Research Projects

Antibiotics are essential for human and livestock wellbeing, but they also pose threats to the environment and health. With about 10 million kg of antibiotics used in veterinary care annually, they pose a major health hazard and an unmitigated climate threat due to their impact on soil microbes. Mitigating these threats is central to India's national policies on livestock and antibiotics. However, there is limited knowledge about their impacts on the nitrogen cycle, microbial community structure, and functions in soil. This lack of understanding limits the ability to envision policy interventions that foster a sustainable livestock economy. A study proposed combining biological and climate sciences to address two questions: 1) Do veterinary antibiotics alter the soil nitrogen cycle and influence greenhouse emissions, and 2) How the impact of antibiotics on the nitrogen cycle is explained by concomitant variation in functional genes related to nitrification or denitrification and shifts in microbial community composition and networks. The study aims to quantify whether antibiotics alter soil microbial communities to affect nitrogen cycling, which would be relevant to India's international commitments to UNFCCC and sDG-2030.