Bridging Prairie Restoration and Regenerative Agriculture with Compost Tea
Faculty Mentor
Robin O'Quinn, Justin Bastow
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Biology
Abstract
Inland Pacific Northwest Prairie is an endangered ecosystem that has been reduced by conversion to agriculture. There is growing interest in the role of soil microorganisms in prairie ecosystems, which may be crucial for restoration of the plant community through interspecies interactions within the soil near plant roots. One method for improving soil microorganism community composition is compost tea: enriched liquid compost extract. Compost tea is used in regenerative agriculture to improve crop yields and protect against pathogens, ostensibly through the activity of the added compost microbes. While research has supported compost tea application in regenerative agriculture, it has not been widely studied in the context of ecosystem restoration. To investigate whether compost tea improves native plant establishment, I conducted a greenhouse experiment in pots seeded with a native prairie seed mixture. Pots were divided into three groups, each receiving weekly treatments of either compost tea, boiled compost tea, or water as a control. A comparison between the compost tea and boiled compost tea groups will determine the degree to which the effects of compost tea on native plant growth are due to the nutrients versus the microorganisms in the solution. Overall, my study will inform how compost tea affects native plant biomass, post-treatment abundance, species richness, and community composition. If compost tea application has a positive impact on these metrics, it may be an inexpensive and scalable method to support ecosystem restoration.
Recommended Citation
Hersey, April, "Bridging Prairie Restoration and Regenerative Agriculture with Compost Tea" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 25.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/ps_2025/p1_2025/25
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Bridging Prairie Restoration and Regenerative Agriculture with Compost Tea
PUB NCR
Inland Pacific Northwest Prairie is an endangered ecosystem that has been reduced by conversion to agriculture. There is growing interest in the role of soil microorganisms in prairie ecosystems, which may be crucial for restoration of the plant community through interspecies interactions within the soil near plant roots. One method for improving soil microorganism community composition is compost tea: enriched liquid compost extract. Compost tea is used in regenerative agriculture to improve crop yields and protect against pathogens, ostensibly through the activity of the added compost microbes. While research has supported compost tea application in regenerative agriculture, it has not been widely studied in the context of ecosystem restoration. To investigate whether compost tea improves native plant establishment, I conducted a greenhouse experiment in pots seeded with a native prairie seed mixture. Pots were divided into three groups, each receiving weekly treatments of either compost tea, boiled compost tea, or water as a control. A comparison between the compost tea and boiled compost tea groups will determine the degree to which the effects of compost tea on native plant growth are due to the nutrients versus the microorganisms in the solution. Overall, my study will inform how compost tea affects native plant biomass, post-treatment abundance, species richness, and community composition. If compost tea application has a positive impact on these metrics, it may be an inexpensive and scalable method to support ecosystem restoration.
