The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority hosted the launch of a new and exciting research project in the catchment on June 21, 2009 in partnership with Monash University's Australian Centre for Biodiversity.
The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority hosted the launch of a new and exciting research project in the catchment on June 21, 2009 in partnership with Monash University's Australian Centre for Biodiversity.
The project will establish a model of water, carbon and the impacts from increased catchment scale revegetation and land use change, using the Goulburn Region as a Case Study. This project is the first of its kind to be trialled in this region.
Dr Ross Thompson, the project leader from the Australian Centre for Biodiversity said "We have assembled a research team across all areas of ecology, studying streams, soils, forests and birds, allowing us a unique opportunity to assess the likely effects of revegetation at large scales.
"There is obviously concern in the community that the carbon accrual and biodiversity benefits of revegetation may be counter-acted by reductions in water yield. This project will assess all three components with the Goulburn-Broken, allowing us to make informed choices about landscape management moving forward."
Reforestation is important for reducing atmospheric carbon and potentially mitigating climate change. Competing demands for water yields, agricultural productivity, carbon storage and biodiversity must be balanced to create sustainable catchments under a drying climate in southern Australia. ‘The Carbon Project' aims to develop a robust modelling platform for carbon and water fluxes of a range of land use practices at a scale that is relevant to land management - the whole Goulburn-Broken catchment!
To predict the effect of increasing reforestation on the Goulburn Broken catchment, we need to quantify the water use, carbon storage and biodiversity value of different land uses. We will begin with a review of the current understanding of how tree cover affects carbon and water fluxes, and biodiversity in southern Australia.
Wayne Tennant, from the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority said "GBCMA is proud to be a supporter of this initiative. Previous research projects undertaken by the ACB has provided practical knowledge that can be used by the Authority, its partners and the community.
"This project assembles an expert team including the ACB's combined strengths of forest ecology, soil processes, terrestrial and freshwater ecology and landscape modelling together with external expertise in landscape economics and freshwater biodiversity."
The project will measure carbon and water fluxes across ten monitoring sites in the catchment. These sites will be situated within the agricultural zone that is most likely to be converted to carbon farming. Core sites will be selected within major land uses: dryland agriculture, reforestation (of a range of ages) and mature forest. Broad surveys of key indicators of carbon and water fluxes, and biodiversity will used to strengthen the representativeness of our understanding at the catchment scale.
For further information on this and other related projects go to http://www.biolsci.monash.edu.au/research/acb/index.html
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More information:
Wayne Tennant 5820 1100