Adelaide Laboratory Public Seminar Series
- Abstracts 2007
Dryland Salinity Research in NSW: The Key Sites Project
Russell Crosbie
Hydrogeologist, Surfacewater and Groundwater Interactions research group
Abstract
The Key Sites for Hydrology, Salinity and Model Validation project seeks to understand water and salt balances at the paddock, farm and first order catchment scale. This understanding will lead to greater confidence in model predictions of the hydrological effects of land use change. This presentation will present results from two of the eight key sites – Boorowa and Brays Flat.
At Boorowa we have 15 years of monitoring including a land use change from annual cropping to perennial pastures in alleys between tree belts. At this site there has been a substantial decrease in recharge and runoff leading to a significant reduction in waterlogging and salt export from the site. It is demonstrated the hydrological effects are related to land use change and not a result of the drought.
At Brays Flat, monitoring and modelling has shown that recharge is negligible under annual pastures, perennial pastures, annual crops and tree belts. Clearing land for agriculture has not caused the saline scald through increased recharge but through decreased discharge. As the recharge sites in this catchment are the fractured rock hilltops that still retain their native vegetation, management options for salt export reduction are limited to the discharge site. Perennial pastures on the discharge site are shown to use more water and lead to less runoff than the annual pastures on the discharge site and a tree belt on the discharge site is shown to use double the water of the annual pastures by transpiring groundwater.
About the speaker
Russell Crosbie is a hydrogeologist who joined CSIRO in October 2006 to work on projects associated with groundwater dependant ecosystems.
Russell has a PhD from the University of Newcastle for investigating groundwater recharge, a Graduate Diploma in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Adelaide and a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours from RMIT.
This seminar relates to his previous employment at Orange Agricultural Institute (NSW DPI) where he spent three years as a research hydrologist investigating dryland salinity in small agricultural catchments in the Central West of NSW.
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Striking a Balance Between Navigation and Environmental Sustainability:
The Story of Upper Mississippi River Restoration
John M. Nestler
Eco-Hydrologist, Visiting Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water
Environmental Modeling and System-wide Assessment Center,
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Abstract
The Upper Mississippi River (UMR) boasts both a nationally valuable navigation system and globally significant ecosystem supporting diverse communities of plants and animals. It encompasses an area extending from the Great Lakes to near St Louis, Missouri. It includes 37 locks and approximately 2,000 kilometres of navigable waterway within portions of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The UMR ecosystem also consists of hundreds of thousands of hectares of bottomland forest, islands, backwaters, side channels, and wetlands.. More than 40 percent of North America’s migratory waterfowl and shorebirds depend on the food resources and other life requisites that the system provides. The system’s ancient fish and freshwater mussels are a unique and significant fauna. It also provides boating, camping, hunting, trapping, and other recreational opportunities to more than 11 million visitors each year. In comparison the River Murray (also ~2,000 km) has a similar history of management and similar environmental issues.
The sustainable development challenge faced by planners working on the UMR is this: How can the UMR be managed in a way that supports navigation improvements crucial to economic prosperity but also protects the precious and unique living resources of the system for future generations? This most important question is at the heart of all large-scale restoration / rehabilitation challenges across the world. In this presentation, John will describe the UMR ecosystem and its navigation system. He will then lay out some of the significant issues associated with the management of this nationally significant ecosystem. Finally, from his perspective as a member of the science panel convened to provide scientifically-based recommendations to managers of this system, he will identify concepts and principles presently employed to achieve this balance. These include carefully crafted goals and objectives, the concept of the reference condition, the notion of ecosystem services, and similar concepts critical to successful planning.
About the speaker
Dr. John Nestler holds a dual position as Leader of the Fisheries Engineering Team and Director, Environmental Modeling and System-wide Center, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. He received a B.S. in Biology from Valdosta State College, M.S. in Zoology from University of Georgia and a PhD, Zoology (Ecology) from Clemson University in 1980. He is active in a number of professional societies, holds adjunct professorships in the USA and UK from Birmingham University, has served on committees of numerous graduate students at many universities, and serves on the editorial board for River Research and Applications. He has served on committees to support a number of major restoration / rehabilitation efforts in the USA. He is also co-director of the Tropical Environmental Research Center in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and serves on the Advisory Board for the National Science Foundation CLEANER Program.
