Characterising the Soil Environment

Soil is the most complex biomolecule known. As an ecosystem, it is hyper-diverse in species, hosting incredibly rich microbial life. It is also the interface of the mineral and organic world, where transformations bring minerals to life, and return living material back to minerals. Being able to accurately describe the biogeochemical nature and process of forest soils, and their interaction with the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere (sensu trees), is central to our understanding of forest ecology.

Work in this objective is advancing our ability to characterise the biogeochemical nature of soils. It includes adoption of new spectra-based technologies for the rapid physicochemical assessment of forest soil samples, as well as techniques to better define the microbiome of soils and connected ecosystems. The work is foundational to the holistic characterisation of samples within the Tree-Microbiome programme, with direct spill-over benefits for routine forest soil testing (e.g. for productivity analysis).