Restoring degraded ecosystems requires restoring soil biodiversity. Yet despite its key role in ecosystem processes, soil biodiversity - and soil microbiomes in particular - remain poorly integrated into restoration actions. In this talk, I highlight emerging strategies for restoring soil microbial ecosystems, drawing on recent empirical and theoretical advances.

Global land degradation and biodiversity loss are growing concerns under climate change, particularly in drylands where desertification is accelerating due to rising temperatures, water scarcity, and salinization. These stressors hinder the establishment of native vegetation and disrupt soil microbial networks. Soil microorganisms play a central role in key ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, plant productivity, and climate regulation. Therefore, microbially assisted conservation and restoration holds great potential for reconnecting above- and belowground dynamics, leading to functional ecosystems that are more resilient to climate change impacts. While rhizospheric and endophytic microbial communities have been commonly studied in ecological restoration, the potential of biological soil crusts (biocrusts)—complex surface assemblages of cyanobacteria, bacteria, and other microorganisms—remains underexplored. Our recent research focuses on harnessing native biocrust-derived microorganisms as bioinoculants to enhance the germination and growth of native plants and to re-establish essential soil functions, such as nutrient cycling and organic matter decomposition. This presentation will highlight key findings from studies conducted in contrasting dryland ecosystems from Mediterranean areas seriously affected by drought and salinity including: (i) the successful isolation and cultivation of cyanobacteria and heterotrophic bacteria from native biocrusts exhibiting important plant growth-promoting traits such as nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and phytohormone production; and (ii) the development of targeted consortia from biocrust microbiomes for restoring native plant communities in degraded ecosystems. Through microcosm experiments and field trials under controlled drought and salinity conditions, our results demonstrate the effectiveness of using biocrust microbiomes as bioinoculants in ecosystem restoration under abiotic stress. Moreover, the application of emerging technologies—such as seed enhancement via biopriming and microbial biopellets—shows strong potential for scaling up conservation and restoration efforts at the landscape level in the context of global change.

Improving ecosystem restoration outcomes is essential to address the twin global crises of biodiversity decline and climate change. Soil microbiota are fundamental ecosystem components that can drive ecosystem recovery. However, their effective integration into ecosystem restoration efforts is yet to be adequately realised. Soil translocation aims to inoculate whole microbial communities into restoration sites to effect both above- and below-ground recovery trajectories. Despite growing acknowledgements of their potential to improve restoration quality, there is limited experimental evidence on how to implement soil translocations to successfully inoculate soil microbiota in restoration contexts. By embedding a soil translocation experiment into a restoration project in southwest Western Australia – a global biodiversity hotspot – we show that retaining soil structural integrity through intact soil translocation is important in achieving successful establishment of microbial inoculants. By contrast, surface spreading – the predominant method of soil translocation used in restoration – saw microbial communities diverge away from the microbial profile of donor sites and become more like those in the recipient sites. Our findings suggest that the restoration sector should rethink its approach to achieving successful microbial inoculations and consider the benefits of retaining structural integrity in translocated soils. Upscaling of investments and innovation are required to meet the increasing demand for soil translocations capable of effectively driving ecosystem recovery.

Soil microbiota underpin ecosystem functionality yet are rarely targeted during ecosystem restoration. Soil microbiota recovery following native plant revegetation can take years to decades, while the effectiveness of soil inoculation treatments on microbiomes remains poorly explored. Therefore, innovative restoration treatments that target soil microbiota represent an opportunity to accelerate restoration outcomes. Here, we introduce the concept of ecological phage therapy – the application of phage for the targeted reduction of the most abundant and dominant bacterial taxa present in degraded ecosystems. We propose that naturally-occurring bacteriophages – viruses that infect bacteria – could help rapidly shift soil microbiota towards target communities. Bacteriophages sculpt the microbiome by lysis of specific bacteria, and if followed by the addition of reference soil microbiota, such treatments could facilitate rapid reshaping of soil microbiota. Here, we experimentally tested this concept in a pilot study. We collected five replicate pre-treatment degraded soil samples, then three replicate soil samples 48 hours after phage, bacteria and control treatments. Bacterial 16S rDNA sequencing showed that phage-treated soils had reduced bacterial diversity, however when we combined ecological phage therapy with reference soil inoculation, we did not see a shift in soil bacterial community composition from degraded soil towards a reference-like community. Our pilot study provides early evidence that ecological phage therapy could help accelerate the reshaping of soil microbiota with the ultimate aim of reducing timeframes for ecosystem recovery. We recommend the next steps for ecological phage therapy be (a) developing appropriate risk assessment and management frameworks, and (b) focussing research effort on its practical application to maximise its accessibility to restoration practitioners.

