Soil microbes may hold the key to New Zealand meeting its 2030 Paris Agreement carbon sequestration commitments, and a new research programme aims to make that possible.

Lincoln Agritech has been awarded a $1m Smart Ideas grant by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to investigate adding lost soil microbes to native reforestation programmes to enhance carbon sequestration and improve plant growth.

More than one million hectares of land in New Zealand has been identified as suitable for native reforestation, offering one pathway for the country to meet its Paris Agreement obligations.

However, the original deforestation of this land has had a major impact on the soil microbial community, affecting the soil’s ability to store carbon and nutrients.

As a result, many seedlings fail to flourish, growing more slowly than plants in healthy soil, which also reduces their ability to sequester carbon.

Led by Lincoln Agritech’s Biotechnology Team Leader & Senior Scientist Simon Kelly, the research programme’s multi-disciplinary team aims to identify which microbial carbon sequestration pathways are missing from cleared parcels of land.

Researchers then aim to assemble microbial communities able to restore those functions and inoculate native seedlings with those microbes before they are planted.

“Our research addresses critical gaps in our understanding of how soil microbes contribute to carbon sequestration and which microbial functions are under-represented or absent in degraded soils,” says Simon Kelly.

“By supporting native seedling growth and improving soil health, we hope our approach will maximise the benefits of reforestation efforts and help New Zealand to meet its climate change goals.”

The research programme will run over three years, ending in 2028. Research partners include Lincoln University, AgResearch, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.