Dr Rob Summers is a Research Scientist based at the Department of Agriculture's Waroona office. He has been developing two research streams since 1991, one concentrating on plant nutritional issues associated with eutrophication (phosphorus pollution) and the other investigating nutrient movement and cycling in the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary in Western Australia. He is also part of a group developing management practices to reduce nutrient movement in the south coastal estuaries in Western Australia. The role is further widening to include water quality impacts throughout agricultural regions in WA.

He is currently developing projects which include an assessment of 25 years of soil testing in the Peel-Harvey; a drainage management plan for the Peel-Harvey; and an extension of the Coastal Catchments Initiative into the Leschenault, Vasse and south coastal catchments.

Journal Articles, Conference proceedings and Monographs since 2002.

Summers, R. N., Rivers, M. R. and Clarke, M. F. (2002). The use of bauxite residue to control diffuse phosphorus pollution in Western Australia- a win-win-win outcome. Proceedings of the 6th International Alumina Quality Workshop, Brisbane 9-13 Sept 2002.
Summers, R. N. (2002). Nitrogen Fertiliser Management for High Rainfall Areas. Farmnote 68/02. Western Australian Department of Agriculture.
Summers, R. N. (2002) The environmental impact of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers in high rainfall areas. Farmnote 68/02. Western Australian Department of Agriculture.
Summers, R. N. and Rivers M. R. (2002) Soil testing: a guide to fertiliser use. Farmnote 69/02. Western Australian Department of Agriculture.
Summers, R. N. and Kingdon, B. (2002) The environmental impact of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers in high rainfall areas. Farmnote 68/02. Western Australian Department of Agriculture.
Summers, R. N. (2003) Alkaloam: Agronomy and application. Centre for Land Rehabilitation Workshop, 27th February 2003, Bentley Technology Park Perth WA.
Summers, R. N., Clarke, M. F. McCafferty, P. and Pope, T. (2003). A slowly-soluble, sulfur fertiliser from a by-product of mineral sands processing. Australian Journal of Soil Research.
Christian Zammit, Peta Kelsey, Phil Bussemaker, and Rob Summers (2004) Modelling catchment processes in the Peel-Harvey basin. Riversymposium 2004, Brisbane.
Robert N. Summers, Kelly Lavell and David M Weaver (2004) The Peel-Harvey Coastal Catchments Initiative: an overview of agricultural BMP and intensive agriculture projects. Nutrient Management Forum, Albany WA 5-7 April.
Robert N. Summers, Kelly Lavell and Martin F. Clarke (2004) The use of bauxite residue to control diffuse phosphorus pollution in Western Australia. Nutrient Management Forum, Albany WA 5-7 April.
Mark Rivers, Robert Summers, Martin Clarke and Geoff Calder (2004) Water quality in the Harvey Irrigation Area- findings and futures. Irrigation Australia Association Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, 11-13 May.
D.M. Weaver, S.D. Neville, R.N. Summers, and M.F. Clarke. (2004). Reducing nutrient discharge from agriculture through the implementation of BMPs – how far can we go? Riversymposium 2004, Brisbane.
Simon D. Neville, D.M. Weaver, K. Lavell, M.F. Clarke, R.N. Summers, H. Ramsey and J. Grant (2004) Nutrient balance case studies of agricultural activities in south west Western Australia. Riversymposium 2004, Brisbane.
Robert Summers, Mark Rivers, and Martin Clarke. (2004) The use of bauxite residue to control diffuse phosphorus pollution in Western Australia – a win-win-win outcome. Riversymposium 2004, Brisbane.
Kelly Lavell, Robert Summers, David Weaver, Martin Clarke, John Grant, Simon Neville. (2004). An audit of the uptake of agricultural nutrient management practices in the Peel-Harvey catchment. Riversymposium 2004, Brisbane.
Summers, R. N. and Rivers, M. R. (2005). Seminar to Alcoa World Alumina on the use of bauxite residue in Western Australia, Pittsburgh, March 2.
Lantzke, N. and Summers, R. (2005) Winegrapes use lower rates of irrigation and fertiliser. The Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker. March 2005.
Neville, S., Weaver, D., Summers, R. N. and Lavell, K. (2005). Farmgate nutrient balances in the South West of Western Australia- an eco-efficiency indicator? Proceeding of Environmental sustainability in practice conference Environmental Institiute of Australian and New Zealand (EIANZ) Christchurch 29 March-1 April.
Summers, R. and Weaver, D. (2005) The Coastal Catchments Initiative and the implications for dairies. Dairycatch Technical Workshop, 26-28 April, Busselton.
Rivers, M., Clarke, M., Allen, A., Grant, J., Weaver, D. and Summers, R. (2005) DairyCatch Monitor Farm Findings. 2005 Dairy Catchments Workshop. Busselton.26-28 April WA.
Kelly Lavell, Robert Summers, David Weaver, Martin Clarke, John Grant, Simon Neville (2005). Environmental best practice in the Peel-Harvey Catchment. Poster at NRM Conference, Denmark 4-6 October.
Neville, S., Weaver, D., Summers, R. N. and Lavell, K. (2005). Farmgate nutrient balances in the South West of Western Australia- an eco-efficiency indicator? Proceeding of NRM Conference, Denmark 4-6 October.
Neville, S., Weaver, D., Summers, R. N. and Lavell, K. (2005). The farmgate nutrient balance – a tool to understand nutrient use efficiency. Presentation to NRM Conference, Denmark 4-6 October.
Kelly Lavell, David Weaver, Robert Summers, Simon Neville and Martin Clarke (2005) The WA Coastal Catchment Initiative Projects – how effective can EMS be? 4th National Environmental Management Systems in Agriculture Conference. Beechworth, Victoria October 16-20th October
Neville, S., Weaver, D., Summers, R. N. and Lavell, K. (2005). SSPRED- support system for phosphorus reduction decisions, Presentation at Denmark NRM Conference 4-6 October.
Zammit C. and Summers R. (2005). Modelling catchment processes in the Peel-Harvey basin. Coastal Catchments Conference, Mandurah, Nov 16-18.
Neville, S., Summers, R., Weaver, D. and Lavell, K. (2005). Improving water quality in the coastal catchment of the Peel-Harvey. Coastal Catchments Conference, Mandurah, Nov 16-18.