TO MEET FUTURE GLOBAL FOOD DEMANDS, A DRASTICALLY INCREASED USE OF NUTRIENT FERTILIZERS (E.G., NITROGEN) IS REQUIRED. HOWEVER, LOSSES OF NITROGEN (N) FROM SOIL NOT ONLY REDUCE FERTILITY AND PLANT YIELD BUT ALSO CREATE ADVERSE IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT, SUCH AS WATER POLLUTION BY NITRATE. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO DEVELOP CARBON-BASED, NANOTECHNOLOGY-ENABLED FERTILIZER TO MITIGATE NITRATE LEACHING BY 50% WHILE IMPROVING NITROGEN UPTAKE EFFICIENCY BY PLANTS. OUR PRELIMINARY STUDY SHOWED ENCOURAGING RESULTS THAT TWO-DIMENSIONAL CARBON MATERIALS ADDED WITH NPK FERTILIZERS CAN REDUCE NITROGEN APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS AND LEACHING INTO GROUNDWATER WITHOUT IMPACTING PLANT PRODUCTIVITY. IN THIS PROJECT, WE SEEK TO UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISMS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DRAMATIC BENEFIT IN IMPROVING NITROGEN USE.THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL CARBON MATERIALS ARE AN EMERGING SECTOR IN AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY BECAUSE OF THEIR UNIQUE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND RELATIVELY LOW COST. WE WILL PROBE HOW THESE PROPERTIES WOULDAFFECT N TRANSFORMATION IN SOILS AND INTERACT WITH PLANTS AND MICROORGANISMS. CARBON NANOMATERIALS AND N SPECIES WILL BE TRACED AND EXAMINED USING ADVANCED ISOTOPIC LABELING APPROACHES. THE NANOPARTICLE MOBILITY IN SOIL AND TRANSPORT OF N SPECIES WILL BE SUBSEQUENTLY STUDIED UNDER SIMULATED IRRIGATION IN SOIL COLUMNS. GREENHOUSE EXPERIMENTS WITH LETTUCE WILL FURTHER INFORM THE ROLE OF NANOMATERIALS IN N TRANSFORMATION. EVENTUALLY, THE SOIL MICROBIAL FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES WILL BE EXAMINED. THE COMBINED CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION WILL HELP US OPTIMIZE N UPTAKE EFFICIENCY AND N LOSS REDUCTION FROM CONVENTIONAL FERTILIZER USE. THE APPLICATION OF CARBON-BASED NANOMATERIALS MAY EVENTUALLY ALLOW FARMERS TO USE LESS FERTILIZER WHILE IMPROVING YIELDS AT LARGER SCALE WHERE SIGNIFICANT NITRATE CONTAMINATION OCCURS, SUCH AS IN SALINAS VALLEY, CA.