Melbourne School of Land and Environment Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science

I’m interested in conserving and restoring soil and plant processes in native vegetation. This interest started with my PhD (University of Melbourne, 1994), which examined potential causes of the decline of Banksia integrifolia woodlands at Wilson’s Promontory, with a focus on land-use effects on plant nutrient balance. Since then, I’ve examined soil and plant processes in a number of field settings encompassing a range of Australian vegetation types including grasslands, woodlands, plantations, and native forests. I have defined nutrient requirements of highly productive eucalypt plantations; quantified nutrient cycles in semi-arid ecosystems; developed new methods for measuring soil chemical properties; and examined forest and land-use type effects on soil carbon. My current research interests focus on plant/ soil interactions in the context of restored native vegetation, including:

• Genetic fingerprinting techniques for measuring soil microbial composition;
• Relationships between soil microbial composition and soil processes;
• Plant traits as predictors of soil condition in restored woody vegetation; and
• Changes in plant and soil function with time since restoration.

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Recent Research Projects

• Restoring landscapes: soil/ plant interactions (supported by the Department of Sustainability and Environment)
• Are there public benefits in changing soil health? (supported by the Department of Sustainability and Environment)
• Embedding process-based research plots in agricultural landscape restoration (in collaboration with Kilter Pty Ltd)
• Remnant woodland trees: arks for soil microbial diversity in a sea of cleared land? (in collaboration with the North Central Catchment Management Authority)
• Drought tolerance mechanisms of buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) seedlings (Early Career Researcher grant, The University of Melbourne)

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• Bennett, L.T., Kasel, S., Tibbits, J. (2009) Woodland trees modulate soil resources and conserve fungal diversity in fragmented landscapes. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, in press.
• Posch, S., Bennett, L.T. (2009) Photosynthesis, photochemistry and antioxidative defence in response to two drought severities and with re-watering in Allocasuarina luehmannii. Plant Biology, in press.
• Volkova, L., Tausz, M., Bennett, L.T., Dreyer, E. (2009) Interactive effects of high irradiance and moderate heat on photosynthesis, pigments, and tocopherol in the tree-fern Dicksonia antarctica. Functional Plant Biology, in press.
• Bennett, L.T., Kasel, S., Tibbits, J. (2008) Non-parametric multivariate comparisons of soil fungal composition: sensitivity to thresholds and indications of structural redundancy in T-RFLP data. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40, 1601-1611.
• Kasel, S., Bennett, L.T., Tibbits, J. (2008) Land use influences soil fungal community composition across central Victoria, south-eastern Australia. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 40, 1724-1732.
• Kasel, S., Bennett, L.T. (2007) Land use history, forest conversion, and soil organic carbon in pine plantations and native forests of south eastern Australia. Geoderma 137, 401-413.
• Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A. (2004) Assessment of ecological effects due to forest harvesting: approaches and statistical issues. Journal of Applied Ecology 41, 585-598.
• Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A. (2004) Ecological effects of harvesting in Victoria's native forests: quantification of research outputs. Australian Forestry 67, 212-221.
• Bennett, L.T., Judd, T.S., Adams, M.A. (2003) Growth and nutrient content of perennial grasslands following burning in semi-arid, sub-tropical Australia. Plant Ecology 164, 185-199.
• Holm, A.M., Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A., Loneragan, W.A. (2002) Relationships between nominal and empirical indicators of landscape function in the arid shrubland of Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 50, 1-21.
• Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A. (2001) Response of a perennial grassland to nitrogen and phosphorus additions in sub-tropical, semi-arid Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 48, 289-308.
• Bennett, L.T., Judd, T.S., Adams, M.A. (2000) Close-range vertical photography for measuring cover changes in perennial grasslands. Journal of Range Management 53, 634-641.
• Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A. (1999) Indices for characterising spatial variability of soil nitrogen in semi-arid grasslands of northwestern Australia. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 31, 735–746.
• Bentley, D., Grierson, P.F., Bennett, L.T., Adams, M.A. (1999) Evaluation of anion exchange membranes to estimate bioavailable phosphorus in native grasslands of semi-arid northwestern Australia. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 30, 2231–2244.
• Bennett, L.T., Attiwill, P.M. (1997) The nutritional status of healthy and declining stands of Banksia integrifolia on the Yanakie Isthmus, Victoria. Australian Journal of Botany 45, 15-30.
• Bennett, L.T., Weston, C.J., Attiwill, P.M. (1997) Biomass, nutrient content and growth response to fertilisers of six-year-old Eucalyptus globulus plantations at three contrasting sites in Gippsland, Victoria. Australian Journal of Botany 45, 103-121.
• Bennett, L.T., Weston, C.J., Judd, T.S., Attiwill, P.M., Whiteman, P.H. (1996) The effects of fertilizers on growth and foliar nutrient concentrations of three plantation eucalypts on high quality sites in Gippsland, southeastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 89, 213-226.
• Judd, T.S., Bennett, L.T., Weston, C.J., Attiwill, P.M., Whiteman, P.H. (1996) The response of growth and foliar nutrients to fertilizers in young Eucalyptus globulus (Labill.) plantations in Gippsland, southeastern Australia. Forest Ecology and Management 82, 87-101.
• Bennett, L.T. (1994) The expansion of Leptospermum laevigatum on the Yanakie Isthmus, Wilson’s Promontory National Park under changes in the burning and grazing regimes. Australian Journal of Botany 42, 555-564.

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Current Students

• Tom Wright:  Comparative effects of plantation and agricultural land on water relations at remnant edges
• Luba Volkova:  Ecophysiology of the tree ferns Dicksonia antartica and Cyathea austalis
• Kerryn McTaggart:  Fire and seasonal effects on soil microbial populations and processes in alpine ecosystems
• John Kaye:  Carbon stored in aboveground tree biomass of Victoria’s native forests

Potential Students

Please do not hesitate to contact me for available Masters and PhD projects relating to soil and plant processes in remnant and restored native vegetation.

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