Research Supervisor Connect
A paradox exists right below our feet: living plant roots are the main source of forming soil organic matter (SOM), but are also one of the main forces of SOM destruction. SOM destruction is needed to release the vast amount of nutrients stored in SOM for plant uptake, but paradoxically, formation of new SOM by plant roots removes nutrients for plant growth. While increasing SOM is an effective way to safeguard against global warming, nutrients will be required to make this happen. Largely because of methodological difficulties, little progress has been made in solving this paradox around plant root effects on SOM dynamics, which requires investigation of both formation and destruction mechanisms together. By using exciting new carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope labelling methods, you will be investigating the vital role that live plant roots have on SOM formation and destruction under field and controlled environment conditions.
Associate Professor Feike Dijkstra.
School of Life and Environmental Sciences
The project will make use of our long-term Clipping And Fertiliser Experiment (CAFÉ) in a grassland near the Centre for Carbon, Water and Food (CCWF) in Camden. For this project we will impose a drought treatment using portable rainout shelters. The project further includes controlled-environment glasshouse/growth chamber experiments manipulating drought, clipping and fertiliser application in mesocosm studies. We have access to world-class equipment including stable isotope lasers and liquid and gas chromatography mass spectrometers. The research community in Camden is very vibrant where research encompasses plant responses to the environment, C-cycling in ecosystems, water-use efficiency of crops, water movement in catchments, farming and land management, soil health, N fixation, nutrient cycling and plant-soil-microbe interactions. There is the opportunity for students to join the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, which has more than 200 members and a very active research portfolio.
For further information and how to apply for this project, visit this link here: ARC Postgraduate Research Scholarship - Scholarships (sydney.edu.au)
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3409