Connecting Soil Health Properties To Cotton Productivity - Narrabri, NSW

Dr. Karl Ritz from Nottingham University will be in attendance at the Australian Cotton Research Institute, Narrabri Soil Health Workshop

Monday - Tuesday 12-13 July 2015

The Australian Cotton Research Institute, Narrabri

The GCLBI has confirmed both international and national speakers to attend this workshop, including Prof. Karl Ritz from the University of Nottingham UK, Prof.Pauline Mele from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Dr Ian Rochester and Dr Michael Braunack from CSIRO, in addition to soil researchers from the University of Western Sydney. Topics to be covered include:

• Soil health, farm productivity and ecosystem sustainability – international and national perspectives
• Defining soil health and the components of soil health
• Learning how to measure soil health
• Incorporating soil test results into management decisions
• Future directions for research tools, practises and products
• Knowledge gaps that prevent productivity improvements

Throughout my life I've been exploring this fascinating 'inner space', the nature of the organisms that live in there, and how they make soil systems operate.
- Dr Karl Ritz

About Dr. Karl Ritz

Karl Ritz is a soil ecologist, convinced that soil is the most remarkable,complex and fascinating material on the planet….as well as absolutelyfundamental to past and future civilisations.

A passionate fundamental researcher, his professional likeis devoted to developing a mechanistic understanding of the origins andfunctional consequences of the compositional and spatial organisation of soil communities.

This work underpins the development of frameworks for theunderstanding factors that regulate the activity of life below-ground, systemsto manage the biota appropriately, and incisive for assessing and monitoringsoil health.