Agricultural sources of atmospheric ice biocatalysts in dryland farming systems

There are 2 main prospects for this work. Firstly, we will continue collaboration with the ICARDA Seed Pathology lab to develop and validate a technique to assure that wheat harbors surface populations of ice nucleation active bacteria that can become aerosols. This will involve the training of a Master’s student at the University of Aleppo. The second prospect will depend on success of Mr. Samsatly in obtaining funding for his studies. If he is successful, this will allow pursuit of further collaborative work between ICARDA, INRA and MSU on establishing plant sources of ice nucleation active bacteria, formation of aerosols, and their interaction with atmospheric processes.