Fire and Earth --- fire effects on soil fungal and plant community diversity

Dr Jennifer Bryce

"Following the wildfire at Curtis Bay/Castle rock in January 2022 I had an idea to have a look at microorganisms in the soil with my microscope and see the difference from where the wildfire had been/not. From there it grew to an 8-site project, monitoring 4 times per year, looking at water infiltration times and soil microscopy. In marri/jarrah woodland and coastal heath area comparing burnt/unburnt/cooler prescribed burn/fire retardant use/not. The Friends of Meelup and the City of Busselton funded me to do PCR testing in November looking at 2 main areas in the burnt and unburnt areas, to get a deeper understanding of what is happening with the microorganisms. 

Dr Sofie De Meyer from MALDIID Pty Ltd (Perth) did the sequence analysis. She then connected me to Dr Christina Birnbaum, University of Southern Queensland and her masters student Genevieve Jurd, who have now picked up the project and will soon be doing further analysis."

Jennifer, Dr Birnbaum and Genevieve Jurd will be talking about this very interesting groundbreaking subject.