The Cotton CRC Chief Scientist Achiever of the Month award for August 2009 is shared between Mark Silburn, Jenny Foley and Brett Robinson from the Qld Department of Environment and Resource Management.
Together they are working on a Cotton CRC project called ‘Capturing our understanding of soil water balance and deep drainage under irrigation in models - a basis of design of efficient farming and for assessing impacts on catchments’. The project team is based in Toowoomba and they undertake their research largely in the Condamine / Balonne regions.
Through their work, the team have developed a method for using an electro-magnetic induction meter (EM38 in this case) to measure soil moisture at a range of soil depths. They have also been collaborating with researchers from the University of New South Wales to undertake 2-D resistivity imaging on 5 cotton fields on the Condamine which allows a comparison between resistivity and EM38.
Through their collaborative effort they have also been able to source additional project funds from other organisations including Condamine Alliance, QMDC and the Border Rivers – Gwydir CMA which has allowed them to expand their work in these regions.
Mark and his team typifies all those characteristics that the Cotton CRC tries to foster including innovative approaches to their science, strong collaboration, frequent communication to stakeholders and the regular publication of research findings. These efforts have also been recognised in the recent ‘NRW Australia Day 2009 Achievement Medallion’ Mark received.
Mark Silburn (DERM) and Anna Greve (Water Research Laboratory, UNSW) measuring soil resistivity and deep soil water stores at Dalby
More on Mark's Projects
