Research interests

• Soil carbon, in particular black carbon
• Greenhouse gas production in soils
• Biochar in agriculture
• Residue chemistry
• Bioavailability of organic contaminants

Background

Steve Kimber is part of the Environmental and Agricultural Health team at Wollongbar.
He joined NSW Agriculture* in 1997 as an Environmental Scientist (pesticides) and has undertaken research in reducing off-site movement of pesticides, enhanced pesticide degradation and contaminated site risk assessment. He has over 15 years scientific research experience in the degradation and movement of pesticides, and in analytical residue chemistry.

He is currently carrying out research on the benefits of biochar amendment to soils. In particular, the influence of biochar on greenhouse gas emissions.

Steve maintains his interest in residue chemistry, and is a NATA signatory for the analysis of dioxins by the DR-Calux technique.

*NSW Department of Primary Industries was formed on July 1, 2004 through an amalgamation of NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries, State Forests of NSW and the NSW Department of Mineral Resources.

Qualifications

• BScAgr (Hons), The University of Sydney, 1990.

Current projects

• Agronomic and Environmental benefits of biochar, Various.
• Measurement of dioxin contamination in seafood from Sydney Harbour, NSW DPI.
• Methods of assessment of bioavailability of organic pollutants. NSW Environment Trust / University of Technology, Sydney.
• Arsenic mobility / risk.  Rous County Council
• Vegetation Filter Strips - Community based options for reduction of agricultural run-off to waterways. Natural Heritage Trust

Recent Publications

Menchai P, Van Zwieten L, Kimber SWL, Ahmad N, Rao PSC, Hose G (2007) Bioavailable DDT residues in sediments: Laboratory assessment of ageing effects using semi-permeable membrane devices. In Press. Environmental Science and Technology

Stephen Kimber, Lukas van Zwieten, Stephen Morris and Emiel Felzel, DR-CALUX?; A Fast And Inexpensive Way To Quantify Dioxins And  Dioxin-Like Compounds, 21st Conference of Residue Chemists 2007, 12-15 November 2007, Melbourne, Australia.

Kimber SWL, van Zwieten L and Pearmain S (2007) Characterisation of Arsenic Contamination at a Submerged Former Cattle Tick Dip Site, Contamination Cleanup 07, 24 – 28th June 2007. Adelaide, Australia

Soils, Recycled Organics and Remediation Technologies Unit, Dioxins; a fishy business, the analysis of dioxins in seafood in Sydney Harbour, 1st CALUX exchange workshop 2006, 17-18 August 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Van Zwieten L, Kimber S, van der Berg B and Ayres M (2004) Chemically Activated Luciferase Expression assay (CALUX®) for testing estrogenic and androgenic environmental contaminants. Proceedings of Interact 2004, Gold Coast, July 4-8, p122.

Van Zwieten L, van der Burg B, Kimber S and Ayres M (2004) Chemically Activated Luciferase Expression assay (CALUX®) available for testing endocrine disrupters in Australia. Proceedings of Contaminants and Ecological Risk Assessment, Adelaide, 5-7 April. 35.

Kimber SWL, Sizemore DJ, Slavich PEG (2002) Is there evidence of arsenic movement at cattle tick dip sites? Australian Journal of Soil Research 40(7):1103-14.

Kennedy IR, Sanchez-Bayo F, Kimber SW, Hugo L, Ahmad N (2001) Off-site movement of endosulfan from irrigated cotton in New South Wales. Journal of Environmental Quality 30(3):683-96.

Fields of Research

• 030199 Analytical Chemistry not elsewhere classified
• 050209 Natural Resource Management
• 050301 Carbon Sequestration Science 

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Biochar
• Greenhouse gas
• Py-GCMS
• Mass spectroscopy
• Bioavailability