WRI Seminar Series: Dr Han Weng- probing the nature of soil organic matter

Probing the Nature of Soil Organic Matter with Dr Han Weng

A better understanding of how soil organic carbon behaves can enable optimisation of predictive carbon modelling and facilitate a paradigm shift in the way we manage our grain-producing systems for storing soil organic carbon and improving soil health.

Sub Cruce Lumen, in this case, under the synchrotron light as bright as 1 million suns, we invite you for a journey through time across a series of studies aiming to answer and ask new questions of the molecular scale mechanisms at the organo-mineral interfaces for building soil carbon in the past: Terra Preta Australis (dated back to 1600 years BP) and the Classical experiments at the Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom (the oldest, continuous agronomic experiments in the world since 1843); present: land use changes and farming systems in cropping in Australia; future: the Soil Free Air CO2 Enrichment (SoilFACE) field facility at Horsham (projected elevated CO2 conditions for Year 2050).

We will explore underlying theories of the nature of soil organic matter in light of advances in emerging methodologies and future opportunities.

Dr Han Weng is a lecturer in soil science in the School of Agriculture, Food & Wine, The University of Adelaide. His primary interests and passion in teaching and research are to better understand soil processes, more specifically, how we can better manage, conserve, and regenerate our soils in a changing climate for a sustainable future. His current research aims at quantifying and visualising the fundamental drivers controlling the persistence of soil organic carbon at fine scale using non-invasive and high-resolution imaging techniques such as synchrotron-enabled approaches. Previously, he has led and conducted research funded by Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) across three states at NSW DPI, La Trobe University (VIC), and The University of Queensland (QLD).