Lakehead Researcher Has the Dirt on Soil and Sustainability

Originally published in The Chronicle Journal on August 28, 2025

By EMILY DONTSOS

Dr. Amanda Diochon is digging into the relationship between soils and sustainability — and her findings hold the potential to change the way we manage forests and agriculture for a healthier future. 

An associate professor in Lakehead University’s Department of Geology, coordinator of the Water Resource Science program, and assistant dean of the Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies, Dr. Diochon says soil science is critical in a changing climate. 

“Soils are the largest reservoir of organic carbon, and they emit ten times the amount of carbon dioxide that humans do,” she says. “So knowing how they respond to changes in the climate and understanding how to better manage them is important not just in Canada, but globally.”  

With a focus on the carbon cycle, or how carbon moves between the Earth, living things, and the atmosphere, Dr. Diochon’s research examines changes to soil’s ability to store carbon and how agricultural and forest-management practices influence sustainability. 

Her work is directly aligned with a number of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including #13: Climate Action, #15: Life on Land, and #12: Responsible Consumption and Production.  

From Forest Fires to Agriculture 

In 2022, Dr. Diochon received a five-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to explore how events like forest fires impact the role of soil in the carbon cycle. 

“When a forest burns, the ash that’s produced makes the soil less acidic — but that change can affect how carbon is stabilized in the soil,” Dr. Diochon says. “At the same time, less acidic soils can be better for regrowth because many of the nutrients plants require to grow are more available at a near-neutral pH and the ash is also supplying nutrients.” 

Faced with these dual impacts, Dr. Diochon wanted to know whether changes to soil’s acidity because of ash persist over time — information that could help ensure forest-management practices are designed to both protect soil’s ability to store carbon and support vegetation regrowth as forest fires become more frequent. 

This work also has implications for food security — an issue of growing concern to Canadians as climate change and geopolitical tensions affect the supply of produce from other countries. 

“Reducing the acidity of soil is a good thing for crop growth, but it may not be as good for carbon storage in acidic soils, where carbon is retained through interactions with iron and aluminum — two ions that become less available as pH increases,” says Dr. Diochon. “So we’re also considering how agricultural practices can be designed to support carbon storage while strengthening food production.”

Dr. Diochon says this work taps into Indigenous worldviews that emphasize a cycle of reciprocity. 

“This includes returning organic inputs like manure to the soil instead of just taking from the soil all the time, which significantly reduces the ability of soil to store carbon,” she says.

Analyzing Soils from Coast to Coast 

In addition to her own projects, Dr. Diochon is participating in a first-of-its-kind study, funded by NSERC, to analyze soils from every type of forest in every part of Canada. 

Led by Dr. Sylvie Quideau, a professor of soil biogeochemistry at the University of Alberta, the study aims to understand how carbon is stored in different forest environments. 

Over the coming year, scientists from Vancouver Island to the Maritimes will collect soil samples from the country’s diverse forest regions — the first time such an effort has been undertaken. 

“Our goal is to learn about how soils react in a changing environment and how they’re impacted by different forest-management systems,” says Dr. Diochon, who will be collecting samples from the northwestern Ontario region. 

Students will be engaged in every aspect of the project, including fieldwork, and postdoctoral fellows from across the country will conduct in-depth analysis once all samples have been collected. 

“Our hope is to recommend forest-management practices rooted in evidence and focused on the vital role of forest soils in the fight against climate change.” 

Raising Awareness of the Vital Importance of Soils

Beyond her research, Dr. Diochon actively contributes to soil education nationally.

As a member of the Canadian Society of Soil Scientists, she has been heavily involved in raising awareness about how soils can maintain a healthy ecosystem, particularly in a changing climate.  

“People think soils are just dirt, but they’re so much more than that,” she says. “I want to encourage students to really appreciate and embrace how important they are to our daily lives.”

Research in Action highlights the work of Lakehead University in various fields of research.