The Land Management Group in the School
of Environmental Science at Murdoch University has been established
for over 15 years. Under the leadership of Dr Richard W. Bell,
Professor in Land Management, the group carries out
research in Western Australia and has research expertise in Cambodia,
China, Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, Sarawak, and Sri Lanka.
The aim of the Group is to develop solutions for the sustainable
management of agricultural, mining and conservation lands through
research on plants, soils and landscape processes.
The research programmes of interest to the Land Management Group
include:
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Plant Nutrition and Soil Fertility >> more
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Land Restoration and Mine Rehabilitation >> more
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Salinity Control and Catchment Management >> more
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Cambodia Land Suitability Assessment >> more
- Bangladesh Legumes >> more
At the moment, personnel in the Group include: Dr Song Qiu and
Dr Wen Chen (Research Fellows),
Dr Yash Pal and Carlos
Raphael (Research
Officers), 6 PhD students - Jonathan Anderson, Amir
Farhand, Juma Issango, Ingrid Krockenberger, Rajesh Sharma
and Wendy Vance.
Current
Student Projects Available
Biodynamic grain cropping - grain
quality and sustainability!
We are looking for a postgraduate or honours
student to undertake studies on sustainable agriculture.
The project will examine in part on a biodynamic trial on the nutritional
quality of biodynamically grown crops compared with conventionally
grown crops.
A big component of this trial will also be the viability, ie the
economics of changing a conventional farm to a biodynamic farm.
For further information contact: Richard Bell 93602370 / 0405131429
or Deanna Forster 0419209761 / 92952328.
Management of micronutrients in Potatoes
Management of micronutrients such as copper,
zinc and manganese in potatoes is an important issue for
the potato industries both in Australia and SE Asia. The
application of these micronutrients in both fertilisers
and fungicides has lead to their over application in a
number of growing areas. This has resulted in yield loss
from poor emergence and growth and reduced profitability
for growers (see photo below for an illustration of the
poor potato growth). It may also result in a long term
legacy of soil contamination. This work aims to examine
micronutrient toxicity in potatoes and develop sustainable
management strategies to alleviate the problem.
We are seeking expressions of interest from
honours, masters or PhD students who may be interested
in pursuing this line of research as a collaborative activity
between Murdoch University (A Prof Richard Bell) and the
Department of Agriculture (Dr Ian McPharlin).
For further details please contact:
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Dr Richard W. Bell,
School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University,
Phone 61-8-93602370 (w) Mobile 0405 131429 (from Australia); 61
405 131429 (international)
Email: R.Bell@murdoch.edu.au
Visit the web site for the Land Management Group
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Dr Ian McPharlin
Email: imcpharlin@agric.wa.gov.au
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