RhizoSeqC

Coordinating institution : CNRS

Project leader: Isabelle Basile-Doelsch
Project duration : 60 months | October 1st 2025 → September 30th 2029

Grant : 1 249 995 €

 

Institutional partnerships : INRAE - IRD - CIRAD - CEA - Université de Rouen Normandie - ENS

Associated institutions : Aix Marseille Université - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

 

In the context of climate change and food security, a major challenge for intensive agro‑ecosystems is to shift arable soils from a carbon‑depleting status to a carbon‑storing one. Two levers can be used to reverse these carbon‑sequestration trajectories: increasing carbon inputs directly into the soil and enhancing the stabilisation of soil organic matter. The challenge, therefore, is to develop cropping systems capable of combining these levers while maintaining economically viable production.

 

RhizoSeqC addresses carbon‑sequestration solutions by proposing the use of a combination of agronomically valuable plant species selected for enhanced rhizodeposition of carbon, together with additions of stabilising mineral phases.

The project is organised into six work packages (WPs), including a coordination WP (WP0). It explores the hypothesis that the plant continuum (WP1), bacterial communities (WP2), and soil organo‑mineral associations (WP3) can be jointly optimised—while meeting agronomic requirements (WP4)—to increase soil carbon sequestration (WP5).

The selected agricultural species is sorghum (grown for grain and forage), chosen for its importance to food security and its strong capacity to adapt to climate‑change impacts such as water stress and warming. The reference soil type used to integrate results across WPs is an Arenosol, due to its low and fragile native organic‑matter content and its wide distribution across both Northern and Southern regions. WP4 also enables testing of plant responses on other soil types.

With its 11 partner institutions, RhizoSeqC brings together a multidisciplinary community of scientists and operational stakeholders at both national and international (North/South) levels. The research institutes involved include CNRS, IRD, CIRAD, INRAE and its Senegalese counterpart ISRA, CEA, ENS, and two universities (Rouen and PSL).

The outcomes of RhizoSeqC are expected to promote agroecological innovations in cereal‑based systems in both the Global North and South. These innovations aim to increase soil carbon sequestration, contributing to carbon‑neutrality goals while accounting for future climatic constraints.

Keywords: rhizodeposition, root, sorghum, carbon, genetics