OUR TEAM
SOIL SCIENTISTS
Ramesha H Jayaramaiah
Postdoctoral Researcher
My role
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Murdoch University, working within the Sustainable Land Management Group in SoilsWest.
My role focuses on understanding how innovative soil technologies influence soil performance in agricultural systems, including their effects on soil constraints, nutrient availability, and biological processes.
I am particularly interested in linking soil ecology with practical outcomes for climate-smart and sustainable farming, and in generating evidence that can help improve soil function, resilience, and productivity in Australian cropping systems.
My background
I am a soil ecologist with a research background in plant-soil-microbe-fauna interactions, soil biodiversity, and nutrient cycling.
My work combines ecological theory with applied agricultural research to better understand how biological communities regulate soil processes and contribute to resilient and productive agroecosystems.
Over the course of my research career, I have worked across field and glasshouse experiments, with a strong focus on how soil microbial and faunal communities respond to environmental change, land management, and soil constraints.
I am especially interested in integrating soil biology, chemistry, and ecosystem functioning to support more sustainable land management.
Projects
- Innovative Soil Technologies to Foster Resilience and Climate Smart Crop Production in Australia (Climate-Smart Agriculture Program, DAFF) (current)
Evaluating how innovative soil technologies improve soil performance in cropping systems, including effects on soil constraints, nutrient dynamics, and biological activity, across field sites in multiple Australian states. - Soil Fauna and Their Roles in Nutrient Transformation of Agricultural Soils (Soil Science Challenge Grants Program, DAFF) (completed/ongoing publications)
Investigated how soil faunal communities and soil amelioration strategies, including lime-based amendments, influence soil chemistry, nutrient cycling, and biological processes in acid-constrained dryland agricultural soils. - Biodegradable and Conventional Plastic Mulch Impacts on Soil Processes (completed/ongoing publications)
Assessed how mulch type influences soil nutrient dynamics, microbial communities, and degradation processes above and below ground. - Do Microbial and Plant Diversity Interact to Regulate Multifunctionality? (ARC Discovery) (completed)
Investigated how plant functional groups and microbial diversity influence soil enzyme activity, nutrient availability, microbial colonisation, decomposition, and overall ecosystem resilience under drought and recovery in grassland soils.
Key expertise
- Soil ecology
- Soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
- Plant-soil-microbe-fauna interactions
- Soil nutrient cycling
- Agricultural soil management
- Soil biological and biogeochemical processes
Qualifications
- PhD in Microbial Ecology, Western Sydney University, NSW
- Project Fellow, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India
- M.Sc in Biochemistry, Kuvempu University, Karnataka, India