The aim is to establish if, and how, drought and disease stress in eucalypts may be reduced by biochar.
This exploratory research proposal aims to establish if biochar can reduce hydric stress and disease stress of eucalypt seedlings under controlled conditions in a greenhouse using a range of research-grade biochar concentrations in sandy soil, including a small task using gene expression to further understand the interactions between biochar and systemic disease suppression pathways. If any of our hypotheses are confirmed by the results, this will inform the selection of variables for follow-up experiments (under future funding) that would include multi-year field trials to explore if the results obtained under controlled conditions can be repeated under uncontrolled conditions.
