Nitrogen is essential for all life on Earth but is mostly found in chemical forms that crops cannot use. As a result, it is a common agricultural practice to apply synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to crops in order to produce enough food to feed our planet. This widespread practice is expensive for farmers while also negatively impacting our environment. Synthetic nitrogen is a major contributor to climate change - nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas released from agriculture fields, is nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide! Excess nitrogen applied to fields also pollutes the environment through runoff into waterways and oceans.

Danforth Center scientists want to create a better solution. The Subterranean Influences on Nitrogen and Carbon (SINC) Center aims to develop technologies to decrease the use of nitrogen fertilizer by 12% without the loss of crop productivity.

To do this, the SINC team is working to develop a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship between plants and the microbes in the soil that convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms that can be used by plants. Using cutting-edge technologies across a cross-disciplinary research team, the SINC team will harness the power of plants and microbes to improve nitrogen uptake and use efficiency.