4 December - 11.00am
High Resolution LiDAR data of the Tully Murray Floodplain
Dr Anne Henderson, Spatial Analyst, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary
High resolution LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) has been acquired for the Tully Murray floodplain to support the development of a 2-D hydrodynamic floodplain model. Although the hydrodynamic model is still under development, this seminar will cover the logistics of the LiDAR survey capture and data storage, the types of information available in the raw data, as well as the types of data that were generated from the raw data (e.g. a high resolution digital elevation model (DEM), maps of vegetation density and height, and canopy structure profiles). Dr Henderson will talk about how qualitative interpretation of the high resolution DEM has contributed to our understanding of the dynamics of the floodplain and also discuss some of the planned uses for the LiDAR data and its products.
20 November - 11.00am
Social resilience to climate variability on the rangelands
Dr Nadine Marshall, Social Scientist, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary
This seminar looks at how we can assess beef producers’ resilience to change on the grazing lands. Of particular concern is that producers are reluctant to adopt potentially beneficial technologies such as seasonal climate forecasts. In this study, our aim was to understand why not. 100 producers in North Queensland were surveyed for their climate information needs and tested the influence of social resilience, resource dependency and forecast perception on likely uptake. Results suggest that technical factors associated with forecasts are not correlated with uptake but social factors are. These results are discussed for their implications in the face of climate change.
6 November - 11.00am
The Southwest Watershed Research Center: Hydrologic and Sediment Research in the semi-arid southwestern US
Dr Mark Nearing, Research Leader, USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, US
Seminar Summary
The Southwest Watershed Research Center (SWRC) conducts research to develop the knowledge and technology to conserve water and soil in semi-arid lands. Research areas include hydrology and sediment measurements and models at hillslope to basin scale, eco-hydrology including energy and carbon fluxes, eco-plant physiology, remote sensing, and decision support systems. Field research in support of these program areas is conducted throughout the southwest United States, with the two main SWRC instrumented research areas being the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed and the Santa Rita Experimental Range south of Tucson. Walnut Gulch encompasses the 150 square kilometers that surrounds the town of Tombstone at 1250 m to 1585 m MSL. It is an ephemeral tributary (dry 99% of the time) of the San Pedro River, which flows north from Mexico. The watershed is located in the transition zone between the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts, and representative of approximately 60 million hectares of brush and grass covered rangeland in the semi-arid southwest. Cattle grazing, mining, and recreation are the primary land uses, with increasing urbanization pressures. SWRC is also involved with developing a new rangeland soil erosion model for use across the whole of the western US, a national assessment of the benefits of federal funds spent on soil conservation, the development of a geospatial tool for basin scale assessment, and a regional project to preserve flow in the San Pedro River, which is the last perennial, low elevation river in the region.
About the Speaker
Mark A. Nearing is Research Leader, USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson. He has Ph.D. Civil Eng., M.S. Agronomy, and
B.S. Geology. Dr. Nearing has authored more than 250 scientific papers, including more than 100 refereed scientific journal articles, mostly in the area of soil erosion, including understanding basic erosion processes, field measurement techniques, computer simulation modeling, and understand global change impacts on erosion and conservation.
16 October - 11.00am
An assessment of wetland connectivity in the Tully-Murray floodplain using a hydrodynamic model
Dr. Fazlul Karim, Hydrodynamic Modeller, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary
The wetlands in floodplains provide a range of ecosystem goods and services in addition to their ability to improve water quality. The ecological condition of a wetland depends on many factors, but key drivers are the flow regime and the connection between wetlands and other water bodies such as streams, rivers and the ocean. Wetland connectivity is driven by the hydrology of the catchment, which determines both the ambient flow and associated connectivity and the inundation regime and connectivity under flood conditions.
This presentation will briefly describe the methodology of simulation of event based surface water propagation over the floodplain and an assessment of the present status of connectivity among the wetlands and streams in the Tully-Murray floodplain in north Queensland. A hydrological model was used to quantify sub-catchment scale runoff volume and a 2-D hydrodynamic model was used to compute grid based water depth across the floodplain. The outputs from the hydrodynamic model were used to calculate the timing, duration and spatial extent of the connections between a number of wetland types. The results of these simulations provide a means of identifying the degree of connectivity of different wetlands, ranging from those wetlands that are more permanently connected with streams to those that are connected only when there are over bank floods.
