{"id":2694,"date":"2025-04-09T14:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:09:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:09:57","slug":"integrating-rock-dust-and-organic-amendments-to-enhance-soil-quality-and-microbial-activity-for-sustainable-crop-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"Integrating Rock Dust and Organic Amendments to Enhance Soil Quality and Microbial Activity for Sustainable Crop Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2223-7747\/14\/8\/1163\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2223-7747\/14\/8\/1163\">Armah, A., Alrayes, L., Pham, T. H., Nadeem, M., Bartlett, O., Fordjour, E., Cheema, M., Galagedara, L., Abbey, L., &amp; Thomas, R. (2025). Integrating Rock Dust and Organic Amendments to Enhance Soil Quality and Microbial Activity for Sustainable Crop Production.\u00a0<em>Plants<\/em>,\u00a0<em>14<\/em>(8), 1163.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rock dust (RD) is a by-product of the precious metal mining industry. Some mining operations produce close to 2,000,000 Mg of RD\/year, posing disposal issues. This study evaluated the physicochemical and microbial properties of RD from gold mining and its potential use in RD-based growing media. Ten media formulations were tested: Promix (Control), 100% (RD), 100% topsoil (TS), 50% RD + 50% topsoil (RDT), 25% RD + 75% topsoil (RT), 50% RD + 50% Promix (RP), 50% RD + 25% biochar + 25% Promix (RBP), 50% RD + 25% compost + 25% Promix (RCP), 50% RD + 50% biochar (RB), and Huplaso (negative control). RD particle size ranged from 0.1 to 2 mm with a bulk density of 1.5 g cm<sup>\u22123<\/sup>, while RD-based media ranged from 0.8 to 1.1 g cm<sup>\u22123<\/sup>\u00a0showing increased porosity. Nutrient content was analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), and the active microbial community assessed using PLFA biomarkers via GC-MS\/FID,\u00a0<em>n<\/em>\u00a0= 4 and\u00a0<em>p<\/em>\u00a0= 0.05. Microbial analysis identified five classes (protozoa, eukaryotes, Gram-positive (G+), Gram-negative (G\u2212), and fungi (F)), with a significant increase in G\u2212, G+, and F in RD-based amendment RBP (28%) compared to control P (9%). G+, G\u2212, and F showed a strong negative correlation (r = \u22120.98) with pH, while calcium correlated positively (r = 0.85) with eukaryotes and a strong positive correlation (r = 0.95) of cation exchange capacity with G+. This study suggests blending RD with organic amendments improves physicochemical quality and microbial activity, supporting its use in crop production over disposal.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Armah, A., Alrayes, L., Pham, T. H., Nadeem, M., Bartlett, O., Fordjour, E., Cheema, M., Galagedara, L., Abbey, L., &#038; Thomas, R. (2025). Integrating Rock Dust and Organic Amendments to Enhance Soil Quality and Microbial Activity for Sustainable Crop Production.\u00a0Plants,\u00a014(8), 1163.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[108,98],"class_list":["post-2694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publication","tag-lipids","tag-sustainability"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions\/2696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raymondthomaslipidlab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}