Plant-microbe interactions are critical to ecosystem functioning and impact soil legacies, where plants exert a lasting influence on the microbial and physicochemical conditions of the soils in which they grow. These soil legacies can affect subsequent plant growth and fitness. Specifically, biotic soil legacies can influence microbially-associated plant fitness through the movement of soil microbiota in a two-step selection process: microbes are recruited from bulk soil into the rhizosphere (the space around roots) and then into the endosphere (within plant roots). Furthermore, these endosphere root microbiota can also influence plant behaviour, shaping bulk soil communities over time. However, the potential of these soil legacies to provide host plant drought tolerance remains poorly understood. In a drought stress greenhouse trial, we show that arid soil legacies increased the biomass of the keystone grass Themeda triandra under both drought and control conditions. We report strong positive associations between T. triandra biomass and bacterial alpha diversity across soils, rhizospheres, and endospheres. These findings show that bacterial soil legacies have an important but underappreciated role in grassland species resilience to drought, and could be better harnessed to support resilient grassland restoration efforts.

Fire, as an intrinsic aspect of Australian landscape ecology, directly influences the dynamics of flora, fauna, and the soil microbiome, which is a field of growing interest. The soil microbiome is a highly complex system consisting of many bacterial, fungal, and archaeal phyla that utilise and maintain the physicochemical properties of the soil. There are many studies on the yearly and monthly shifts of ecological groups of soil microorganisms. However, the fine-scale shifts that occur immediately after a fire event are normally not closely considered. We sought to compare the responses of microbial communities belonging to two different ecological vegetation classes (EVC’s) in eastern and central Victoria. We expected the community compositions of both damp and dry forest EVC’s to converge after fire due to selection, then recover to form distinct communities as selected by their distinct EVC conditions.
Using DNA metabarcoding and shotgun metagenomics we attempted to observe changes in taxonomic abundance, functional potential, and soil community composition (bacterial and fungal) throughout a six-week post-fire recovery period. The weekly decline rate of bacterial richness has been found to differ to the decline rate of fungal richness during the early response. Taxonomic richness was also found to decrease continuously, rather than occur instantaneously after the fire treatment. forest EVC mesocosms exhibited enrichment of shared bacterial and fungal taxa, most notably the bacterial phylum Firmicutes, while the negative responses were less pronounced in the dry forests tested. This indicates an extensive presence of fire-adapted taxa that eventually dominate the soil community after a fire event.
Furthering our understanding of how our unique soil communities respond to fire will better equip us to consider these ecosystems appropriately when conducting fire-based investigations and fire regime management.

Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) build large incubation mounds essentially functioning as compost heaps in an otherwise low productivity desert environment. These mounds represent nutrient-rich microsites, with distinct microbiomes that enhance soil processes. The unique properties of malleefowl mound soil mean it has the potential to enhance plant growth, survival and drought resilience, and may have utility as a soil inoculant in mallee restoration plantings where the soil is depauperate or degraded. In this study, we established a combination of large-scale field trials and glasshouse trials to test the efficacy of malleefowl mound soil to enhance plant growth and resilience. Malleefowl mound soil was applied as a soil/ litter transplant at a degraded restoration site and as a medium within seed pellets. This presentation shares preliminary results from field trials established in September 2025.