25 September - 11.00am
Alternatives for Getting Cattle to Graze Where You Want Them to
Dr. Derek Bailey, Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University , USA
Seminar Summary:
On extensive and rugged rangelands, livestock grazing is often uneven with animals leaving some areas heavily utilized, while other areas receive little use. Such concentrations may lead to riparian area degradation and reduction in wildlife habitat value. The objective of this seminar is to present alternative approaches to manipulate cattle distribution to minimize any adverse impacts of grazing to watershed health and wildlife habitat and to potentially increase stocking levels on a sustainable basis. Development of water and fencing can be used to manipulate cattle grazing, but these approaches require large capital investments and maintenance. In addition, fencing may adversely impact wildlife. In contrast, development and selection of adapted cattle has the potential to improve cattle grazing distribution without large capital expenditures. Strategic placement of supplements has been used successfully to attract cattle to areas that they typically avoid. Low-stress herding of cattle is effective in reducing cattle use of riparian areas, and in combination with supplement placement has the potential to focus cattle grazing in areas they typically avoid. A preliminary study suggests that focused cattle grazing without fencing can be used to improve wildlife habitat. With improvements in GPS, GIS and remote sensing technology, ongoing and new research has the potential to help us better understand livestock behaviour and develop and refine management techniques. Cattle are highly adaptive, and their behaviour can be readily manipulated to achieve land management goals.
About the Speaker
Derek Bailey received his BS and MS degrees in Animal Science at Colorado State University (MS in animal breeding). He has completed a PhD in Range Science at Colorado State, where he focused on grazing behavior and range-animal nutrition. Dr Bailey worked for 5 years in Nevada as a range management consultant and then completed a post-doctorate with USDA-ARS in Woodward, Oklahoma.
From 1996 to 2004, Dr Bailey worked for Montana State University at Northern Ag Research Center in Havre conducting livestock and range management research. Since January 2005, he has been at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and his appointment includes research (45%), teaching (40%) and is the current Director of the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (15%). Dr Bailey’s research focuses on livestock distribution and behavior. He also has interests in livestock – wildlife interactions, nutrition, remote sensing, and applied livestock management on rangelands.
This is Dr Bailey’s first visit to Australia and his travels include CSIRO sites at Townsville, Darwin and Perth. He will present some of his work at the biennial conference of the Australian Rangeland Society in Charters Towers, September 28th to October 2nd. His travels are funded under the McMaster Fellowship trust.
18 September - 11.00am
Translating Resilience Theory for Natural Resource Management: The Contributions and Limitations of Subjective Measures of Social Resilience
Dr. Samantha Stone-Jovicich, in collaboration with Erin Bohensky and Tim Lynam,
Resource Futures Research Program, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary:
The concept of resilience in socio-ecological systems has attracted significant interest from natural resource managers worldwide. Translating resilience theory into effective management actions for resilience-building, however, remains a tremendous challenge. This presentation describes an approach currently being taken in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Region (catchments and reef) to operationalise social resilience into indicators. The overarching objective is to develop indicators that are theoretically rigorous and that simultaneously contribute to decision making in relation to water quality change, and management interventions to achieve water quality targets, in the GBR Region.
The development of the indicators draws on two sets of data: (1) data derived from analyses of case studies of regions in Australia that have undergone significant water quality changes, and (2) subjective understandings of social resilience and its determinants drawn from interviews with key natural resource managers in the GBR Region. This presentation focuses on the latter and its contribution to the development of indicators of social resilience to water quality change at whole-of-GBR scale. The main purpose of the interviews was to ensure that the indicators developed were appropriate, meaningful, and useful for natural resource management agencies and staff. As such, the interviews focused specifically on capturing and incorporating managers’ understanding, experiential knowledge, and perceptions of (1) what social resilience means, specifically as it relates to water quality change at the whole-of-GBR scale, (2) what enhances or erodes social resilience to water quality change, and (3) the usefulness of social resilience indicators to inform and adapt water quality policy and planning strategies.
This presentation discusses the methods used, results obtained, and the potential and limitations of inductively-derived, subjective measurements of social resilience for informing management of resilience at a regional scale. It is argued that an understanding of how managers conceive social resilience and how they would use the concept is critical to the development of context-relevant, appropriate indicators intended to guide management actions. It is equally vital that these subjective interpretations of resilience and its determinants be balanced with complimentary sources of data and theory to ensure the reliability and validity of the indicators developed.
11 September - 11.00am
Implementing one-step estimation of crop water requirements in Australia
Professor Jim Shuttleworth, Ex-Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Seminar Summary:
This seminar describes theoretical analyses which facilitate the use of the Penman-Monteith equation to make a one-step estimate of crop water requirements and reviews plans for the research to be carried out during my 3 month visit to the CSIRO Davies Lab to evaluate the potential impact of implementing these in the Australian context, in general, and the WATERSENSE system, in particular.
Reluctance to transition to using a one-step estimate results from two outstanding issues. First, no way has previously been defined to handle the problem that the meteorological variables are commonly only available at 2 m above the ground but, when using the Penman-Monteith equation, they are required at some level above the crop. To resolve this, a blending height is defined in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) where meteorological conditions are independent of the underlying crop and expressions derived to calculate the aerodynamic resistances to, and the vapor pressure deficit at the blending height from climate variables at 2 m. Consequently, 2m climate data can be used in the Penman-Monteith equation either to estimate transpiration from surface resistance or to calculate surface resistance from measured transpiration. Second, no table of effective values currently exists for the surface resistance of different crops equivalent to that for the crop coefficient. Field studies to redress this are needed. However, as an interim source of crop specific surface resistances, a methodology is given for translating crop coefficient into equivalent surface resistance. To make this translation, it is necessary to specify the relationship between the radiative and aerodynamic energy inputs to evapotranspiration when the crop coefficients were calibrated.
