Research Supervisor Connect
This project, in collaboration with CSIRO and industry partners, explores innovative geophysical and modelling methods to map soil thickness —key for understanding how deep-rooted crops and natural ecosystems resist drought, fire, and other climate extremes. You'll gain hands-on experience in cutting-edge digital soil mapping with real-world impact on climate resilience and land management.
Project keywords: digital soil mapping, soil depth, forestry
School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Soil thickness is one of the key drivers of resilience and productivity in both natural and managed systems, but it is also one of the most difficult soil properties to assess. While national level soil maps have been generated to 2 m, for natural systems and deep-rooted perennials such as tree crops, soil depths between 2 and 10 m can make a huge impact on resilience and productivity, especially under climate change where drought, floods and fires are becoming more commonplace and deeper soils can buffer these systems against extreme climate events. Working with CSIRO and industry partners, this project aims to explore novel geophysical and modelling techniques to assess soil depth in the key rooting zone of 2-10 m, and aim to understand depth to bedrock, as well as depth to hard pan/impenetrable layers and how this influences ecosystem services from soil.
- Undergraduate with honours or equivalent in agricultural science, soil science, geography or geology
- An understanding of geophysical and/or modelling techniques that are used to assess soil properties
- Willingness to undertake fieldwork in forestry plantation areas of SE Queensland and SW Western Australia
- Excellent communication skills to work with the project team across industrial, academic and CSIRO backgrounds
Research location: ATP Building C81
Program type: PhD
Associated scholarship opportunity: iPhD scholarship.
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3644