Carbon and Nutrient Cycling

Group Leader : Evelyn Krull

This Group seeks to understand carbon and nutrient status and fluxes within between and between terrestrial and aquatic systems.  This expertise is effectively applied to a variety of natural resource management questions that require the links between terrestrial and aquatic environments to be quantified and the effects of remedial interventions predicted.

Our capabilities

The Group is comprised of soil and aquatic biogeochemists and with scientific support staff to run facilities maintained by us including mass spectrometry (IRMS and CSIA), Mid Infra-red, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and gamma analysis. Members of the Group are renowned, notably for their innovative work in soil biogeochemistry.

Specific capabilities include:

• Qualitative and quantitative biogeochemistry of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: in-stream and down-stream organic matter and nutrient cycling as a function of land-use and climate change; eco-stoichiometric modelling of aquatic nutrient cycles
• Quantification of nutrient cycles and greenhouse gas emissions as a function of different agricultural practices and environmental factors: modification of FullCAM model to predict include CO₂ and N₂O emissions from Australian landscapes.

The group has significant tracing and dating analytical facilities including mass spectrometry (IRMS and CSIA), Mid Infra-red, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and gamma analysis.

Relationships

Relationships with key funding agencies and stakeholders are sustained and have been productive over several years: Department of Environment and Water Resources, Australian Greenhouse Office, Grain Research and Development Organisation, Murray-Darling Basin Commission Catchment Management Authorities, and Cooperative Research Centres.

A number of staff also hold adjunct University positions at University of Adelaide.

Related links

• Soils channel
• Soil Management channel
• Biochar - Factsheet
• Soil carbon: the basics - Factsheet
• "Biochar, climate change and soil: A review to guide future research" Science Report 05-09
• ABC Science "What is biochar?" [external site]
• Managing Australia’s Soil and Landscape Assets (MASaLA)
• Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program (ACLEP)
• The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)
• Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre
• How healthy are our rivers and estuaries?
• Land and Water Link article: Catchment Management Provides Key to Estuarine Changes