The following staff are available to supervise honours and masters research in the Nitrogen Management and Fertiliser Technology research group.
Professor Deli Chen
Deli is the leader of the Soil and the Environment Research Group. His research focuses on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, greenhouse gas mitigation, smart fertiliser development, process-based modelling, decision support systems, agricultural ‘big data’, sustainability indices, and livestock waste management, collectively achieving sustainable food production and environmental quality.
Project topics:
- Identifying and quantifying pathways of N losses and improving efficiencies with EEFS.
- Agroecosystem modelling and decision support systems for optimal irrigation and fertiliser management.
- Measuring, modelling and mitigating GHG emissions from land sources.
- Developing new methodology and materials (lignite and black coal) to mitigate NH3 loss from intensive agroecosystems.
- Evidenced-based environmental footprint and sustainability (green) index for Australian and global agricultural products.
Dr Emma Liang
Dr Xia (Emma) Liang has developed a new research focus of evidenced-based environmental footprint and sustainability (green) index for Australian and global agricultural products. Agriculture is on the cusp of a ‘big data’ revolution and she has mastered the skills of global data synthesis and analyses, and has built interdisciplinary expertise in life cycle assessment, soil science, environmental and food science, big data analytics and agricultural econometrics and GIS analysis.
Project topics:
- Evidenced-based environmental footprint and sustainability (green) index for Australian and global agricultural products.
- Cost-effective nitrogen uses for improved profitability and sustainability of rice production in Asia-Pacific countries, including Lao PDR, Myanmar, China and Australia.
- Identification and valuation of the social costs of nitrogen pollution, i.e. monetary value of the damage caused by nitrogen loss to the environment.
- Application of the “5 Ps” principles (Production, People, Planet, Policy and Partnerships) to shape guidelines for sustainable N management with multidimensional N metrics (i.e., N use efficiency, virtual N factor, N footprint, N neutrality, reactive N spatial intensity, N boundary, N price and N equity).
Dr Baobao Pan
Baobao's research focuses on understanding agroecosystems' soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics by integrating big data analytics, machine learning techniques and process-based models. This research seeks to mitigate the environmental impact of climate change and improve sustainable management practices.
Project topics:
- Data-driven analysis incl. meta-analysis, 'big data' to optimize nitrogen management and reduce greenhouse gas in agriculture.
- Hybrid modelling for accurate nitrogen process simulation in agricultural systems.
- Simulate, predict, and evaluate the effectiveness of different management practices on carbon and nitrogen dynamics by process-based model (APSIM, DNDC) and machine learning.
A/Prof Helen Suter
Helen is a soil scientist, and her research focus is nitrogen cycling in agriculture, and strategies to improve plant uptake and reduce environmental impact. She investigates use of diverse pasture swards to improve agriculture’s climate resilience, and new nitrogen fertilisers designed to reduce environmental impacts from agriculture.
Project topics:
- Quantification of nitrogen and carbon cycling and/or soil physical property differences, and/or pasture quality and quantity in mixed and monoculture pasture swards. Extensiveness of research depends on the level of study.
- Nitrogen efficiency of novel fertilisers and impacts on N loss including greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia loss and leaching at the laboratory, glasshouse and field scale.
- Climate resilience of multispecies pastures and the role of root interactions.
- Impact of enhanced efficiency fertilisers on N loss from agricultural systems.