Carbon storage in the soils and vegetation of contrasting land uses in northern New South Wales, Australia

Soil Research ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Young ◽  
Brian R Wilson ◽  
Malem McLeod ◽  
Clair Alston
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Continuous Cultivation ◽  
Carbon Accounting ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Organic Carbon Stock ◽  
Carbon Concentrations

The organic carbon stock in biomass and soil profiles sampled from nearby paddocks with different land-use histories was estimated at 7 sites in the upper Liverpool Plains catchment and the Manilla district of north-western New South Wales, Australia. The distribution of soil carbon concentrations over a depth of 2 m was significantly affected by site and land use. Continuous cultivation and cropping over ≥20 years significantly depleted carbon concentrations compared with grassy woodlands in the surface 0.20 m at all sites and to a depth of 0.60 m at 3 sites. Depth of sampling (0–0.20 v. 0–1.0 m) significantly affected the differences between land uses at most sites regarding estimates of the stock of soil carbon. These results show that differences in soil carbon concentrations and stock size do not remain constant with depth between contrasting land uses. However, comparisons between land uses of the total amount of carbon stored were dominated by the number of trees per ha and the size of the trees in grassy woodlands. The implications of these results for carbon accounting are discussed.

Land-use effects on soil properties on the north-western slopes of New South Wales: Implications for soil condition assessment

Soil Research ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. R. Wilson ◽  
Ivor Growns ◽  
J. Lemon
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Bulk Density ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Condition ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Soil C ◽  
The North ◽  
South Wales

In Australia, as elsewhere, there is a growing need for information relating to soil condition, its current status, and the nature and direction of change in response to management pressures. This information is required by land managers, and regional, State and, national agencies to inform modified land-use practices and investment to maintain and improve the soil resource. Here, we present data relating to soils under 3 land-use types at 6 properties the north-western slopes of New South Wales. We aimed to quantify the range of soil condition states that exist across the region and to test a range of potential soil condition indicators and their suitability to detect differences in soil condition between these land-use types. A range of soil properties showed no significant difference between land-uses and could be rejected as indicators. However, significant differences existed between the land-uses and soil depths for a range of the other soil parameters determined (bulk density, C, N, P, EC, and Na). Soil C, N, P, and Na concentration and total soil C were typically higher in woodland soils compared with other land-uses, while bulk density, pH, and EC were lower in the woodland soils. The depth at which these differences existed varied between soil parameters. Correlation and principal components analysis suggested that a minimum dataset of soil parameters including soil bulk density, pH, C, P, and Na would discern much of the difference in soil condition between the land-uses studied. It is proposed that these parameters be used as a minimum dataset of indicators for soil condition assessment on soils of the type across this region. Work continues under the New South Wales Land and Soil Condition Monitoring Program to further refine the selection of appropriate soil indicators in this and other regions of New South Wales.

The influence of land use and management on soil carbon levels for crop-pasture systems in Central New South Wales, Australia

2014 ◽  
Vol 196 ◽  
pp. 147-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warwick B. Badgery ◽  
Aaron T. Simmons ◽  
Brian W. Murphy ◽  
Andrew Rawson ◽  
Karl O. Andersson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Land Use And Management

Mapping and comparing the distribution of soil carbon under cropping and grazing management practices in Narrabri, north-west New South Wales

Soil Research ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Miklos ◽  
Michael G. Short ◽  
Alex B. McBratney ◽  
Budiman Minasny
Keyword(s):  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Carbon Stock ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Inorganic Carbon ◽  
High Spatial Resolution ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Fine Resolution

The reliable assessment of soil carbon stock is of key importance for soil conservation and mitigation strategies related to reducing atmospheric carbon. Measuring and monitoring soil carbon is complex because carbon pools cycle and rates of carbon sequestration vary across the landscape due to climate, soil type, and management practices. A new methodology has been developed and applied to make an assessment of the distribution of total, organic, and inorganic carbon at a grains research and grazing property in northern New South Wales at a high spatial resolution. In this study, baseline soil carbon maps were created using fine resolution, geo-referenced, proximal sensor data. Coupled with a digital elevation model and secondary terrain attributes, all of the data layers were combined by k-means clustering to develop a stratified random soil sampling scheme for the survey area. Soil samples taken at 0.15-m increments to a depth of 1 m were scanned with a mid-infrared spectrometer, which was calibrated using a proportion of the samples that were analysed in a laboratory for total carbon and inorganic carbon content. This combination of new methodologies and technologies has the potential to provide large volumes of reliable, fine resolution and timely data required to make baseline assessments, mapping, monitoring, and verification possible. This method has the potential to make soil carbon management and trading at the farm-scale possible by quantifying the carbon stock to a depth of 1 m and at a high spatial resolution.

Pastoral Management, Economics and Land Use Options in the Poplar Box (Eucalyptus populnea) Lands of New South Wales.

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 260 ◽  
Author(s):  
RW Condon
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Land Settlement ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Settlement Policies ◽  
Pastoral Management ◽  
Eucalyptus Populnea

This article describes how land settlement policies over a period of 100 years and shrub regeneration in parts of the poplar box (Eucalyptus populnea) lands in New South Wales have had and will continue to have a major influence on the economics of grazing properties in the region. Choise of animals offers few options, but there are many methods of improving productivity which may be applicable to a particular property; their feasibility is being tested in a pilot rehabilitation scheme which is described. Choice of animals offers few options, but there are many methods of improving productivity which may be applicable to a particular property; their feasibility is being tested in a pilot rehabilitation scheme which is described.