Plans for research in the next 3 months involve two main tasks. To evaluate the potential benefit of using the new estimation method, historical meteorological data representative of different climate regions in Australia will be used to estimate crop water use for some of the most commonly grown irrigated crops grown in the country, and the impact of using the new approach compared to using the traditional approach calculated. In parallel with this, the new estimation method will be introduced into the WATERSENSE system as an efficient way to foster its practical application in Australia, and the impact of making this change studied and reported.
About the Speaker:
Jim Shuttleworth is the ex-Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), Tucson, Arizona, USA. His research is in surface hydrology, especially evapotranspiration, soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions at all spatial scales, use of remote-sensing in hydrology, and enhancing the policy and stakeholder relevance of hydrological understanding.
Jim is a Fellow of several international Geophysical and Meteorological Societies, has served on numerous National and International Research Committees and is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Hydrology and Journal of Hydrological Sciences. In 2001, he was awarded the AGU Hydrology Prize for "Outstanding contributions to the science of hydrology" and, in 2006, IAHS, UNESCO and WMO jointly awarded him the prestigious International Hydrology Prize in recognition of his "innovative, international leadership over more than thirty years, contributing to the growth of hydrology into a major discipline of earth system science."
4 September - 11.00am
A biologist’s perspective on technology adoption: recent experience with small-holder farmers of Eastern Indonesia and comparisons across cultures and scales
Jeff Corfield, CSIRO
Seminar Summary:
As a senior technical officer with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Townsville, Jeff’ Corfield’s working life has been rather schizophrenic in recent years. One week he’s working with Burdekin graziers who have 2000 breeders and 20000 ha; the next week its small holder eastern Indonesian farmers with two Bali cows and 2 ha of land.
In both cases he’s been working with projects that applied adaptive management strategies to on-farm evaluation of technology options. Despite differences in culture, production systems and scale, Jeff still observed many shared socio-economic constraints to technology adoption between these otherwise disparate groups of producers along the way.
In this seminar Jeff will report primarily on the outcome of a series of ACIAR funded projects aimed at improving cattle performance and production within small holder crop-livestock farming communities of eastern Indonesia. These projects applied a farming systems research approach to identify constraints and opportunities for improved cattle production within often complex village systems and used participatory-adaptive approaches to test, refine and scale out a range of “best bet” forage and animal management options with farmers. Jeff’s role in these projects has been to manage the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of this forage and livestock best bet program with local agency staff and farmers.
Jeff will discuss the lessons derived regarding drivers of technology adoption and adaptation, from a biologist’s perspective. In doing so, he will also reflect on the cross-cultural similarities and differences in constraints and incentives to adoption encountered in both his local rangelands and small holder village experience.
26 August - 11.00am
Integrated Management of Natural Resources and GeoHazards at Multiple Scales: Using the GeoWEPP Model For Process-Based Decision-Support and Impact Assessment of Extreme Events
Assoc. Prof. Chris Renschler, Department of Geography, University of New York, Buffalo, USA
Seminar Summary:
Geospatial modeling tools using environmental models and Geographic Information Science (GIScience) techniques are increasingly used for decision-making and policy-making in natural resources or natural hazards management. Extreme events as well as environmental or policy change, however, may change the scale of interest in assessing environmental processes to that extent that models are not applied at the scales for which they were created. The design and successful implementation of the Geospatial Interface for the Water Erosion Prediction Project (GeoWEPP) at the watershed scale illustrates the challenges and solutions to build valid and useful assessment tools for cumulative watershed effects analysis. GeoWEPP enables natural resources managers of agricultural, grassland, rangeland, and forests to assess the spatial and temporal scheduling of management activities. The design, development, implementation and validation of GeoWEPP is based on a formulation of an integrated data transformation and scaling theory allowing scientists of various disciplines to effectively collaborate, to design flexible process-based modeling approaches and to implement them as useful decision support tools at multiple scales.
About the Speaker:
Chris S. Renschler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo (UB) - The State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo, USA. He is a Research Scientist at three UB institutions: MCEER, the Center for GeoHazard Studies, and the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). Dr. Renschler is a Geoecologist and Geographer by training and received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Bonn in Germany. Prior to his current position, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory and the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He is currently a Visiting Fellow in the School of Geography, Planning and Architecture at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
21 August - 11.00am
Mapping poor condition landscapes at a regional scale – D-condition in the Burdekin catchment
Brett Abbott, CSIRO
Seminar Summary:
Landscape condition monitoring and assessment by remote and/or on ground methods is by no means a new idea, but until recently it has been unavailable to, or misunderstood by cattle producers in the Queensland rangelands, being primarily used by the scientific and extension communities.
