This grass could heal soil near West Virginia coal mines -- and even sprouted a WVU study
Oct. 9—MORGANTOWN — For more than a century, coal mining has provided the basis of industry for small-town West Virginia. But an unseen downside of this extraction appears below the surface, in the soil that surrounds coal mines.
Digging up coal reserves can deplete nutrients key to vegetation, which destabilizes soil structure and induces flooding. In addition, plants ill adapted to these new soil patterns struggle to grow, which reduces plant biodiversity.
That's where crops like Miscanthus grass come in. During photosynthesis, Miscanthus can use carbon from the atmosphere to feed microorganisms in the soil, allowing them to activate nitrogen and phosphorus beyond the reach of other plant root systems.
By studying how Miscanthus retrieves these nutrients and sustains life in harsh environments, West Virginia University researchers hope to reap its benefits to one day restore soil health across the Mountain State.
The bulk of this research, spearheaded by postdoctoral student in plant and soil sciences Jennifer Kane, focuses on the exchange that takes place between Miscanthus roots and the soil.
Better understanding the mechanism through which its roots retrieve nutrients from the soil could provide insight into how to restore damaged soils across West Virginia, Kane said.
Kane received a $219,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the grass with WVU mentors Ember Morrissey, associate professor of environmental microbiology, and Edward Brzostek, associate professor of biology.
Where Miscanthus is grown, "we're seeing increases in soil health and increases in plant biomass even on our most disturbed site," Kane said. "What this new grant is really about is examining the interaction at the root level."
While standard grants have allowed researchers to examine Miscanthus previously, this funding allows Kane to "branch out" and "explore some of the questions she's interested in" through a postdoctoral fellowship, Morrissey said.
While their research is being conducted on the microscopic level, Kane and Morrissey have loftier hopes for what studying Miscanthus can accomplish.
Growing Miscanthus in depleted soils near mines "could be a win-win," Morrissey said. "It can be used for bioenergy production and renewable materials," while also "storing carbon and improving the health of the soil."
Bioenergy crops are plants that can eventually produce organic fuels, often grown in large quantities in low-nutrient soils like Miscanthus. The researchers hope their work can lay the foundation for growing Miscanthus as a bioenergy crop more widely.
Similar crops are common throughout Europe, but have not been as widely adopted in the United States, Kane said.
European agriculturalists are "a little bit ahead of us," Morrissey said. But Miscanthus in particular "tends to outperform other crops in terms of productivity above ground and carbon storage below ground," which could make it an even stronger option than current crops available.
For Kane, studying Miscanthus has provided valuable insight into the world of renewable agriculture more broadly.
Despite the soil damage she has witnessed first-hand at mine sites, plants like Miscanthus are still capable of improving environmental health. That means researchers should never give up on working toward improving the environment, Kane said.
"We see these poor sites that perhaps nobody thought we could ever do anything with," Kane said. "It may be slower, and it may take more time, but we're seeing trends when Miscanthus is planted.
And, for that grass, "maybe no piece of land is too damaged," she said.
Reach Jack Walker by email at jwalker@timeswv.com.
