This week we're digging up the dirt on the surprising complexity of soil. From top-notch compost to dung beetles to kauri dieback, join us on a fascinating tour of the world beneath our feet with presenters at the Wild Dunedin Festival of Nature.

Professor Amanda Black is a big picture thinker. She likes the idea that we are just tiny dots in a vast universe. Little surprise then that her science career led her to studying soil, one of the most complex and varied ecosystems there is.

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Amanda is the director of the Bioprotection Aotearoa Centre of Research Excellence. Formerly known as the Bio-Protection Research Centre, it was re-funded in July 2021 with a new approach in mind for how to tackle the tricky job of protecting New Zealand's productive landscapes.

Her own research has led her from investigating how movement between landscapes affects the kauri dieback pathogen, to re-establishing land-sea connections in the hopes of increasing soil resilience to this disease.

Based at Lincoln University, Amanda was one of the visiting speakers to the 2023 Wild Dunedin Festival of Nature. In its eighth year, the theme for this year's festival was whenua. More than 120 events across ten days celebrated the land and soils.

As every other year, the festival began with the 7 x 7 Wild Talks event. Seven speakers are given seven minutes to talk about their chosen topic. University of Otago PhD candidate Emma Curtin used her time to talk about the insect she studies: dung beetles. These beetles are a relatively new arrival to Aotearoa, and Emma is investigating the benefits they might deliver for farmers.

Another visiting speaker was Jim O'Gorman, known as the Dirt Doctor. Across composting workshops and talks, Jim shared his knowledge about how to create healthy, productive soils.

Listen to the episode to hear more about Bioprotection Aotearoa, Amanda's research work, and about dung beetles and composting!

To learn more:

Our Changing World has extensively covered kauri dieback disease.

Jim O'Gorman previously featured on Country Life.

The connection between seabirds and the land is something the team at Auckland War Memorial Museum is also investigating in the Noises Islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details