awarded soil science challenge grant
Project led by Balwant Singh, Feike Dijkstra and Charles Warren has been funded by soil science challenge. The project will investigate the role of plants in organic matter stabilization.
awarded ARC Discovery Grant to work on rhizosphere process
We are delighted to share our proposal entitled “The critical role of rhizosheath biophysics in plant water availability” has been funded by the Australian Research Council. Chief Investigators are Charles Warren, Iain Young, Richard Trethowan and Sheikh Rabbi (all from University of Sydney) Project summary This project aims to determine how plants can increase their …
Paper published: estimation of soil metabolite synthesis from D2O labeling
Paper published today in Soil Biology & Biochemistry describing estimation of metabolite synthesis from D2O labelling and mass spectrometry. Soil respiration was unaffected by up to 87 atom% D2O. D2O addition led to quantifiable 2H enrichment of metabolites. Turnover of pools due to synthesis differed among metabolites from ten days to multiple years.
Paper published: Rhizosheath affects water use of wheat
Paper published today in Rhizosphere by Sheikh Rabbi and University of Sydney colleagues examining how rhizosheath of wheat roots affects water use.
Paper published: intracellular storage by soil microbes
Stefano Manzoni (Stockholm University) led an innovative modelling study exploring implications of intracellular storage for soil processes. The paper has been published today in Front. Ecol. Evol
Paper published: PIP-2 aquaporins and mesophyll conductance
Collaborator David Israel (University of Helsinki) led a study examining roles of different plasma membrane aquaporins (PIPs) in leaf-level gas exchange of Arabidopsis thaliana. It has just been published in Journal of Experimental Botany
Congratulations Shota and Grace for completing honours
Congratulations to Grace Liang and Shota Matsumura for completing their honours projects. Grace investigating the role of membrane lipids in the economics of phosphorus in plants and soil microbes. Shota examined whether plants can avoid competing for N by specialising in uptake of N in different chemical forms. Both Grace and Shota worked incredibly hard and …
Paper published on altitudinal variation in soil intact lipids
We’ve just had a paper published in Soil Research showing inconsistent trends in intact lipid composition with altitude. Rather than temperature (altitude) related trends in lipids we found that low pH led to accumulation of some lipids — perhaps due to slowed hydrolysis and/or microbial utilization.
Manuscript on fluxes of osmolytes voted 2021 Editors’ Choice
Our manuscript on osmolyte fluxes in soil was recently voted 2021 Editors’ Choice in Soil Biology and Biochemistry based on the new insights provided to the long-standing question of whether osmolytes fuel the pulse of respiration when dry soil is re-wet. Read the editorial.
Paper published on enzymatic cleavage of organic N
Have you ever wondered if amino acids are the main products of soil DON breakdown? We developed a method to enable ID and quantification of the products of enzymatic breakdown of soil DON. It turns out that peptides are the primary products of enzymatic breakdown, amino acids are produces at a slower rate than peptides, …