Rangelands make up 80% of Australia’s land area, but are heavily degraded and their repair poorly studied. Soils underpin the health of these ecosystems, in particular, soil microbial communities, which provide key ecosystem services (e.g., nutrient cycling, water and air purification). Here we investigated whether long-term (15 years) grazing exclusion impacts rangeland soil health properties, including microbial communities. To do this, we sampled soils from six decommissioned watering points (i.e. areas that experienced high localised herbivore presence) and ten active watering points on adjacent pastoral stations (one destocked 15 years ago for conservation; one an ongoing pastoral station). Soils were surveyed at 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 m from each watering point. Overall, we found that destocking and distance to water point had predictable effects on soil physicochemical properties (e.g., nitrogen, carbon, salinity). Further, soil bacterial and fungal alpha diversity was higher at 0 and 25 m to destocked watering points. Under ongoing grazing, soil alpha diversity positively associated with distance from watering points (which was not the case under destocking). Community composition of microbial communities was distinct between areas of active grazing sites and grazing exclusion areas at all distances. Our results demonstrate that herbivore exclusion had predictable impacts on soil physicochemical properties and microbial community richness, and that these effects were highly localised to watering points (<50m). Soil microbial communities showed responses to destocking where physicochemical parameters were not, suggesting higher sensitivity to change. Our findings highlight the strong localised effects of grazing at watering points, and the clear potential for grazing exclusion to aid the recovery of Australian rangeland soils.

Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is a widespread invasive species that significantly impacts arid and semi-arid ecosystems in Australia by displacing native plants and altering ecosystem processes. Current control efforts have a primarily aboveground focus, but growing evidence suggests that both soil and biological soil crusts (biocrusts) play important roles in invasion dynamics and ecosystem health. Buffel grass can alter soil microbial communities, while intact biocrusts – especially those dominated by lichens – may suppress buffel grass establishment by limiting seed germination. Conversely, moss-dominated biocrusts can facilitate grass growth, highlighting a complex relationship between biocrust composition and invasion success. Here, we investigate soil and biocrust microbiota in buffel grass-invaded and paired non-invaded areas in arid South Australia. Using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S and fungal ITS regions, we characterise microbial compositions and key taxa associated with buffel grass presence. We identify compositional patterns linked to invasion resistance or facilitation and provide critical insights into how soil and biocrust communities influence buffel grass dynamics.
By improving our understanding of these complex buffel grass-microbial interactions, we aim to inform new management approaches such as protecting biocrusts or enhancing beneficial microbial assemblages to suppress buffel grass invasion and promote ecosystem restoration.

Soil health underpins sustainable food production, climate resilience, and long-term land productivity. However, the widespread use of chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and fertilisers in modern agriculture has significantly impaired the biological functioning of soils. The United Nations reports that from 2015 to 2019, around 100 million hectares of healthy arable land were degraded each year, emphasising the urgent need for land management strategies that restore and protect soil function.

Among the factors that disrupt soil function, hydrophobicity plays a major role by reducing water infiltration and availability. This affects plant growth and impairs biological soil functions such as nutrient cycling. It is a widespread issue across Australia and will worsen under climate change. Rising temperatures and more erratic rainfall are expected to worsen soil hydrophobicity, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to sustain food production and climate resilience, while contributing to ongoing land degradation and loss of healthy arable land.

Although the physical and chemical causes of hydrophobicity are well studied, the role of soil microbes and how they respond to different soil amendments is still not clear. In literature it is known that microbial lipids and lipid layers on cell surfaces contribute to water repellent behaviour in soils, however, the microbial functional traits and taxa associated with soil hydrophobicity remain understudied and not properly identified.

To address this knowledge gap, this study uses 16S rRNA sequencing and functional predictions to investigate how microbial functions shift in response to soil amendments that alter hydrophobicity. By identifying microbial traits and taxa associated with increased or decreased soil water repellence, this research aims to expand our understanding of the biological drivers of hydrophobic behaviour in soils amended using practices relevant to agriculture. This knowledge is important for informing land management strategies that maintain soil function, productivity, and resilience amid increasing land degradation.

Accurate species identification is fundamental to understanding biodiversity, particularly among soil microarthropods such as Collembola. This study integrates DNA barcoding and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify and characterize species of the Isotomidae family in Jalandhar, Punjab, India.

A field survey conducted in 2019 led to the collection of numerous Collembola specimens. Molecular techniques, including COI gene sequencing, were employed for precise species-level identification. The resulting genetic markers contributed significantly to regional taxonomic databases and confirmed the presence of diverse Isotomidae species previously unrecorded in this area.

In addition to molecular tools, SEM-based cuticular analysis was used to study the morphological traits of the identified species. High-resolution imaging revealed distinct cuticular microstructures, enabling refined taxonomic differentiation and providing insights into their ecological adaptations to varied soil environments.

