RESEARCHERS are digging deep in a new project underpinning Victoria’s future agricultural productivity to get the dirt on how climate change will impact soil.
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In a research first, the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is testing soil from three parts of Victoria for the effects of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels expected later this century.
DPI Senior Agronomist Professor Roger Armstrong said 400 intact soil cores, one metre deep and 30 centimetres wide, were collected from the Mallee, Wimmera and western districts and brought by truck to the site.
Each core weighs between 120 kilograms and 160 kilograms and is housed in PVC pipe cylinders.
“The cores have been stored in eight large bunkers sunk into the ground and are planted with wheat and field peas to simulate a paddock rotation,” Professor Armstrong said.
The project, which is being funded as part of the Victorian Government’s $205 million Future Farming Strategy with assistance from Grains Research and Development Corporation and Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry is a first for Australia and possibly the world.
Professor Armstrong’s project will be among many showcased during DPI’s Grains Science in Action at Longerenong College on March 29.
Fourteen researchers and adoption specialists will outline their work at the event being organised in the lead up to the annual Victorian Farmers Federation Grains Conference which begins the following day at Longerenong Field Days site.
Professor Armstrong said it had taken a year to set up his soil research project and as far as he was aware, no one had ever carried out research like it before.
“During the growing season, plants were exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide (550 ppm) predicted for 2070. We want to see what impact these levels have and whether they differ in different soil types.
“We have brought the soil to one site so that comparisons can be made under the same environment and rainfall.
“The first crops were sown in 2009 and we hope to eventually record several rotations.
“Forty eight cores from 2009 are also being pulled apart and analysed to see below-ground impact on factors such as roots and rhizosphere soil from the higher carbon levels.
“Grain yield, nitrogen fixation, soil water use and root growth will all be monitored and findings used to improve computer simulation models that predict future change impacts.”
The project is one of several under DPI’s AGFACE (Australian Grains Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment) project. The project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Melbourne.
Grains Science in Action runs from 9.45am to 4.15pm on March 29 at Longerenong College, Horsham. The event is free for participants who are also attending the VFF conference and will cost $35 for others. To book phone the VFF on 1300 882 833.