His research interests include environmental flows determination, hydrologic methods for predicting cumulative impact on wetlands, techniques for predicting the effects of turbine passage on reservoir fishes, and improved methods for fish protection and passage at dams. In the last decade he has focused on methods to couple together into a single, seamless system, the tools used by engineers with the tools used by ecologists. Most recently, he co-lead coupling of fish movement and population models to engineering water quality and CFD models to support high resolution simulation of higher trophic level organisms such as fish and shellfish. He has well over 100 professional publications and holds 10 patents.
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Biogeochemistry of Soil Ecosystems: Carbon, Black Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulfur and Phosphorus
Johannes Lehmann
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University , Ithaca , NY USA
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.htm
Abstract
This seminar will give an overview of research on soil organic matter and nutrient biogeochemistry in Dr. Lehmann’s program at Cornell University and recent advances made by exploring synchrotron-based spectroscopy. Under continuous cultivation, carbon and nutrient contents commonly decrease rapidly until stocks seemingly reach a steady state. However, spectroscopic evidence indicated that carbon and sulfur forms continue to change and become more oxidized even long after stocks stabilised. Nano-scale observations using synchrotron-based K-edge NEXAFS spectroscopy yielded important observations regarding the mechanisms of carbon and nitrogen stabilisation in microaggregates. Specifically implications of black carbon for soil biogeochemistry have not been sufficiently appreciated but were shown to significantly alter nutrient retention. Such evidence can be utilised to design a carbon sequestering soil conditioner that improves soil quality and contributes to climate change mitigation.
About the speaker
Johannes Lehmann studied Geoecology at the University of Bayreuth and wrote his Masters thesis on nutrient and carbon cycling in agroforestry systems in Togo. He completed his PhD at the Institute of Soil Science and Soil Geography at the University of Bayreuth with research on nutrient and water competition in runoff agroforestry systems of Northern Kenya . During his post-doctoral appointment at the Federal Research Institution of Forestry in Hamburg , Johannes worked on the rehabilitation of degraded soils in the central Amazon before he accepted a faculty position at Cornell University in 2001. Johannes is an Associate Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and Soil Fertility Management at Cornell University . His research interest spans from nano-scale observations of carbon forms in soil aggregates to rhizosphere processes, nutrient and carbon cycling on farms and in small watersheds.
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.htm
Selected Publications
Johnson MS, Lehmann J, Selva EC, Abdo M, Riha S and Couto EG 2006 Organic carbon fluxes within and streamwater exports from headwater catchments in the southern Amazon. Hydrological Processes 20: 2599-2614 .
Johnson MS, Lehmann J, Couto EG, Novaes-Filho JP and Riha S 2006 DOC and DIC in flowpaths of Amazonian headwater catchments with hydrologically contrasting soils. Biogeochemistry 81: 45-57. DOI: 10.1007/s10533-006-9029-3.
Kinyangi J, Solomon D, Liang B, Lerotic M, Wirick S and Lehmann J 2006 Nanoscale biogeocomplexity of the organo-mineral assemblage in soil: application of STXM microscopy and C 1s-NEXAFS spectroscopy. Soil Science Society of America Journal 70: 1708-1718.
Lehmann J, Gaunt J and Rondon M 2006 Bio-char sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems - a review. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 11, 403-427.
Liang B, Lehmann J, Solomon D, Kinyangi J, Grossman J, O'Neill B, Skjemstad JO, Thies J, Luizão FJ, Petersen J and Neves EG 2006 Black carbon increases cation exchange capacity in soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 70: 1719-1730.
Schrumpf M, Zech W, Lehmann J and Lyaruu HVC 2006 TOC, TON, TOS and TOP in rainfall, throughfall, litter percolate and soil solution of a montane rainforest succession at Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Biogeochemistry 78: 361-387.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Kinyangi J, Amelung W, Lobe I, Ngoze S, Riha S, Pell A, Verchot L, Mbugua D, Skjemstad J and Schäfer T 2006 Long-term impacts of anthropogenic perturbations on the dynamics and molecular speciation of organic carbon in tropical forest and subtropical grassland ecosystems. Global Change Biology , published online doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01304.x.