By combining molecular taxonomy with microscopic morphological analysis, this research offers a comprehensive overview of Isotomidae diversity and morphology in Punjab. The study contributes valuable genetic resources and morphological data that can inform future work in systematics, phylogenetics, soil ecology, and biodiversity conservation.

These findings emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in arthropod identification and highlight how integrated techniques enhance our understanding of species diversity at both genetic and structural levels. This work not only enriches the Collembola biodiversity profile of Punjab but also supports broader ecological assessments and conservation strategies.

Balga (Xanthorrhoea preissii Endl., Asphodelaceae) is an iconic, endemic species of southwest Western Australia. It holds cultural significance for First Nations Peoples and serves as a useful indicator of healthy ecosystems. While relatively abundant in woodland pockets where it naturally occurs, its recruitment appears limited in areas undergoing revegetation, for reasons that remain unclear. Given its shallow root system, associations with soil microbes (e.g., mycorrhizae), and slow growth, I hypothesised that poor recruitment may stem from a lack of appropriate microbial communities at the receiving sites. To test this, I conducted a glasshouse experiment using paired sterilised and inoculated soils collected from an agricultural landscape, comparing Balga growth rates across treatments. Preliminary results after two months showed that Balga grew, on average, 1.0 mm more per day in sterilised soil than in inoculated soil (P < 0.001). In previously cropped soils, this difference increased to 1.6 mm per day (P < 0.001). The consistently higher growth rates in sterilised soils across all land uses suggest that soil biota may be an additional barrier to Balga establishment. Among sterilised soils, Balga in cropped sites grew 0.41 mm per day less than in forested areas (P = 0.004), while growth rates were similar between forested and pasture sites (P = 0.31), and between cropped and pasture sites (P = 0.06), indicating that soil fertility might also play a role. These findings, combined with future soil quality and genetic analyses, will help shed light on the recruitment and establishment challenges faced by this culturally and ecologically significant species.

Persistent soil organic carbon represents a long-term soil carbon pool essential for sequestering atmospheric CO2. While we know persistent carbon is largely composed of microbial necromass, understanding how it forms and remains stable is crucial for effective climate mitigation. Ecological interactions within soil microbial communities, how species collaborate, compete, and facilitate each other, determine carbon persistence. This study examined how microbial communities interact with persistent carbon across disturbed and intact North-east Australian rangelands, ranging from intensive cropping systems to remnant native vegetation. We used variation partitioning to quantify the relative contributions of bacterial communities, fungal communities, and disturbance to persistent carbon variance. Bacterial community structure alone contributed only 16% of this variance, while disturbance and fungal communities each contributed less than 5% individually. The largest amount of variance (66%) was explained when all three variables were considered together, demonstrating that interactions among factors drive carbon dynamics. The limited covariance between persistent carbon and fungi alone, but significant covariance between persistent carbon, fungi, and bacteria together suggests that fungi influence persistent carbon generation primarily through trophic interactions with bacteria rather than direct biomass contributions. Larger saprotrophic fungi, particularly Agaricomycetes, act as ecosystem engineers, breaking down woody litter and creating resource hotspots through mycelial networks and enzymatic capabilities that facilitate bacterial access to nutrients. These fungal-mediated zones of decomposition trigger trophic cascades, supporting bacterial growth, proliferation, and death, ultimately accumulating necromass that associates with clay minerals to form stable carbon pools. These findings reveal that in North-east Australian rangelands, bacterial communities are the main contributors to persistent carbon variation, but their activity depends critically on fungal facilitation to access resources. These findings highlight that ecosystem interactions among all trophic levels govern soil organic carbon persistence, rather than single taxonomic groups. It is interactions, not individuals, that drive ecosystem-level outcomes.