More recently the upper Burdekin ABCD land condition framework (Chilcott et al 2003) has been released, and through implementation in QDPI & F’s Grazing Land Management (GLM) package, has found wide acceptance at the producer level.
Candidate D condition areas can be mapped at a regional scale using temporal remote sensed datasets, based on cover indices and cover index trends over a selected period. Such mapping has been produced for the Burdekin catchment based on Landsat TM dry-season image dates between 1996 and 2006. The dataset produced here shows areas considered to be in ‘chronic’ D-condition (bare ground), D-condition (<40% cover), and areas that are marginal (i.e. bordering on the better C-condition class).
14 August - 11.00am
Real-time irrigation advice for small-scale sugar production in South Africa using the MyCanesim system
Dr. Abraham Singels, CSIRO visiting scientist, Agronomist from South African Sugarcane Research Institute
Seminar Summary:
Small-scale sugarcane farmers in Pongola, South Africa have been receiving real-time irrigation advice via cellular text messages since 2004. The advice is generated by the web-based My Canesim system, which uses a crop model and online weather data to estimate the best schedule of irrigations for individual fields. The presentation will briefly describe how the system works, how it was implemented and evaluated, and what impact it had.
About the Speaker:
Dr Singels obtained a Ph.D. in Agrometerology from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1991. He is currently employed as agronomist by the South African Sugarcane Research Institute. His research interests are: (1) Environmental and genetic impacts on sugarcane biomass accumulation and partitioning, (2) irrigation scheduling, and (3) crop modelling and computerised decision support. He is spending the next five months as CSIRO visiting scientist with Geoff Inman-Bamber to develop a sucrose accumulation model for sugarcane.
Thursday 7 August - 11.00am
Individual Wellbeing Function: A methodological approach for improved communication of the stakeholder priorities in catchments of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Silva Larson, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary:
The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is of significant natural, social and economic importance. Over the last 150 years, the catchments adjacent to the Reef have undergone extensive modification and now support flourishing agricultural, mining, timber and tourism industries. The Queensland State and Australian Federal government acknowledge the need for improved sustainability in the catchments adjoining the reef. However, significant improvements could be made in communication of sustainability goals of the various planning document to the local stakeholders; as well as in communication of the stakeholders’ priorities to the policy-makers.
The aim of this research was to develop a methodological approach for the communication of sustainability goals between the policy level and the personal level. The approach is based on the concept of human wellbeing. The perceived importance of wellbeing factors is quantified, thus creating Individual Wellbeing Functions. Results of the survey as applied in two catchments in the Great Barrier Reef region are presented.
The wellbeing factors were grouped into domains of: Society, representing family and community issues; Ecology, representing issues related to the natural environment; and Economy, dealing with economic issues and provision of services. Family relations, health, income, safety, health services and water quality were identified by participants as the most important contributors to their wellbeing. The profiles of wellbeing generated using this methodological approach present policy makers with information beyond that available from standard data sources.
The use of this methodological approach in integrated catchment management or other forms or regional planning would unable both a better communication of stakeholder priorities, and the better tailoring of policies to meet individual aspirations.
30 July - 1.00 pm
Conservation planning in a changing world: making spatial decisions to deal with natural and anthropogenic dynamics.
Prof. Bob Pressey, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Seminar Summary:
Systematic conservation planning identifies configurations of complementary areas that achieve explicit, and generally quantitative, objectives. Since its origin in the early 1980s, the field has influenced planning by major organisations, shaped policy, legislation, and conservation on the ground, and featured in almost 200 presentations at meetings of the Society for Conservation Biology. The field’s hundreds of publications reflect not only advances in ideas, techniques, and relevance but also its short history and main limitations.
There are two ways of illustrating these limitations and some of the main directions for improvement. The first way concerns the need to move from pattern to process. Most of the field’s publications concern biodiversity pattern: the elements of biodiversity that can be mapped and regarded as static. Planners have done less well at promoting the persistence of the myriad ecological and evolutionary processes that maintain and generate biodiversity. Most systematic methods have also assumed implicitly that threats to biodiversity are absent or static. Planners might recognise previous losses of biodiversity, and even the legacies of continuing loss from past threats, but not anticipate the rates and patterns of dynamic threats. The second way of illustrating limitations and future directions draws on a framework for conservation planning that emphasises the need to better engage with people so that the technical aspects of planning are properly set in their social, economic and political contexts. These two broad areas of improvement open up exciting possibilities for scientific advances and more effective conservation action on the ground.