Zhao FJ, Lehmann J, Solomon D, Fox MA and McGrath SP 2006 Sulphur speciation and turnover in soils: evidence from sulphur K-edge XANES spectroscopy and isotope dilution studies. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38: 1000-1007.
Lehmann J, Lan Z, Hyland C, Sato S, Solomon D, and Ketterings Q 2005 Long-term dynamics of phosphorus forms and retention in manure-amended soils. Environmental Science and Technology 39: 6672-6680.
Lehmann J, Liang B, Solomon D, Lerotic M, Luizão F, Kinyangi F, Schäfer T, Wirick S, and Jacobsen C 2005 Near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy for mapping nano-scale distribution of organic carbon forms in soil: application to black carbon particles. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 19: GB1013.
Major J, DiTommaso A, Lehmann J and Falcão NPS 2005 Weed dynamics on Amazonian Dark Earth and adjacent soils of Brazil . Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 111: 1-12.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Lobe I, Martinez CE, Tveitnes S, Du Preez CC and Amelung W 2005 Sulphur speciation and biogeochemical cycling in long-term arable cropping of subtropical soils: evidence from wet-chemical reduction and S K-edge XANES spectroscopy. European Journal of Soil Science 56: 621-634.
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Ex ante testing of a carbon trading policy in the SA Murray Darling Basin using behaviourally calibrated multi-agent models
John Ward
Ecological and Natural Resource Economist, Society, Economy and Policy research program
Abstract
Natural Resource Management Planning in the SA Murray Darling Basin has focused on the revegetation of degraded, privately held agricultural land to achieve biodiversity, salinity and wind erosion objectives. Across a raft of managing agencies, market based approaches are increasingly endorsed as a class of incentive instruments to motivate individual behaviour that is aligned with policy targets. Modelling access to an international CO 2e market by dryland farmers revealed catchment wide land use change towards increased revegetation, with both economic and multiple natural resource benefits. Most analyses of this type assume decision making according to profit maximization and optimal responses to available information. However, designing and implementing incentive policy that accounts for heterogeneous attitudes and behaviour may result in improved adoption rates. The seminar details the results of spatially referenced attitude and behavioural profiles of 583 SA Murray Darling Basin dryland farmers. Controlled economic field experiments elicited behavioural responses to theoretical carbon markets and revegetation actions, subject to visual cue and information treatments. Using the survey and experimental data, we calibrated a multi-agent dynamic simulation of revegetation actions over fifty years. We present four simulation scenarios of revegetation policy which estimate carbon, natural resource and economic outcomes. Finally we encourage discussion of the development of methods that account for variable attitudes and motivations to evaluate natural resource policies prior to their implementation.
About the speaker
John is a natural resource and experimental economist with a research focus in the ex ante design and testing of proposed institutional setting and policies for the management of resources. The experimental settings provide an analogue of the decision making environment facing land managers and attempts to formally account for the interactions of social, economic and biophysical factors. Current research explores behavioural responses to different market architectures, the cost effectiveness of market instruments in concert with group communication, non-pecuniary sanction mechanisms, and voluntary social contracts in managing complex common pool resources. John works with the Policy and Economic Research Unit of CSIRO Land and Water and has a background in the biological sciences, natural resource economics, the forest industry and academia.
System Dynamics Approach and integrated water resource management
Amgad Elmahdi
Water Systems Modeller, Hydrology research program
Abstract
Context:
Amgad's research involves the identification of opportunities to manipulate irrigation demand and supply in a way which maximises the social, environmental and economic outputs from all available water sources within a catchment.
Application:
Meeting consumptive and non-consumptive demand and achieving positive environmental and economic outcomes requires improved modelling tools to analyse the implications of alternative policies. Therefore, there is a need to explore new modelling approaches to represent the complex relationships found in irrigation/water systems. One of those promising options is System Dynamics, a feedback-b as ed, object-oriented approach. System Dynamics is b as ed on a theory of system structure and a set of tools for representing complex systems and analysing their dynamic behaviour. Modelling the irrigation system taking into account economic and environmental as pects is a difficult modelling challenge and the model structure becomes very complex with the introduction of many factors and their interrelationship. In addition, as sessing the efficacy of management decisions is difficult due to the complexity and interconnectivity of irrigation water systems. Consequently, it is vital to apply a robust modelling approach such as System Dynamics that is able to deal with the feedback loops inherent in the irrigation water systems. Indeed, feed back loops are one of the most important features of System Dynamics. Data are organised into discrete objects. These objects could be concrete (such as a river gauge or river reach) or conceptual (such as a management or policy decision). However, System Dynamics offers an efficient approach to most effectively utilise available data and understanding of processes. Through the application of a system dynamic approach, a robust model was developed for the Murrumbidgee River which w as used to examine different alternative policies such as water banking and changing crop mixes to improve water productivity and environmental performance .
