Dr Mark Farrell
Principal Research Scientist
Contact details:
- mark.farrell@csiro.au
- +61883038664
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LOCKED BAG 2
GLEN OSMOND SA 5064 AUSTRALIA
Biography
Dr Farrell is a biogeochemist with particular interest in the interactions between organic carbon and nitrogen in soils, and the importance of these on ecosystem function and agricultural productivity. He uses radio- and stable- isotopes to track fluxes through the soil-plant-microbe interface, and spectral techniques including NMR and MIR to investigate the chemistry of pools within these systems. His research spans fundamental work to identify and isolate important functional processes through to broad applied studies where outcomes are delivered to partners in industry and government. He has studied many different land uses and ecosystems within Australia and internationally, and he seeks to find commonalities and differences in processes and function between these. A long standing interest of his has been the competition between plants and microorganisms for different nitrogen forms, particularly dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and the hitherto unrecognised role this pool of reactive N may play in agricultural plant nutrition. He recently led a GRDC-funded project to investigate the potential role of biological farming inputs in Australian broad-acre agriculture.
Dr Farrell is currently involved in a number of on-going projects and research areas including:
* Interactions between soil organic carbon chemistry and nutrient cycling
* Understanding the relationships between rapidly measurable nitrogen pools and fluxes and plant nitrogen uptake
* Quantifying variability in nitrogen preference across differing wheat lines
* Assessing the efficacy of biological farming inputs for improved grain production
* Linking organic matter chemistry to stability and sequestration potential in organic amendments
* Understanding the relationship between soil microbial diversity and carbon stabilisation
Current Roles
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Team Leader
Soil Biogeochemistry -
Project Leader
Probing “invisible” inputs with isotopes and biomarkers -
Project Leader
An innovative method for probing active soil microbial function -
Team member
Reviewing mechanisms and magnitude of nutrient mineralisation in Australian grain producing soils -
Team member
Soil and cotton nutrition data: Rochester's database
Academic Qualifications
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2004
BSc (Hons) Environmental Science
Bangor University -
2009
PhD
Bangor University
Achievements and Awards
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2014
Young Scientist
CSIRO Land & Water -
2014-2017
Julius Career Award
CSIRO -
2017-2019
Thomas Davies Research Grant
Australian Academy of Sciences
Grants
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2014-2017
Julius Career Award
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2014-2017
Understanding Biological Farming Inputs
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2014-2017
The soil organic matter conundrum: why are thermodynamically unstable compounds stable in soils?
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2012-2015
The carbon sequestration potential of organic amendments
Community and Corporate Citizenship
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2015--
Associate Editor, Soil Research