About the Speaker:
Professor Bob Pressey moved to James Cook University at the end of 2007 to establish and lead a new research program in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. This is Program 6: Conservation planning for a sustainable future. The program will build a large group of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to develop the science and practice of conservation planning in marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. Bob’s working life began as a private environmental consultant working mainly on survey and conservation evaluation of wetlands. He then spent 19 years as a research scientist with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service where he helped to establish the field of systematic conservation planning. In 2006 he took a position at the University of Queensland and, shortly afterwards, his present position at JCU.
17 July - 11.00am
Identifying and mapping the erosion hazard of different land types in the upper Herbert River catchment
Mal Lorimer, EPA
Seminar Summary:
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is recognised as one of the great natural wonders of the world, but its health and longevity are under threat. Global warming, sea-level rise and coral bleaching are some of the major threatening issues being debated and addressed at an international level, however at a regional level, other issues such as the increasing nutrient levels and sediment loads being discharged by rivers into the GBR lagoon are a major concern.
The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (2003) has two primary objectives:
- To reduce the load of sediment and nutrients from entering the reef lagoon.
- To rehabilitate and conserve areas that play a role in removing water-borne pollutants.
One of the nine key strategies in the Plan to achieve these two objectives nominates EPA and NRW as the lead agencies to implement the following actions:
- Identify waterways, riparian areas and wetlands that are in good condition and should be preserved to protect water quality.
- Identify sub-catchment hotspots responsible for delivering disproportionate quantities of sediment, nutrient and pesticides to the Reef.
- Make wetland and riparian rehabilitation a high priority in high-risk Reef catchment areas.
The Einasleigh Uplands (EIU) bioregion is recognised as one of the National Biodiversity Hotspots for conservation. Although land use pressures have been relatively light and the tropical and sub-tropical woodlands and forests remain in relatively good condition, the extremely diverse landscape contains a large number of endemic and threatened species, and the native pastures are being overgrazed.
Currently, there is a considerable amount of work being done monitoring and modelling the sediment and nutrient loads in the rivers entering the GBR lagoon, but very little on identifying the inherent characteristics of the soil and position in the landscape that make a land type susceptible to erosion.
The Einasleigh Uplands contains the upper catchments of the Barron, Burdekin, Herbert and Normanby Rivers, all of which are major contributors of sediment to the Reef - Prosser et al. (2002) estimated that 9 million tonnes of sediment could be entering the upper Burdekin River system, with approximately 2 million tonnes discharged into the GBR lagoon, each year.
This project used the upper Herbert River catchment as a study area to develop a methodology for determining erosion hazard with the objective of incorporating the hazard ratings into the regional ecosystem descriptions for the Einasleigh Uplands Bioregion.
Thursday 26 June - 11.00am
The complexity of poverty-environment interactions in East Kalimantan, Indonesia
Dr Alexander Smajgl, Environmental Economist, Resource Futures, CSIRO
Seminar Summary:
The aim to create employment to alleviate poverty in areas of Indonesia is often based on the use of natural resources such as forests. Increasing oil price and the resulting pressure on the Indonesian national budget accelerate processes such as deforestation. The large scale land use change triggers critical bio-physical processes that impose a delayed threat to the goal of poverty alleviation due to soil erosion and depletion of fish habitat. Policy decisions demanded for macro economic are likely to change the dynamics of such a complex system and CSIRO develops models to provide capacity to develop a better understanding of this complex system for the region of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. In a stakeholder driven process an artificial world is developed to test macro policy changes and to facilitate discussions between different tiers of governance.
Thursday 15th May - 11.00am
Learning support systems for adaptive water quality management in the Great Barrier Reef region, Australia
Dr Tim Lynam, Group Leader, Resource Futures, Townsville
Seminar Summary:
Adaptive management requires that learning from management actions is used to refine, refocus or redirect management goals or management actions. Like any form of goal oriented management, adaptive management seeks to achieve goals in the face of considerable uncertainty.
In this seminar Tim Lynam describes the development and use of a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model, within an adaptive management process for the management of water quality in the Mackay-Whitsunday region of Queensland, Australia. The management goal is firstly to set achievable targets for water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from the Mackay-Whitsunday natural resource management region and then secondly to define and implement a strategy to achieve these targets.
The BBN serves as an adaptive framework that serves firstly to clearly articulate what managers and scientists know about the managed system and then secondly to guide where, when and what interventions (including research) are most likely to achieve management outcomes. The BBN is not constructed at a uniform spatial, temporal or conceptual resolution but rather the knowledge and beliefs encapsulated in the model are used to identify where (in space, time or concept) greater resolution would be beneficial. Greater resolution is added to those model components (and hence management knowledge) where this knowledge makes the greatest contribution to either reducing uncertainty or to achieving management goals.
The BBN integrates empirical data or knowledge with modelled outputs and expert knowledge into a managerially useful tool that adds value to existing sediment modelling approaches using the SedNet modelling tool.
