Soil microbial diversity in highly perturbed agricultural soils due to organic or heavy metal contamination and CO2 leakage

Bacteria play a key role in governing biochemical processes in soils and belowground ecosystem functioning. In Jing's talk, she will give a brief explanation on her research on soil bacterial community under highly perturbed agricultural environments, such as organic or heavy metals contaminated sites and CO2 leakage areas. She used high-throughput 16S RNA gene sequencing method to provide detailed information on soil bacterial communities. She found that, when the soil environment was disturbed (due to either pollutants or gas leakage), the soil physicochemical properties, soil enzyme activity and microbial community structures could be greatly modified, thus yielding uncertainties on soil ecosystem functions and services.

Dr. Jing Ma is currently Assistant Researcher at the Low Carbon Energy Institute, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), city of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Prov. China. She obtained her Ph.D. degree on Biochemistry in the Dalian University of Technology in 2013. During this period, she worked on high efficient PAHs-degrading bacteria (PAH = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) as well as their metabolic pathways using degrading-gene analysis, clone and expression of the key degrading-enzymes. From October 2009 to October 2010, she worked at the Biology Department in University of Waterloo, Canada, as a visiting scholar. During this visit, she worked on the bioremediation of petroleum-contaminated soils using a plant-microbe combined approach. Her current research interests include: soil microbial diversity and functional gene responses to the process of reclamation of subsided mine areas; detection of soil organic pollutants and heavy metals, characterization of spatial distribution of pollution and risk assessment; Antibiotic Resistance Gene (ARG) transfer and its fate in the irrigation system of 'Duck-breeding Plant - River-Farmland'.