The growth of food demand concurrent with the loss of fertile soil at world level inevitably demands an intensive but ecologically sustainable use of soils in agriculture. It is necessary to understand soil functions and vulnerability to promote plant growth.

The objective of this project in collaboration with Germany is to characterize the microbial communities of semi-arid soils and their responses to changing conditions, such as irrigation, development of certain cultivations, increase in salinity.

Molecular techniques, based on analysis of nucleic acids extracted directly from soil, shall be used to characterize microbial community diversity in this type of soils.

Different specific genes shall be chosen to stimulate the structure and functional diversity, as well as detection, appearance of mobile genetic elements that mark a great importance in adaptation processes. The analysis shall be performed in soils without pollution problems and in others that have been used for cultivation and have thus been treated with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.