About the Speaker:
Tim Lynam trained in ecology, agricultural economics and in crop and soil sciences. Prior to joining CSIRO’s Resource Futures Program in 2005 Tim worked in southern Africa on community development, agro-ecosystem analysis and management, conservation, community based natural resources management and was principal investigator for a part of the Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Tim’s principal research interests are concerned with the science and management of complex adaptive systems. In January 2005 Tim took up the role as Group Leader for the Resource Futures group in Townsville. Tim’s current research activities include adaptive learning systems, community sustainability and social resilience.
Thursday 1st May - 11.00am
Reproductive effort of the invasive geophyte Lilium formosanum on Lord Howe Island
Ms Susie Warner, PhD Candidate, Weeds CRC
Seminar Summary:
Lilium formosanum is an introduced, perennial, bulbous geophyte that is present in coastal Australia from southern Victoria to south-eastern Queensland; and is especially problematic on Lord Howe Island. This species reproduces both vegetatively and by seed; vegetative reproduction is by sub-division of bulbs, and seeds are produced in capsules. Little is known about the specific reproductive traits for this plant on Lord Howe Island, which is essential information for effective management of this highly invasive species. We quantified reproductive output through seed by counting plants per unit area, capsules per plant and seeds per capsule across a range of environments on the island. Viability of seeds was also measured. Large numbers of viable seeds were produced per plant and per unit area of infestation, and the species invested heavily in both vegetative and sexual reproduction. Production of the wind-dispersed seed is probably the main means whereby new infestations are established, even though the survival rate of seedlings may be very low. We discuss the ecological implications of these findings for the persistence, spread and management of this invasive species.
Thursday 1st May - 11.30am
Modelling the population dynamics of multi-species woody weed infestations
Mr Andrew Zull, PhD Candidate, Weeds CRC
Seminar Summary:
Multi-species weed infestations are a common feature of the northern Australian rangeland systems, yet little attempt has been made to understand or model their dynamics. We simulated the population dynamics of a multi-species infestation of Ziziphus mauritiana (chinee apple), Acacia nilotica (prickly acacia), and Parkinsonia aculeata (parkinsonia) to determine the most appropriate management strategy for the plant community. Model output suggests multi-species infestations generate higher overall density sooner than single species infestations. However, individual species growth rates are slower. Our model indicates that both prickly acacia and parkinsonia initially dominate chinee apple. Later, prickly acacia out-competes parkinsonia, and eventually, chinee apple out-competes both prickly acacia and parkinsonia. Management activities alter the interactions between species, and management must respond to changes in the structure of the weed community.
Thursday 24th April - 11.00am
Managing wildlife diseases in Australia
Lee Francis Skerratt, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University
Seminar Summary:
Whilst veterinary and human medicine is relatively proficient at managing disease, wildlife medicine is much less capable than what the public probably expects.
The recent pandemic of chytridiomycosis resulting in the extinction of many amphibian species is one example demonstrating this relative inability.
In addition to this general global inability, Australia trails well behind other developed countries like Canada, the USA and European countries in terms of capacity and resources to manage wildlife diseases. The unimpeded spread of Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is an example.
However, there have been some notable exceptions with regard to the control of brucellosis and TB in feral animals in northern Australia. These examples demonstrate that the potential for effective management is possible.
There are two key requirements for more effective wildlife disease management in Australia. One is the need to increase resources and capacity for the Australian Wildlife Health Network which coordinates management of wildlife diseases in Australia. The second is the need to undertake research to better understand emerging diseases of Australian wildlife and how to manage those diseases more efficiently.
About the Speaker
See his 1-page biography
Wednesday 9th April - 11.00am
Ecosystem Science & Environmental Change
Dr Gene Likens, Senior Scientist, Ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies in New York
Seminar Summary:
Ecosystem services for humans, such as clean air, clean water, nourishing food, structural materials, aesthetics and recreation, are provided by the various ecological structures and functions of watersheds and other landscape units. Protecting these ecosystem services in a world currently undergoing large-scale and rapid change (Human-Accelerated Environmental Change), depends on ethical standards of human behavior, or according to Aldo Leopold, “We end, I think, at what might be called the standard paradox of the Twentieth Century: our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. But they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.” How do we accomplish this goal in the Twenty-First Century?
Issues and problems related to concepts, such as ecosystem services, ecosystem health, and sustainability, will be related to ecosystem science and policy decisions. Examples will be given of the critical role of ecosystem science in monitoring, studying and evaluating environmental change, from experience and understanding gained from long-term studies of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and associated aquatic ecosystems in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA.
