MICRO-RESILIENCE: Enhancing sugar beet Tolerance and Soil Health Under Microplastic- Induced Stress Through Integrated Physiological and Soil-Based Mitigation Strategies

Türkiye, with 378,020 km² of agricultural land, is a major global agricultural producer, but sustainability is increasingly threatened by land degradation, pollution, and population growth. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), the second most important sugar crop after sugarcane, is widely cultivated in temperate regions. Türkiye ranks seventh globally in sugar beet production, yielding about 21.5 million metric tons (mMT) of beets and 3.1 mMT of sugar (2022–23). Over the past 250 years, it has served as a major source of sugar, especially in Europe and other temperate regions. Beyond sugar extraction, it also serves as a valuable raw material for diverse sectors, including bioethanol, pharmaceuticals, animal nutrition, and various food-related industries.

Rapid environmental degradation, diverse pollutants, and increasing human activities have intensified challenges in sugar beet production in Türkiye. Due to increasing pollution in soil and water, sugar beet crop is facing serious challenges in production as well as quality. As a result, agricultural landscapes experience a cascade of negative outcomes. Growing the crop on polluted or marginal soils offers a potential way to restore degraded lands. In addition, responses of sugar beet to MP pollution in soil, and water is a relatively less addressed area of research in Türkiye and other countries. Soil contamination with MPs can negatively affect mineral nutrient uptake in plants. Plant exposure to MPs can negatively impact crop physiology and biochemistry by reducing levels of essential elements, soluble compounds, and organic substances leading to decreased biomass. Additionally, when MPs occur in soils alongside organic and inorganic pollutants, they can interact synergistically and amplify their toxic effects on plant growth. In recent years, the detection of MPs in foods from natural and processed sources has raised major concerns. The presence of MPs in food highlights the need for strict management across the entire food chain. Growing attention is now focused on MPs in terrestrial ecosystems and their effects on crop physiology and nutrition. For instance, MPs and their associated chemicals have been detected in human organs, posing significant health risks. Many of these compounds i.e. phthalates and bisphenol A, are endocrine disruptors linked to diabetes and developmental abnormalities. Given their widespread exposure and toxicity, urgent global measures are needed to mitigate plastic pollution.

Sugar beet is an important food and industrial crop worldwide. Although other crops especially staple food crops have been focused for their responses to MP pollution and mitigation strategies, sugar beet crop is lacking in this arena. Therefore, This study will assess the effects of three MPs, polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) on sugar beet varieties from Türkiye and Pakistan. Greenhouse and field experiments will be conducted at Erciyes University, Türkiye under a Completely Randomized Design. Different MP concentrations will be mixed in sterilized loamy soil, and plants will be grown in green house. Morphological, physiological, biochemical, and antioxidant parameters and microbial communities in soil will be analyzed. The most tolerant varieties will be further evaluated under field conditions, where agronomic traits, yield, and nutritional composition will be determined. Additionally, separate trials will assess the mitigating effects of Manganese-chelated lysine (Mn-CL), Boron chelated lysine (B-CL) and Iron chelated Lysine (Fe-CL) to enhance sugar beet resilience under MP stress. The main goals of current project are

· To assess how MPs alter sugar beet biochemical profiles and their links to key physiological and nutritional traits.

· To examine changes in rhizospheric microbial populations following MP exposure.

· To evaluate whether novel compounds mitigate microplastic stress in sugar beet

Keywords (up to 5) to define your particular research topic at the host institute (The keywords on your research topic help to identify suitable independent peer reviewers. Please take this into consideration when choosing your keywords): 

Plant Nutrition, Soil Microplastic pollution, Plant Physiology, Soil Microbial Population