Journal article
Effects of wetting frequency and afforestation on carbon, nitrogen and the microbial community in soil
M Hoogmoed, SC Cunningham, PJ Baker, J Beringer, TR Cavagnaro
Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment | ELSEVIER | Published : 2016
Abstract
Afforestation of agricultural land is increasing, partly because it is an important biological method for reducing the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and potentially mitigating climate change. Rainfall patterns are changing and prolonged dry periods are predicted for many regions of the world, including southern Australia. To accurately predict land-use change potential for mitigating climate change, we need to have a better understanding of how changes in land-use (i.e. afforestation of pastures) may change the soils response to prolonged dry periods. We present results of an incubation study characterising C and N dynamics and the microbial community composition in soil collected from tw..
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Awarded by Department of Sustainability and Environment
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP0990038), Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA), North Central CMA, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, EPA Victoria and Kilter Pty. Ltd. T.R.C. (FT120100463), J.B. (FT110100602) and P.J.B. (FT120100715) were supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowships. M.H. thanks the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for additional funding for fieldwork and laboratory analysis. We thank Mr Scott McDonald for his assistance in the field and the landholders for access to their properties. We thank Dr Jessica Drake for reviewing an early draft of the manuscript, Dr Jim Thomson for advice on statistical analysis and Mr Bodo Winter for his tutorial on mixed effect modelling using R (Winter, 2013).