State and Transition Models (STM’s) are a widely accepted framework used to describe changes in the structure and function of above-ground plant communities in response to disturbance. Yet how well STM’s relate to the below-ground microbial structure and function of an ecosystem remains poorly understood. This research aims to broaden the current field of 'Restoration Ecology' to include the soil microbiome.
This project hypothesizes that a state and transition model can be applied to soil microbial communities in native grasslands where above-ground states are well defined. These states are the outcome of long-term livestock grazing and fertilizer regimes.
To do this, soils were sampled from 60 sites within the Natural Temperate Grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plain. Each site was assigned to one of 5 vegetation states associated with the existing STM for the region (Herb rich, C4, Native C3, Exotic C3, Nutrified). DNA was extracted from the soil and the ITS and 16S metabarcoding regions sequenced to identify the fungi and bacteria species present. The soils were also assessed for nutrients, compaction and salinity. The vegetation communities were quantified using the point quadrat method. NMDS plots, PCA analysis and Structural Equation modelling will be used to characterize whether microbial states exist and if these mirror above-ground vegetation states. This research is relevant as it attempts to assess the impact of disturbance at the system level, rather than on vegetation or soil condition alone. There are no standard study designs currently that can be applied to assess the soil microbiome as it relates to overall ecosystem stability. This research attempts to correlate the two and has implications for improving land management practices.

In the face of accelerating ecosystem degradation, novel tools are needed to complement traditional restoration approaches. One such tool, surprisingly, is sound. While marine ecologists have successfully used soundscapes to attract fish and restore coral reefs and oyster beds, the terrestrial realm is now beginning to show similar promise. In this presentation, I explore the potential for ‘sonic stimulation’ to enhance the recovery of soil biodiversity, particularly microbial communities essential for ecosystem function. We recently conducted a laboratory experiment using Trichoderma sp., a beneficial fungus known to promote plant health and resilience. Forty Petri dishes were prepared with fungal cultures, half of which were exposed to a monotonous high-frequency white noise (8 kHz at 80 dB) for 30 minutes per day over five days. The remaining dishes served as untreated controls (receiving an ambient amplitude of < 30 dB). Fungal growth area and spore production were quantified post-treatment using a haemocytometer and raster analysis in Python. Sonic stimulation led to a more than sevenfold increase in fungal growth area and over a fourfold increase in sporulation compared to controls. These findings suggest that specific acoustic frequencies can directly stimulate beneficial plant and soil microbes. I discuss potential mechanisms underlying microbial sound sensitivity, such as mechanosensitive ion channels and vibration-induced gene expression. I also introduce the concept of a ‘biodiversity jukebox’ – tailored soundscapes to stimulate recovery across degraded ecosystems. As we search for scalable, low-impact restoration strategies, sound-based approaches may offer a powerful, cost-effective tool to help revitalise the living networks beneath our feet.

Ecoacoustics has proven to be an effective tool in monitoring and discerning biotic species throughout marine and above-ground terrestrial environments and is now emerging as a promising tool for assessing invertebrate life in soil ecosystems. Soil ecoacoustics has the potential to be a scalable, real-time, and non-intrusive alternative to traditional soil invertebrate monitoring methods, which are often invasive, laborious, and time-consuming. However, present ecoacoustic studies of soil only serve as a proxy for soil biodiversity at the community level, as opposed to identifying specific taxa. Here we explore the potential to build an automated classifier based on invertebrate acoustic profiles. Using a simple and low-cost experimental design of an aluminium plate, piezoelectric microphones and a ZOOM F6 recorder, we recorded and assessed the acoustic profiles from the surface-borne vibrations of six common invertebrate species under controlled conditions. We demonstrate clear and statistically distinguishable differences in the overall acoustic profile between invertebrate species, suggesting that taxon-specific classification is achievable. Our study lays foundational groundwork for the development of automated invertebrate classifiers that could aid soil biodiversity monitoring by enabling rapid, non-invasive assessments of community composition. Further research on how these profiles differ across surface types and in mixed invertebrate communities will be critical to advancing this emerging field and moving toward field-applicable solutions for ecological monitoring.

Ecoacoustics—or acoustic ecology—aids in studying and monitoring elusive and protected species in several ecological contexts. Here, I illustrate the potential of ecoacoustics to study and monitor soil biodiversity (specifically fauna)—a crucial endeavour given that 59%->99.9% of species live in soil, yet 75% of soils are affected by degradation. I describe our research in Mt Bold, South Australia, where we used ecoacoustics to assess soil community structures across a restoration chronosequence. I also propose a roadmap for future research to address key knowledge gaps. Soil ecoacoustics is an emerging field with considerable potential to improve soil biodiversity monitoring and ‘soil health’ diagnostics. Given the low cost, minimal intrusiveness, and effectiveness in supporting soil biodiversity assessments, I discuss and advocate for the advancement of soil ecoacoustics for future land management applications.