This investment will explore the interactions between stratified or banded nutrients and root morphology, with a specific focus on deep root development and crop exploitation of subsoil moisture reserves.

The goal is to quantify the impact of spatially separate distributions of water and immobile nutrients on crop productivity, identify root traits that will confer productivity advantages in soils with stratified/banded nutrient reserves, and explore the potential to screen for those traits in summer and winter cereal breeding programs.