WaiBER

Femke won an award for best presentation by a junior professional at the New Zealand Land Treatment Collective Annual Conference, Wanaka, March 2015. For her PhD, Femke is investigating whether denitrifying bioreactors can also remove pathogens from wastewater streams.

Our latest EC tower has just become operational! We have returned to Moanatuatua bog, 16 years after our first CO2 flux measurements took place there. Measurements from the new tower will support research on the sustainability of this precious peatland fragment that has an unnaturally low water table due to severe shrinkage of surrounding farm land. Joss Ratcliffe, fresh from his MSc research in forested Scottish peatlands, will be commencing his PhD with us mid-year, to work on this project.

WaiBER research now encompasses six operating eddy covariance sites: four on dairy farms as part of our NZAGRC-funded work on mitigating soil carbon losses on intensively grazed farm systems; and two associated with our wetland restoration research stream, one at the relatively intact Kopuatai bog and the new Moanatuatua site.

We are now preparing to build a seventh EC system, which will give us the capability to measure the full suite of agricultural greenhouse gases, CO2, N2O, and CH4. We plan to have this operational early next year.

Great work Sam! First paper from his ongoing PhD accepted by ‘Plant and Soil’. The paper reports root biomass and turnover in pastures of differing diversity and potential implications for soil carbon inputs. He also made us a great cake  https://waiber.com/research-cake/

Great news Olivia and Emma both submitted their MSc thesis and as importantly brought us new research cakes. https://waiber.com/research-cake/

A postdoctoral position (2.5 years) responsible for measuring nitrous oxide fluxes from grazed pastures systems. We will be purchasing equipment that allows eddy covariance measurements of nitrous oxide and the successful candidate will help install and maintain the equipment, collect data, interpret and write papers in this cutting edge field of research.  You will be part of a team measuring carbon dioxide and water fluxes from pastures and wetlands. Our goal is to find management practices that decrease our greenhouse gas burden on the atmosphere while maintaining production. 

Further details about the team and our research can be found on these webpages and the position description can be viewed at the University of Waikato vacancy page:  http://www.waikato.ac.nz/hrm/vacancies/ where applications should also be made. 

Enquiries of an academic nature should be directed to Professor Louis Schipper, email: schipper@waikato.ac.nz. Applications close 12th March.

Congrats to Jordan Goodrich who handed in his PhD thesis today and we bid him and Jess farewell as they travel back to the US to take up a postdoc position in San Diego. Safe travels!

The Waiber team had a number of papers accepted over the Christmas break – journal editors must have been catching up on work.

Didham, R.K.; Barker, G.M.; Bartlam, S.; Deakin, E.L.; Denmead, L.H.; Fisk, L.M.: Peters, J.M.R.; Tylianakis, J.M.; Wright, H.; Schipper, L.A. (in press) Agricultural intensification exacerbates spillover effects on soil biogeochemistry in adjacent forest remnants. PLoS ONE.

Campbell, D.I.; Wall, A.A.; Nieveen, J.P.; Schipper L.A. (in press) Variations in CO2 exchange for dairy farms with year-round rotational grazing on peat soils. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Goodrich, G.P.; Campbell, D.I.; Schipper, L.A.; Clearwater, M.; Rutledge S.; Keyte-Beattie, A. (in press) High vapour pressure deficit constrains GPP and the light response of NEE at a Southern Hemisphere bog. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.

Scott, J.T; Lambie, S.M.; Stevenson, B.A.; Schipper, L.A.; Parfitt, R.L.; McGill A.C. (submitted) Carbon and nitrogen leaching under high and low phosphate fertility pasture with increasing nitrogen inputs. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Craine, J.M.; Elmore, A.J.; Wang, L.; Augusto, L.; Baisden, W.T.; Brookshire, E.N.J.; Cramer, M.D.; Hasselquist, N.J.; Hobbie, E.A.; Kahmen, A.; Koba, K.; Kranabetter, J.M.; Mack, M. C.; Marin-Spiotta, E.; Mayor, J.R.; McLauchlan, K.K.; Michelsen, A.; Nardoto, G.B.; Oliveira, R.S.; Perakis, S.S.; Peri, P.L.; Quesada, C.A.; Richter, A.; Schipper, L.A.; Stevenson, B.A.; Turner, B.L.; Viani, R.A.G.; Wanek W.; Zeller B. (in press). Convergence of soil nitrogen isotopes across global climate gradients. Scientific Reports.

Olivia Jordan was awarded the TW Walker award for best student oral presentation at the annual conference of the NZ Society of Soil Science.

Alice Barnett won Sir Theodore Rigg award for best MSc Thesis of 2013 from the New Zealand Society of Soil Science. Awarded at the conference dinner.