This project is examining the impacts of agricultural land-use change on soil carbon cycling across an agricultural landscape in Horomaka, Banks Peninsula. Carbon stored in soil supports a range of soil ecosystem services that are essential to human needs, such as agricultural productivity and the regulation of water quality and greenhouse gases. As soil microorganisms drive both the decomposition of and formation of soil carbon, studying their response to land-use change is essential to provide ecologically meaningful assessments of soil carbon.

Our research is examining differences in the diversity, structure, and function of the soil microbial communities between different land uses across Horomaka, Banks Peninsula.

Five different land uses were selected for comparison across an agricultural land use mosaic, which included native forest, pasture, and exotic forest. The results of this research will enable us to better understand how we can manage land uses to enhance the resilience of soil carbon.