Enhancing ecosystem functioning to improve sustainability of subsistence farming in Papua New Guinea

Project Rationale:

Increasing agricultural production in high biodiversity tropical areas, alongside a growing population, and climate change, is an increasing challenge in many countries with tropical climates. Such pressures are particularly relevant to Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has the third largest area of tropical forest worldwide, and where eighty-five percent of the population depends almost entirely on small-scale, subsistence agriculture. This agricultural approach is not sustainable as plots are only cultivated for 2-3 years before being left fallow to recover soil fertility, and the increasing need for more agricultural plots encroaches on the natural forest. There is a drastic need to provide interventions that will deliver potential solutions to increase crop productivity and resilience, at the same time as conserving the natural forest. The student will join an active research group, and will develop ideas to build on existing agro-ecological research by Morris and collaborators. The student will quantify above- and below-ground ecosystem functioning across the agricultural landscape, and investigate how beneficial ecosystem services can be enhanced to improve productivity and the sustainability of subsistence farming. This project will enable the student to accomplish original fundamental science in a tropical ecosystem, alongside tackling a challenge common to many tropical regions of the world.

Methodology:

The student will conduct fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, focusing on the food gardens where the local villagers plant their crops, as well as the surrounding natural forests. The student will employ both observation techniques and manipulative experiments, focusing on comparing and investigating the link between above- and below-ground ecosystem functioning, in food gardens with different management techniques, as well as in the surrounding forest. Of particular interest to this project is to test soil inoculation techniques (Wubs et al 2016) by transferring a thin layer soil from uncultivated areas to food gardens that have been cultivated for several years, to increase the resilience of soil fertility and hence longevity of garden use. The student will learn to design experiments and conduct field sampling to test their hypotheses. They will also learn how to conduct soil analyses in the laboratory, and to employ appropriate data analysis. With the supervisors’ guidance, the student will have the flexibility to develop the project in the direction that matches their research interests.

Training:

The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the School of Biological Sciences. Specific training will include: planning and conducting tropical ecology field work, measurements of ecosystem functioning both above- and below-ground (including laboratory based soil analyses), experimental design, and data analysis. Additional training will be provided according to the student’s research interests. Ideally the student will have experience of tropical fieldwork, but they will be guided in the field, and be working alongside local field assistants from the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre in Papua New Guinea.