Terraforming the Future: High-Stress Soil Restoration via Metrology and Evloved Microbial Consortia

An estimated 50% of the world's arable land is degraded, largely due to salinity and drought stress, which harm soil health and agricultural productivity. Traditional soil restoration methods often rely on chemical amendments, which are unsustainable. This Phase I SBIR proposal introduces an innovative solution to soil restoration by using directed evolution to develop beneficial microbial communities, combined with standardized protocols for monitoring soil-microbe-plant interactions. Aurum Tech's technology leverages natural selection to advance biotechnology measurement science by creating standardized metrics for assessing nutrient mobilization, microbial adaptation, and plant response, enabling sustainable soil restoration and valuable data on microbial evolution and soil health. In Phase I, the objectives are to: (1) Develop protocols for assessing microbial community adaptation and soil-plant interactions; (2) Establish a platform for adapting microbes to salt and drought stress; and (3) Create metrics for plant-microbe interactions. The approach will be validated on southwestern agricultural soils, focusing on crops like pecan, cotton, and alfalfa. Successful completion of Phase I will demonstrate proof-of-concept for microbial evolution and establish measurement protocols, with Phase II focused on scaling the technology and conducting field trials. The project holds potential for agricultural rehabilitation, mining site restoration, and space agriculture.