Redox: The Driver of Soil Microbial Interactions and Nutrient Availability with Olivier Husson

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Science, Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 548 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, John interviews French agronomist, Olivier Husson, whose pioneering work on soil pH and redox potential provides a groundbreaking look at what goes on within the soil.

Olivier has focused a large part of his research on the study of reduction-oxidation (redox) in rice production, where the crop is grown in paddies in anaerobic conditions. These conditions are ideal for the study of Eh.

Eh, the short notation for redox potential, is a measurement of the availability of electrons, whereas pH is a measurement of the availability of protons. In order to gain a full picture of the soil's nutrient profile, we need to assess both the pH and the redox potential at the same time.

In this interview, Olivier details:

the difference between Eh and pH
how the Eh profile changes based on photosynthetic activity
how electrons in the soil are key to reversing oxidation and absorbing nutrition from soil mineral reserves
how Eh determines water absorption capacity
how the whole plant is regulated by the redox signal
the Eh and pH parameters that are present when pathogenic fungi, bacteria, and viruses manifest in a plant and cause disease.

John and Olivier have also presented on the topic of redox in a 6-hour course format, including graphs and visuals, which is available as a part of the Regen Ag Academy. You can access this course segment below for free.

Resources:

Redox Potential: Eh and pH as Indicators of Soil, Plant, and Animal Health and Quality

Encyclopédie des plantes bio-indicatrices vol 1

Support For This Show

This show is brought to you by AEA, helping professional growers make more money using regenerative agriculture since 2006.

If you grow on a large scale and are looking to increase crop revenue and quality, email hello@advancingecoag.com or call 800-495-6603 to be connected with a dedicated AEA crop consultant.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi friends, this is John, and this is the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast.
0:05.4	Welcome back to the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast. In this episode, I am delighted to host
0:11.1	Olivier Hussein, who has been one of my heroes for many years, someone who I have admired at a
0:16.4	distance. When I first began studying agronomy and plant nutrition, I became really intrigued by the implications of looking at plant electricity, plants functioning as antennas, and looking at agriculture and plant function from the perspective of biophysics rather than from the perspective of biochemistry.
0:36.3	Within this context, I was really interested in learning more about redox and soil,
0:42.8	E.H and pH.
0:44.7	In the literature review, I was not able to find very good information except for one source.
0:50.4	Olivier Husson wrote papers that were a voice of clarity in a wilderness of chaos.
0:59.2	So, Olivia has written a number of papers on the importance of redox and EH as drivers of drivers of
1:07.4	the soil microbial ecosystem and soil and plant interactions.
1:11.6	And I'm delighted to have him here today.
1:13.6	So, Olivier, welcome to the podcast.
1:16.6	You have a very interesting background.
1:19.6	Can you tell us a bit about what has brought you to this research and how you came to be working in this space?
1:26.6	First, yes, let me say that I'm very proud to be asked and I'm very glad to participate.
1:33.3	I'm a big fan of your work, Jen, so it's a really pleasure.
1:39.3	I'm an agronomist, French agronomist. I've been working in the tropics for more than 25 years.
1:49.0	And one of the main crops I've been working with was rice. And rice can be grown in very different conditions.
1:56.0	It can be grown, as most people know, with water in the field, in the paddy field.
2:01.6	But it can also be grown as wheat,
2:05.6	upland, aerobic crop, as any other crop.
2:09.6	And I've been working on developing cropping system
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AEA Marketing, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of AEA Marketing and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.