Current Land Use in the Poplar Box (Eucalyptus Populnea) Lands.

1980 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
EJ Weston ◽  
DF Thompson ◽  
BJ Scott
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
High Water ◽  
Grazing Pressure ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Domestic Livestock

Poplar box (Eucalyptus populnee) woodlands mainly occuron duplex, clay and red earth soils between the 300 mm and 750 mm rainfall isohyets. The poplar box lands have been occupied for from 100 to 150 years and have been modified extensively through tree felling, ringbarking, clearing, cultivation, burning and grazing by domestic livestock. The current land use is described for six vegetation groups which together comprise the poplar box lands. The eastern areas of the poplar box lands are mainly used for intensive agriculture based on wheat. barley and grain sorghum, with small areas sown to c~ops of high water demand. Mixed farming involves dairying (in Queensland) and fat lambs (in New South Wales) and broad-acre cereal and fodder cropping. Sheep and cattle grazing replace intensive crop production as the rainfall decreases. In all areas used for cropping the stability and fertility of the soil are of paramount importance in maintainihg production. The use of woodlands in areas of lower rainfall can lead to deterioration of the resource and to the encroachment of woody native species into the grazing lands. Because cropping is unreliable the opportunity to use cultivation to control woody regrowth is reduced. In central areas much of the land can be sown to improved pastures, but in western areas diversification is limited by the low rainfall and land use is restricted to grazing, initially only by sheep but now by sheep and cattle. Particularly in western New South Wales the increase in unpalatable shrubs and the decrease in available forage has resulted in low stocking rates, and high grazing pressure, making reclamation and pasture improvement difficult. In consequence many enterprises are becoming uneconomic.

The ecology of Sminthurus viridis (Collembola) III. The influence ofclimate andl land use on its distribution and that of an important predator, Bdellodea lapidaria (Acari : Bdellidae)

1971 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
MMH Wallace ◽  
JA Mahon
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Predatory Mite ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Important Predator ◽  
Distribution Limits

The lucerne flea, S. viridis, is restricted to the southern parts of Australia and, apart from a few isolated occurrences in eastern New South Wales, occurs only in areas with an essentially Mediterranean-type climate. The northern inland limit to its distribution agrees closely with the 250-mm isohyet for the growing season of May-October inclusive. The eastern limit to distribution in New South Wales and Victoria agrees with a December-March isohyet of 225 mm. Areas east of this line receive predominantly summer rainfall, and the pastures contain a high proportion of perennial plants which probably do not provide the nutritional stimulus for the development of aestivating diapause eggs in S. viridis essential for oversummering. The predatory mite B. lapidaria requires slightly moister conditions than S. viridis and the limit of its inland distribution agrees reasonably well with the 260-mm isohyet for the May-October period. Low temperatures (mean maximum < 17.5'C) also seem necessary during this period. The eastern distribution limits in Victoria are similar to those of S. viridis.

Should we manage soil organic carbon in Vertosols in the northern grains region of Australia?

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 261 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Farquharson ◽  
G. D. Schwenke ◽  
J. D. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Continuous Cropping ◽  
South Wales ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Carbon Concentrations

Two issues prompted this paper. The first was the measured soil organic carbon decline in fertile northern Australian soils under continual cropping using traditional management practices. We wanted to see whether it was theoretically possible to maintain or improve soil organic carbon concentrations with modern management recommendations. The second was the debate about use of sustainability indicators for on-farm management, so we looked at soil organic carbon as a potential indicator of soil health and investigated whether it was useful in making on-farm crop decisions. The analytical results indicated first that theoretically the observed decline in soil organic carbon concentrations in some northern cracking clay soils can be halted and reversed under continuous cropping sequences by using best practice management. Second, the results and associated discussion give some support to the use of soil organic carbon as a sustainability indicator for soil health. There was a consistent correlation between crop input decisions (fertilisation, stubble management, tillage), outputs (yield and profits) and outcomes (change in soil organic carbon content) in the short and longer term. And this relationship depended to some extent on whether the existing soil organic carbon status was low, medium or high. A stock dynamics relationship is one where the change in a stock (such as soil organic carbon) through time is related not only to the management decisions made and other random influences (such as climatic effects), but also to the concentration or level of the stock itself in a previous time period. Against such a requirement, soil organic carbon was found to be a reasonable measure. However, the inaccuracy in measuring soil organic carbon in the paddock mitigates the potential benefit shown in this analysis of using soil organic carbon as a sustainability indicator.These results are based on a simulation model (APSIM) calibrated for a cracking clay (Vertosol) soil typical of much of the intensively-cropped slopes and plains region of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and need to be interpreted in this light. There are large areas of such soils in north-western New South Wales; however, many of these experience lower rainfalls and plant-available soil water capacities than in this case, and the importance of these characteristics must also be considered.

Land Use and Lake Sedimentation on the New England Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. HAWORTH ◽  
S. J. GALE ◽  
S. A. SHORT ◽  
H. HEIJNIS
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
New England ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Lake Sedimentation
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document