Addressing soil shortage through sustainable technosol formation (2026-2030)
Abstract
Australia-wide soil shortage has constrained sustainable tailings rehabilitation. Although eco-engineered soil formation has shown its potential to develop alkaline tailings into soil-like growth media (i.e., technosol) for shortterm plant growth without natural soil, a key knowledge gap remains before eco-engineered tailings rehabilitation can be confidently adopted: can technosols supply long term biological nitrogen (N) to support sustainable plant growth. The project aims to establish a detailed knowledge about development of adaptive and haloalkalitolerant biological N supply forsustainable technosols. The outcomes are expected to ignite an industry-wide shift towards technosol-based tailings rehabilitation in Australia.