Impact:
This research will enable farm, system and catchment managers to collectively optimise water resource management and distribution at both the short-term tactical and long-term, strategic levels.
About the speaker
Amgad joined CSIRO Land and Water in January this year in the Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions research group. He has 11 years experience in various aspects of hydrology and integrated water management. After obtaining a Masters in Science in Water-Ecological Studies in Egypt, he studied environmental conservation in Greece and completed a Masters degree in Land and Water Management in Italy. In 2003, Amgad received an award from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation for Best masters Thesis in Water Resource Management. Amgad's PhD on ‘Changing seasonality of flows to improve water productivity and environmental performance' was undertaken at the University of Melbourne. In the last four years he has published almost 20 scientific refereed papers.
Measuring river metabolism: what can it tell us about river function and river management?
Rod Oliver
Principal Research Scientist, Rivers and Estuaries research program.
Abstract
Biological systems need energy to sustain their structure. The main source of energy is plants, which capture sunlight and convert it into organic compounds that are eaten and metabolised by animals and microbes. Energy is lost as material passes along food-chains so that the quantity of organisms supported is dependent on the initial energy supply. In rivers, the energy supporting food webs comes from plants growing within the water, or from plant and other organic material that is washed into the river from the surrounding land. Measurements of the metabolic activity in the Murray River indicate that it receives much of its energy from micro-algae growing in the water column, but the system appears energy constrained. This has two important implications for the management of river flows and for efforts at rehabilitating fish populations:
1. the need for improved river-floodplain connections to enhance energy supplies;
2. the need for habitat rehabilitation works to also augment food supplies.
About the speaker
Dr. Rod Oliver researches the ecology and physiology of micro-algae. His PhD studies at Adelaide University investigated environmental conditions influencing algal growth in Mt Bold Reservoir. This led to an interest in algal blooms and an opportunity to work on buoyancy regulating mechanisms in cyanobacteria at Bristol University. Returning to a position with CSIRO, his research broadened to quantifying the influences of nutrients, light, water turbulence and salinity on the growth of micro-algae in rivers and reservoirs of the Murray Darling Basin. Initially this research focussed on the causes of problem blooms of toxic cyanobacteria, but increasingly effort has gone into understanding the beneficial role of micro-algae in these aquatic ecosystems. He is currently Project Leader of the Ecological Outcomes Project in CSIRO's Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.
Gender Benders in Australian Riverine Environments
Anu Kumar
Research Scientist, Environmental Biogeochemistry research program
Abstract
The public is highly concerned about the adverse effects of chemicals on reproductive systems of wildlife and human beings. Indeed, compelling evidence has emerged showing that certain chemicals (e.g. estradiols, nonylphenol, PCBs and some pesticides) commonly known as "endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)" may interfere with the normal functioning of endocrine systems in wildlife.
In wildlife populations, associations have been reported between reproductive and developmental effects and exposure to EDCs. This includes changes in sex, intersex (both male and female reproductive organs), imposex (females with male sex organs), reduced reproductive success, disrupted immune and nervous system, abnormal behaviour and population declines. However, the risks of EDCs to ecosystem health under Australian conditions are currently unclear. Local environmental conditions often influence the environmental fate of chemicals and therefore it is not always possible to extrapolate data from one country to the other. In addition the Australian fauna is unique.
There is a need for local and reliable scientific data on the fate and bioavailability of known EDCs. It is important to establish a firm scientific foundation for the management of this issue to support our national water and waste reuse agenda and foster rational decision-making.
This seminar will provide a comprehensive coverage of the issue from Australian perspective.
About the speaker
Anu Kumar currently works as a Research Scientist with the CSIRO Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research, Adelaide. Anu has over 12 years experience in ecotoxicological and environmental assessment. Her research work has focused primarily on investigating the impacts of endocrine disrupting chemicals, industrial wastewaters and sediment-bound pesticides on the biological health of aquatic ecosystems. She has also validated and applied biomarkers for assessing impacts associated with organic contaminants- both individually and in mixtures.
