Microbial community characterization of agricultural soils irrigated with diluted calcium hydroxide (lime)-treated urine

This project explored the potential benefits and effects of using urine treated with calcium hydroxide (lime) as a fertilizer for non-food crops. Urine was treated and collected from the Grow Food Northampton (GFN) community garden in Florence, Massachusetts. The objective of this work was to provide an assessment to the garden management team and the broader community of the effects of fertilizer applications of lime-treated urine on plant growth and the soil microbial community. Two 7-week agricultural experiments took place at the University of Massachusetts Amherst between Fall 2019 and Fall 2020 using sunflowers as a model species, and after 7 weeks soil samples were collected and submitted for 16S amplicon sequencing.