The Carbon, water, and soil theme conducts basic and applied research to tackle important global issues. Our research strives to improve our understanding on the causes and controls of soil distribution, the cycling of water, carbon and nutrients in plant and soil, and manipulating the transfer of energy through the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
We confront this important issues by conducting basic and applied research that improve our understanding on the causes and controls of soil distribution, the cycling of water, carbon and nutrients in plant and soil, and manipulating the transfer of energy through the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
We aim to connect soil, water, carbon, climate, agriculture, the economy and the society based on the best scientific evidence and that serve to balance needs for food production, carbon sequestration, ecosystem services, and farmers profitability.
This project aims to understand how plant roots build and destroy soil organic matter in grasslands and what the impacts of drought are. Soil organic matter is the largest terrestrial reservoir of nutrients for plant growth, but paradoxically, the formation of new soil organic matter by plant roots also requires external nutrients.
This project will address this apparent paradox by using a new root-centric framework and stable isotope techniques. The project will use state-of-the-art computer models that incorporate the latest frameworks on soil organic matter interacting with plant roots. Benefits include an improved capacity to manage and predict grassland productivity and soil organic matter dynamics with greater resolution and accuracy.
This project aims to address the knowledge gaps about the role of inorganic carbon in soil carbon turnover and its impact on climate-change mitigation. The significance of this research lies in the fact that inorganic carbon accounts for over 30% of soil carbon but is little studied despite it is affected by climate change and land-use practices.
The expected outcomes include the development of a soil carbon turnover model that integrates inorganic carbon processes and the mapping of soil inorganic carbon stock changes due to climate change and irrigation across Australia.
The benefits of this research will be improved understanding and management of soil carbon stocks, contributing to more effective climate-change mitigation strategies.
