Meike Heuck

Candidature

PhD Candidate

Thesis title

Linking Land Management and Climate Change Impacts on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Diversity and Plant Growth

Research Project

Australian agriculture encompasses 55% of the nation's land use, making agroecosystems a critical component of conservation and biodiversity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, major plant root symbionts that naturally occur in the soil, are important for soil health and provide various functions to their host plant including enhanced access to nutrients and improved resistance to herbivory. Thus, they hold promise for reducing our reliance on fertilisers and pesticides vital to a growing world population.

However, our understanding of these fungi, central to ecosystem dynamics and ecological interactions, remains limited. Research conducted primarily in the Northern Hemisphere has revealed that especially intensive land management practices have negative impacts on the AM fungal diversity and climate change influences their community composition. With scant exploration of these fungi in the Southern Hemisphere, notably in Australia with its distinctive geological conditions, there is legitimate cause for concern that we may unwittingly lose indigenous AM fungal species, each potentially providing unique functions to their host plants. Thus, identifying these fungi and understanding the factors that shape their communities is crucial.

To address the outlined gaps, the PhD project links land management impacts on AM fungal diversity and plant growth by combining field-sampling with controlled-environment experiments. This PhD project is innovative as it will generate the first dataset which comprehensively maps AM fungal diversity across Australia and links the outcomes to climate and soil data as well as management practices using the citizen science project DigUpDirt (Dig Up Dirt | Find your friendly fungi). Furthermore, the project will delve into the barely understood impacts of multiple climate change factors on resident AM fungal communities and their impact on crop success.
The insights derived from this thesis will significantly contribute to enhance the effective management of AM fungi in agricultural systems, today and under future climate scenarios, for the protection of our soil ecosystems.

Publications

Birnbaum, C., Dearnaley, J., Egidi, E., Frew, A., Hopkins, A., Powell, J., Aguilar-Trigueros, C., Liddicoat, C., Albornoz, F., Heuck, M. K., Dadzie, F., Florence, L., Singh, P., Mansfield, T., Rajapaksha, K., Stewart, J., Rallo, P., Peddle, S., Chiarenza, G. (2023). Integrating soil microbial communities into fundamental ecology, conservation, and restoration: examples from Australia, New Phytologist, (in press)

Frew, A., Heuck, M.K., Aguilar-Trigueros, C. (2023). Host filtering, not competitive exclusion, may be the main driver of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community assembly under high phosphorus, Functional Ecology, 10.1111/1365-2435.14349

Heuck, M.K., Birnbaum, C., Frew, A. (2023). Friends to the rescue: using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to future-proof Australian agriculture, Microbiology Australia, Vol. 44, 5-8

Non-peer reviewed publications

Frew, A.; Heuck, M.; & Birnbaum, C. (2022). From Little Things, Big Things Grow. AQ: Australian Quarterly, 93(4), 26-31

Frew, A.; Birnbaum, C.; Egidi, E.; Heuck, M. K. (2022). Soil abounds with life – and supports all life above it. But Australian soils need urgent repair. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/soil-abounds-with-life-and-supports-all-life-above-it-but-australian-soils-need-urgent-repair-187280

Conference contributions

Oral Presentations

Heuck, M. K.; Birnbaum, C.; Kath., J.; Powell, J. R.; Frew, A. (2022). ‘Dig Up Dirt’, using citizen science to understand the diversity of beneficial fungi in Australian agroecosystems. Ecological Society of Australia Annual Conference, Wollongong, Australia.

Posters

Heuck, M. K.; Birnbaum, C.; Kath., J.; Powell, J. R.; Frew, A. (2022). Fun-Guys promote sustainable agriculture. Ecological Society of Australia Annual Conference, Wollongong, Australia.

Supervisors

Dr Adam Frew, Professor Jeff Powell, Dr Jarrod Kath, Dr Christina Birnbaum