Full Title
Response of floodplain forest soils and microbial communities to watering events
Student
Stephie Zahra
Supervisors
Darren Baldwin, Gavin Rees, Roger Croome
Funding Body
This project is supported as part of a Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities (CERF) significant project
Duration
Compleated July 2009
Outcomes
Honours
Summary
Floodplain forests in low rainfall regions of Australia receive most of their water through managed flooding rather than rainfall events. In healthy forests, flood waters are captured in the soil profile, which then maintains the forest until the next flood event. Degraded forests have reduced capacity to capture floodwaters, but the factors that lead to soils of different condition are not known. Stephie will carry out a study at Yanga National Park, a large red gum floodplain forest on the lower Murrumbidgee River (NSW) and will examine how two different flooding regimes have affected soil carbon, moisture and microbial processes in the soil profile.