Different scenarios of soil contamination by organic and inorganic compounds
Michele Arienzo
Hydrology research program (visiting from Griffith site)
Abstract
The seminar will focus on different scenarios of soil contamination by both organic and inorganic compounds. First, the degradation and loss pathways of N-nitrosodimethylamine, NDMA, in landscape soils will be illustrated through laboratory and field experiments. NDMA is a potent carcinogen that is often present in municipal wastewater effluents. The potential for ground water contamination from irrigation with treated wastewaters is discussed. Then the characterization of heavy metals in contaminated volcanic soils of the Solofrana river valley (southern Italy) is evaluated. The study reports on the total content and geochemical forms of metals in soils. Metal bioavailability and effects on vegetables is evaluated and relation with andic soil properties analysed. Finally, the heavy metal contamination of the soils used for stocking raw materials in a former iron-steel industrial plant is reported.
About the speaker
Dr. Michele Arienzo earned his phD in Soil Chemistry with minor in analytical chemistry at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigación Cientifica) of Salamanca Spain, under the direction of Prof. Maria Sanchez Camazano head of the Department of Environmental Chemistry. He spent about 18 months working as post doctorate research assistant at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA, under the guidance of Prof. Steve Comfort and Patrick Shea, 13 months at the Environmental Research Center of the New York State University of Oswego USA under the supervision of Dr. Ronald Scrudato and Jeffrey Chiarenzelli, two months at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station, New Haven, with Dr. Jason White and six months at the Department of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Riverside, California, USA working with Prof. Jay Gan.
He was associate professor of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Naples, Italy until February 21st 2007.
Michele Arienzo currently works as senior research scientist at CSIRO Land and Water of Griffith on a wine wastewater GWRDC project. He has experience on the fate, transformation of xenobiotics in the environment and the mechanisms affecting their behavior, including adsorption/desorption, transport, and photochemical and biological processes. He also studies the use of innovative technologies for soil remediation by advanced chemical oxidation technologies and soil revegetation.
Modelling of societal actors and actor-based modelling of state variables: New methods for identifying strategies for sustainable development.
Professor Petra Döll
Professor of Hydrology, University of Frankfurt
Abstract
For many environmental issues, knowledge about long-term effects is poor and will remain so in the near future. Examples are the impacts of genetically modified plants and the impacts of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals like mobile organic xenobiotics in surface and drinking water on aqueous ecosystems and humans. Nevertheless, society needs to develop strategies for sustainable development with respect to these issues, based on only poor knowledge, and taking into account the existence of differing perspectives and preferences within society itself.
We suggest that the identification of such strategies in a societal participatory process may be supported by modelling of societal actors, i.e. a structured, software-based actor analysis. In addition, actor-based modelling of state variables (pressures) relevant for the issue of interest helps to include human perspectives and actions better into an integrated assessment. We present the modelling tool DANA as well as its application for the issues “pharmaceuticals in drinking water” and “mobile organic xenobiotics in surface waters”.
About the speaker
Professor Petra Döll, is a hydrological modeller who is currently on sabbatical at CSIRO Land and Water. Her research includes the physical and human aspects of sustainable water resources management.
Antibiotic, antiparasitic and hormone degradates – their fate and possible role in resistant development or environmental impact.
Bent Halling-Sørensen
Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry Group, Dept of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen University, Denmark
Abstract
Several hundreds of drugs have been found in the surface waters in different types of water compartments. Most of these drugs are undergoing different processes as metabolisation, de-conjugation and biodegradation in the environment. This seminar is based on the results of a study which assessed three different compound groups – the antibiotics, antiparacetics and steroid estrogens – for their ability to form degradates and the fate and possible role in resistant development or environmental impact.
Some of the basic questions that will be raised related to the degradates are e.g.:
- Is the pharmacophore retained in the drug degradates
- Can we identify toxicophores known to have adverse effects on environmental relevant species formed during degradation e.g. quinone, epoxide
- Increased bioavailability due to differences in physico-chemical parameters e.g. log P, pKa.
Some final conclusions on the role of degradates compared to parent compounds will be given
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