About the Speaker
See his 1-page biography or visit www.ecostudies.org/people_sci_likens.html
Tuesday 8th April - 11.30am
Water quality as related to irrigation in the Ebro River Basin (Spain)
Daniel Isidoro, Research Associate, Department of Soils and Irrigation at the Agri-food Research and Technological Center (CITA) of the Government of Aragón in Spain
Seminar Summary:
The Ebro River presents the highest flow in the Iberian Peninsula and is the main source of available fresh water in Spain. Irrigated surface in the basin is about 8000 km2 (about 9% of the basin area) with a good deal of this area being developed in the last century. The expansion of irrigation, as well as the saline features in the central basin causes an increase in the salt concentration of rivers. Irrigation is also likely to contribute to the NO3 load of the basin rivers. This presentation deals with salinity in the Ebro river basin, the implications of irrigation on the surface water quality in the Ebro river basin, and the monitoring efforts on course by the CITA and the Ebro River Basin Authority (CHE).
About the Speaker
Daniel Isidoro is Research Associate in the Department of Soils and Irrigation at the Agri-food Research and Technological Center (CITA) of the government of Aragón (Spain). He earned his PhD at the University of Lleida (Spain) in 1999 and was a MEC-Fulbright Fellow at the Land, Air and Water Resources Dept. at UC Davis from 2003 to 2005.
His research focuses on the impact of irrigation on water quality at field and basin scale, especially in relation to salinity. He has also applied different statistical methodologies to hydrological and biological studies.
He is currently leader of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education research project “Agricultural inputs ad quality of irrigation return flows in an irrigated area of the middle Ebro Basin”, and is directing several PhD, Ms and Final career projects.
Tuesday 8th April - 11.00 m
Highlighting twenty years of salinity research in Spain’s Ebro River Basin
Ramón Aragüés, Head of the Department of Soils and Irrigation at the Agri-food Research and Technological Center (CITA) of the Government of Aragón in Spain
Seminar Summary:
The 85 400 Km2 Ebro River Basin (ERB) has an irrigated area of 785 000 ha, equivalent to 21% of the total irrigated area in Spain. In the middle ERB, over 125 000 ha are salt-affected due to the weathering of tertiary geologic materials high in native salts, coupled to a poor management of soil and water. This presentation highlights salinity studies performed by CITA in the middle ERB. River water quality was evaluated in terms of its geochemistry, suitability for irrigation, salinity tendencies and its relationships with irrigated agriculture. We have quantified salt loads in irrigation return flows and related them to irrigation efficiency. A mass balance, steady-state hydrosalinity model was developed for estimating best management practices aimed at controlling these salt loads. Electromagnetic (EM) sensors have been used since the early 80’s to delineate soil salinity. A cost-effective, mobile, georeferenced EM sensor was developed and applied for mapping of soil salinity. This technique has also been used for establishing the salinity tolerance of crops and the relationships between soil salinity and drainage water salinity. An automatic infiltrometer was developed to evaluate soil structural stability in relation to water quality. Field and laboratory results indicate that a relevant proportion of middle ERB soils are unstable when irrigated with our high-quality irrigation waters (EC < 0.4 dS/m). We developed and applied the Triple Line Source and the Drip-injection systems for quantifying the response of crops to salinity. Some of these studies focused on foliar absorption of salts under sprinkler irrigation, its effect on crop yields and management strategies to minimize salt damage. Although these studies over the last twenty years have improved our understanding of the salinity problems in the ERB, resources have been insufficient for a successful and sustained effort at addressing this problem.
About the Speaker
Ramón Aragüés is the Head of the Department of Soils and Irrigation at the Agri-food Research and Technological Center (CITA) of the government of Aragón (Spain), Group Leader of the DGA Group of Excellence “Irrigation, Agronomy and the Environment” and Coordinator of the Soils and Irrigation Associated Unit to CSIC.
He earned an MSc in Water Science in 1977 (U.C. Davis, USA) and a PhD in chemistry in 1982 (University of Zaragoza, Spain). He is dedicated to management (30%), research (50%) teaching (10%) and technology transfer (10%).
He has been working for over 30 years in topics related to salinity in irrigated agriculture, such as water quality for irrigation, soil salinity appraisal and control, hydrosalinity balances, modelling of irrigation return flows, soil conservation and response of crops to salinity stress.
He has produced over one hundred scientific and technical papers, has directed twenty PhD, MSc and Final Career Projects, and has participated in ten international and twenty five national research projects. He his presently coordinating a large European project entitled “Diagnosis and Control of Salinity and Nitrate Pollution in Mediterranean Irrigated Agriculture” with partners from Spain, United Kingdom, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Thursday 20th March - 11.00am
Sediment sources and fluxes; a review of current knowledge in the Great Barrier Reef catchments
Dr Scott Wilkinson, Rivers & Estuaries Program, CSIRO Land & Water
Seminar Summary:
Excessive inputs of sediment from the land to coral reefs affects coral by smothering, reducing light availability and potentially reducing coral photosynthesis and growth (GBRMPA). It has been estimated that contemporary sediment yields are 5-10 times pre-European levels. The water quality improvement planning process now underway aims in part to reduce sediment fluxes in future years. The past 10 years has seen much study of sediment in the catchments draining to the Great Barrier Reef. This seminar attempts to synthesise the current knowledge base of the primary sources, and downstream fluxes of fine sediment. The knowledge gaps challenging efforts to reduce sediment supply will be discussed.
