Dr Wendy Quayle is interested in the use of wastewater irrigation and organic waste residues for soil sustainability.

Dr Wendy Quayle: Environmental Chemist

Dr Wendy Quayle's primary research interest is in organic elements in irrigation supply water, drainage and soils for agricultural and environmental sustainability.

• 23 November 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities 
• Background 
• Academic qualifications 
• Achievements   

Current activities

Dr Wendy Quayle is currently researching:

• sustainable irrigation and land-based treatment of winery effluent with a focus on potassium and soil organic matter dynamics
• the monitoring and efficacy of constructed wetlands in agricultural and rural industry effluent treatment
• developing rapid monitoring tools and on-farm management practises for minimising off-site impacts of pesticides
• scoping new research on the management of soil carbon in a carbon trading framework.

Her previous research topics of special interest include:

• response of Antarctic lakes to climate change (Science, 2002) and the biogeochemical cycling of organic matter in lake ecosystems
• pesticides - environmental fate, risk assessment, rapid monitoring techniques and high resolution chromatography, constructed wetland mitigation strategies
• land-based treatment and disposal/re-use of winery wastewaters
• organic analytical chemistry for the characterisation of dissolved organic matter and carbon and nitrogen dynamics in water column studies and sediments.

Background

Dr Quayle has been a water quality and soil research scientist at CSIRO Land and Water's Griffith laboratory in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia, since 2001.

Her interest is largely in the area of quantification, fate and impact on water and soils of pesticides, salts and organic components of agricultural and rural industry effluents in association with irrigated agriculture.

Dr Quayle was originally trained as a geologist and organic geochemist at the Universities of Glasgow and Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom (UK). 

This was followed by experience in drinking water quality of commercial water supply and five years at the British Antarctic Survey.

Dr Quayle has a solid grounding, research development experience and publications in classical and high resolution chromatography techniques for the characterisation of dissolved organic matter (carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids and pesticides).

She has used these techniques to understand the preservation of organic nitrogen in sediments, the biogeochemical cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in Antarctic lakes, pesticide fate and degradation and impacts of high strength winery effluents on soils.

Academic qualifications

Dr Quayle has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science (Honours) Geology from the University of Glasgow, Scotland  in 1990
• Master of Science from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK in 1991. Thesis: Characterisation of Organic Matter Bound in Coral skeletons and Reef Sediments
• Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK in 1995. Thesis: Diagenesis of Nitrogen in Recent Sediments.

Achievements

Dr Quayle is the author of 12 journal papers (seven first author, one in Science in 2002), one book chapter, three technical reports and several national and international conference papers.

Her other achievements include:

• publication achievement award at the Land and Water Science Retreat in 2006
• recipient of a CSIRO Payne-Scott Award in 2008-09
• Principal Investigator in Cooperative Research Centre Sustainable Rice Production 2001-2005. Project - Fate and degradation of pesticides in rice and effects of water management and layout
• reviewed manuscripts for Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and Chemosphere
• reviewed grant proposals for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK and the US Antarctic Program
• Doctorate examiner
• co-supervision of one Doctoral student and one Masters student.

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