Dr. Ieda Mendes

Iêda de Carvalho Mendes holds a degree in agronomic engineering from UnB Universidade de Brasília (1987) and a doctorate in soil science from Oregon State University (1997). She has been a researcher at Embrapa since 1989 and works at Embrapa Cerrados. She has experience in the area of agronomy, with an emphasis on soil microbiology, working mainly on the themes of biological nitrogen fixation, microbial ecology, and soil quality bioindicators. She participated in the work that culminated in the launch of the strains SEMIA 5080 and SEMIA 5079 in 1993, which are still used today in commercial soybean inoculants. She also participated in studies that resulted in the recommendation of rhizobia strains for common bean (CPAC-H12) and forage legumes. As a result of the studies of its group with bioindicators, a soil bioanalysis technology (BioAS) was developed, which consists of the aggregation of two soil enzymes, arilsulfatase, and beta-glucosidase (associated with sulfur and carbon cycles, respectively) for routine soil analysis. With BioAS, the Brazilian farmer can monitor the health of his soil, knowing exactly what to evaluate, why to evaluate, how to evaluate, when to evaluate, and, especially, how to interpret what was evaluated. Since 2019, it has coordinated the training of 80 commercial soil analysis laboratories in tests to determine the activity of the enzymes beta-glucosidase and arylsulfatase.