, and Changhuei Yang
Research Team: Reinaldo Alcalde, Fatima Aghlmand, Ting-Yu Cheng, Jarek Kwiecinski, Elin Larsson, Raj Mukkamala, and Oumeng Zhang
Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
Collaborators: Dmitri Mavrodi (USM) and Linda Thomashow (USDA-ARS)
Ecology and Biosphere Engineering Initiative
Global phosphorus reserves are rapidly dwindling, and generally excessive fertilization of agricultural lands is causing economic costs and environmental harms. Standard methods for phosphorus measurement require soil extraction and testing ex-situ. These methods do not measure biologically available phosphorus, which is what is most relevant to crop growth, nor are they well suited for monitoring heterogeneous fields overtime. Accordingly, we propose to develop an integrated biosensor with a wireless reporter system to monitor in-situ bioavailable phosphorus. Our long term goal is to leverage this system for monitoring of diverse environmental parameters to guide more sustainable fertilization of crops.