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Project Details
Project status
In progress
Research Framework
Pou Nuku-a-rangi
Research Duration
Jan 2022 – Dec 2024
Project Overview
Soils are vulnerable to disturbances, which can impact their health and function. Soil microbes are responsible for many key soil functions, and this project is helping us understand how soil microbial communities are impacted by disturbances, and how they might be able to recover over time.
Soil is being collected from maize and kiwifruit sites across Te Kaha to determine the chemical and physical properties of the soil, the size and activity of the microbial population, and the diversity of the microbial population across different seasons. Following the establishment of a baseline these soils will be used in experiments to monitor how the soils recover over time, after being disturbed by simulated climate change impacts, particularly droughts.
Why This Matters
Soil degradation is a massive threat to the land-based economy of Aotearoa|New, which encompasses services and goods from pasture (e.g., dairy and wool), non-native forest plantations, arable cropping lands, and horticulture. The Ministry for the Environment has identified climate change, land-use conversion, and agricultural intensification as the primary threats to soil health and productivity in Aotearoa|New Zealand. As these identified threats are all currently relevant to the agricultural landscape of Te Kaha, we anticipate that our findings will be relevant to the global knowledge gaps surrounding how soil resistance and resilience can be elicited, bolstered, and conferred.
Project Objectives
- Characterising soil microbial abundance, diversity, function, and activity across an agricultural mosaic landscape
- Exploring Oomycota diversity and transmission pathways in Te Kaha
- Evaluating of methods to confer soil microbes, both in the field and in the lab
- Monitoring soil microbial response and recovery to climate induced stress
