If you want to thoroughly know the process and mechanism by which plants acquire iron, meet and find out with Dr. Jagannath Biswakarma.
Iron is a micronutrient that most plants need in small amounts as a part of their diet. Iron helps plants move oxygen throughout their system, and most farmers do not consider this as an important nutrient for plants.
Indian researcher, Dr. Jagannath Biswakarma is one such remarkable scientist who has researched and demonstrated in his postdoctoral work how iron components in the soil would dissolve and that becomes an important pathway by which plants and microbes can acquire iron. With such outstanding research, he was featured as a rising scientist in Forbes’ article.
Dr. Jagannath Biswakarma, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) is studying how plants and microbes can acquire iron in soils that are sometimes irrigated and flooded. Since, he comes from the northern part of India, where problems like heavy rain, flood, fluctuating temperature, and drought are relevant, studying the dynamic redox conditions in sediments and soil can give essential insights to farmers and determine how the changes affect the agricultural productivity and water quality.
Source: LinkedIn
“With my doctoral work, I demonstrated that Fe(II)-catalyzed ligand-controlled dissolution could be an important pathway by which plants and microbes can acquire iron in soils and aqueous environments when redox conditions change, for example in intermittently irrigated or flooded soils,” stated the Assam born and raised researcher.
In countries with monsoon cycle agriculture, fields require large amounts of water for irrigation, which is withdrawn from shallow tube wells, impacting the groundwater table. According to him, the fluctuations in water availability in fields during monsoon seasons change the oxic and anoxic boundary conditions, soil pH, microbial activity, thereby affecting the iron availability in plants.
The iron deficiency results in severe plant disease, know as chlorosis that causes the plants to turn yellow and not produce enough chlorophyll. This shortage can be fulfilled by adding the required amount of iron and solve the problem of iron deficiency in plants and further ramp up agricultural production.
He stated, “My research outcomes contribute to a better understanding of processes that are highly relevant for, but not limited to, the global south, who are exposed more frequently to changing environments than others, hence it is important to assess under what environmental conditions iron might be mobilized in soils collected especially from South-East Asia and South America in order to better understand the causes of iron limitations to plants.”
Source: Flickr
He further revealed how growing up in a region with dynamic weather and rich biodiversity in Assam, he grew keen towards environmental preservation and protection at an early stage. The now ambitious scientist states, ”Even though as a child, I was not aware of any educational degree program on environmental topics and therefore had not even dreamt of pursuing environmental studies.”
But later, when one of his teachers informed him about a bachelor program in Chennai that includes environmental sciences and engineering in the curriculum, he immediately changed his decision of pursuing aeronautical engineering.
The postdoctoral scientist has interests in Bio-Geo-Chemistry of nutrients and contaminants, Water Resources, and Water Treatment. He has been a member of the American Geochemical Society, European Geochemical Union, and of the American Chemical Society. He has served as a reviewer to many scientific journals and a panelist to many international summits related to the sustainable development of water quality, soil, and water contamination assessments. He is also interested in contributing to the field of water and environmental research by linking earned skills and scientific knowledge with passion for advocacy of environmental health.