Thursday 6th March - 11.00am
The Impacts of Cyclone Larry on the avifauna of fragmented lowland rainforests
James Moloney, Lecturer in School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, JCU
Seminar Summary:
We have much to learn about interactions between natural and anthropogenic disturbance on biological communities.
In March 2006, Cyclone Larry crossed the North-eastern Australian coast, causing widespread damage to already fragmented lowland rainforests. A prior study examining the avifauna of patches provided an opportunity to a) examine the impacts of a severe cyclone on a tropical bird community, and b) compare the impacts and recovery between continuous and fragmented habitats.
Three unfragmented sites, 3 large fragments (>25 ha) and 3 small fragments (<25 ha) were surveyed prior to the cyclone, and 6-8 weeks, 5 months, and 12 months post-cyclone (to date). Birds were sampled by strip transect, and hemispherical photographs were used with visual estimates to quantify vegetation structure. Vegetation was largely defoliated and canopy cover was reduced to below 10%.
Overall bird diversity and abundance decreased, with frugivores virtually disappearing from all sites after the cyclone. Insectivores were less impacted, however the diversity of rainforest specialist insectivores dropped significantly, and remaining insectivores tended towards mixed flocking, possibly due either to predator avoidance or to limited food resources. Although all sites lost bird species after the cyclone, fragments did not lose proportionately more species than unfragmented sites.
In other words, there is no evidence at this stage of an interaction between the human and natural disturbances.
Tuesday 4th March - 11.00am
Lessons emerging from South Africa’s
experience in water reform: The roles of
science and community stakeholders
Dr Mark Dent, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Mark is in Australia as a guest of the CSIRO and is presenting a six city seminar series. His visit is
primarily sponsored by the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management (ICE
WaRM), the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures and the National Water Commission.
Seminar Summary:
One of the keys to learning is to be able to perceive generic elements of ones own situation in that of others. If one can do this, it gives one the advantage of learning valuable lessons at somebody else’s expense. Australia and South Africa have many lessons to learn and many to offer each other in implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM). The people of both countries are on a learning journey through largely uncharted territory and the challenges are often daunting.
One of the first lessons to become evident in both countries is that integrated water resources management cannot be based on dis-integrated science.
As a Bio-resources Engineer and management development professional, working in an academic and research capacity in South Africa since 1975, Mark says he has been privileged to experience and witness many changes.
These include the advent of computer simulation modeling, the internet, GIS, the birth of a democratic South Africa and its subsequent struggles with itself, the growing world consciousness to global climate change, alarming environment degradation and also the recognition of the dangers in the growing gap over natural resource sharing between rich and poor.
In South Africa these changes have stimulated world acclaimed policy and legislation in water and natural resources management and at the same time shown up severe deficiencies in South Africa’s ability to implement these policies. Against this backdrop significant dynamics have occurred in the realm of water related expertise that is so desperately needed in the socioscientific-learning required to cope with integrated water resources management.
Thursday 28th February - 11.00am
Nullius in verba: the story of a scientific revolution
Dr Jim Wallace, Senior Hydrologist, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary:
Following a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren on the 28 November 1660 a group of twelve men met at Gresham College in London and formed The Royal Society, an association ‘for the promoting of Experimental Philosophy’. This led to a revolution in science that moved it from the ‘Philosophy’ advocated by Aristotle some 2400 years earlier to what we know today as the ‘modern scientific approach’.
The new approach is embodied in the Royal Society’s motto, ‘Nullis in verba’, roughly translated as ‘nothing in words’, a call to reject the domination of authority (be it state, church or scientific peers) in favour of determining facts by experimentation.
Why did this happen in England and not Italy where Galileo and others had already made such major progress in science? What lessons still stand for the practice of our science today?
About the Speaker
Dr Jim Wallace
Thursday 7th February – 11.00am
Social dynamics of rangelands, livestock and livelihoods in the Sekhukhune District, South Africa: the transformation process, community mobilization and development
Dr Gerrit Rootman, Coordinator of the JICA funded Livestock Pilot Project, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province, South Africa
Seminar Summary:
Gerrit is currently the coordinator of the JICA funded Livestock Pilot Project, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province, South Africa, which is involved in introduction of dairy goats and supporting forage technologies into communal sector in Limpopo Province.
He has a particular interest in small holder mixed crop-livestock-forage farming systems and was recently invited to serve on the technical group and steering committee of a European Union funded small stock development project in five communal villages in the Sekhukhune District of South Africa.
Gerrit is visiting Australia as a Crawford Fund awardee to see first hand our research and extension in application of legume technologies to crop-livestock systems in sub-tropical and tropical Australia particularly.
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