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Project Overview
Agriculture and horticulture globally rely on healthy soils, with microbes playing a fundamental role. In Aotearoa New Zealand, land use has a largely agricultural focus. Understanding how soil health is impacted by changes to land use or crop production is essential. Examples of this include seasonal crop rotations or converting pasture to forest for many years. The impacts of these changes on the soil microbiota and carbon cycling are still unknown.
This research uses environmental DNA and lipid-based techniques to identify the bacteria and fungi present in soils, paired with molecular and culture-based techniques to understand their carbon use and ecological roles. Belowground plant traits will also be measured. Combining these techniques will create a more complete picture of what is happening in the soil regarding carbon cycling.
Why This Matters
This research will help us to better understand the influence plants have on soil microbes and how this affects carbon dynamics and storage, which is relevant to the long-term sustainability and resilience of agricultural ecosystems. Carbon cycling is central to this work, as soils hold a substantial proportion of global carbon stocks.
Plants strongly shape their soil environment, influencing microbial activity and nutrient availability. In agriculture, there is significant pressure on the land for productivity and food production, making it crucial to understand the changes occurring in soils. This is particularly true in Aotearoa New Zealand, where agriculture plays an important economic and environmental role.
The resilience of soils under current and future land uses is something that we need to learn more about so that we can find sustainable ways of using land while preserving or improving ecosystem health and minimising risks of climate change impacts.
Project Objectives
- Investigate the influence of different plant species on microbial carbon use and diversity.
- Find out which microbes are present in the soil around roots of different plants.
- Understand how microbes contribute to the accumulation of carbon in soil.
- Learn what carbon substrates some soil microbes prefer to use.
Related Information
T2 | Soil Carbon