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Past, present and future of organic nutrients

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Abstract

Background

Slowing crop yield increases despite high fertiliser application rates, declining soil health and off-site pollution are testimony that many bioproduction systems require innovative nutrient supply strategies. One avenue is a greater contribution of organic compounds as nutrient sources for crops. That plants take up and metabolise organic molecules (‘organic nutrients’) has been discovered prior to more recent interest with scientific roots reaching far into the 19th century. Research on organic nutrients continued in the early decades of the 20th century, but after two world wars and yield increases achieved with mineral and synthetic fertilisers, a smooth continuation of the research was not to be expected, and we find major gaps in the transmission of methods and knowledge.

Scope

Addressing the antagonism of ‘organicists’ and ‘mineralists’ in plant nutrition, we illustrate how the focus of crop nutrition has shifted from organic to inorganic nutrients. We discuss reasons and provide evidence for a role of organic compounds as nutrients and signalling agents.

Conclusion

After decades of focussing on inorganic nutrients, perspectives have greatly widened again. As has occurred before in agricultural history, science has to validate agronomic practises. We argue that a framework that views plants as mixotrophs with an inherent ability to use organic nutrients, via direct uptake or aided by exoenzyme-mediated degradation, will transform nutrient management and crop breeding to complement inorganic and synthetic fertilisers with organic nutrients.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr David Teakle for discussions about the history of organic plant nutrition and his critical comments that have improved the manuscript, to Prof Peter Gahan for his advice on the section on DNA uptake, to Dr Paul Scott for his thoughtful comments on this manuscript. Our research is enabled with funding from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Grant DP0986495 to SS) and The University of Queensland (Early Career Researcher grant to CPL). We gratefully acknowledge the excellent facilities provided by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research. The authors acknowledge the following references in Fig. 2: hydroponic pea plants (Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankenheiten, 30, page 30, 1911); hydroponic wheat (reprinted from Botanical Gazette, Volume 59, page 456, 1915 with permission of The University of Chicago Press); scheme apparatus (Reprinted from The Use of Isotopes and Radiation in Soil-Plant Nutrition Studies, page 11, 1965 with permission of International Atomic Energy Agency).

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  1. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Chanyarat Paungfoo-Lonhienne & Susanne Schmidt

  2. Intrasoil Consultancy, Aziëlaan 2, 3526 SB, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jozef Visser

  3. School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Thierry G. A. Lonhienne

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  1. Chanyarat Paungfoo-Lonhienne
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Correspondence to Chanyarat Paungfoo-Lonhienne.

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Paungfoo-Lonhienne, C., Visser, J., Lonhienne, T.G.A. et al. Past, present and future of organic nutrients. Plant Soil 359, 1–18 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-012-1357-6

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