Day/Time: Thursday 11am (unless otherwise specified)
Venue: CSIRO Davies Laboratory
Seminar Room.
Seminar details
will be updated as they are finalised
December 17
Doing the right thing? Managing invasives without
Dr Sevvandi Jayakody, Lecturer, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka,
Seminar Summary:
Aquatic ecosystems of Sri Lanka have been invaded by both purposely and accidently introduced invasives, some with a history over 50 years. Amongst different aquatic systems, irrigation reservoirs constructed over the last 2000 years for paddy culture in the dry zone of the country have been most affected since they provide opportunities for spread of invasives as they are low lying, interconnected, frequently disturbed by fluctuating water and nutrient levels and other anthropogenic activities.
Livelihoods as well as biodiversity are threatened, making invasions one of the key problems to manage. Where opportunities created by disturbances that occur in reservoirs, and the attributes of invaders to exploit those opportunities are well matched, opportunity- opportunist situation assists easy establishment of invasive species. As a result, several invasive flora such as Salvenia molesta and Eichhornia crassipes and fauna such as Oreochromis spp. are well established depicting failed eradication attempts.
With the objective of developing better management practices, we have been evaluating the ecological interactions of established invasives in Anaivilundawa cascade seasonal reservoir system which is also a Ramsar wetland Sanctuary. Whilst Eichhornia crassipes mats covered over 14% of surface water, the last reservoir in the cascade system was 97% covered by native Nelumbo nucifera. Avifaunal distributions revealed decline in open water loving birds such as Cotton pygmy-goose (Nettapus coromandelianus) and increase in Asian openbill (Anastomus ascitans) populations. Behavioural studies revealed Purple moorhen’s (Porphyrio porphyrio) complete dependence on Eichhornia crassipes mats. Asian openbill breeding colonies elevated the nutrient loadings in water but flora including invasives were recognised for their contribution in removal of nutrients.
Results so far suggest that managers need to trade-off between total gains and losses when managing established invasives and decisions should be supported by ecological studies looking into the role of invasives at community and ecosystem level.
About the speaker:
Sevvandi is a lecturer attached to Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. Her interests in plant-animal interactions and anthropogenic influences to ecosystems has lead to herself working in one of the Ramsar wetlands in Sri Lanka looking at the effects of established invasives.
November 5
GBR Ecosystem Health: where are we with water?
Carol Honchin, GBR Ecosystem Health, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Seminar Summary:
Good quality water is important to the health of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The GBRMPA prepared Water Quality Guidelines for the GBR Marine Park setting levels to stay within for key parameters to protect the health of the GBR system, manages a monitoring program to check the condition of waters and ecosystems, and works with partners to improve the quality of the water through a number of collaborative programs.
About the speaker:
Carol has been working in marine park management for nearly 20 years. She has worked on planning, impact assessment and mitigation, tourism management and more recently in the coastal ecosystems and water quality team at GBRMPA with a focus on marine ecosystem health and water quality improvement
October 13 - TUESDAY
Eye On Australia
Fred Kamphues, Mill House Consultancy, The Netherlands
Seminar Summary:
Eye On Australia is an outreach project to promote spaceflight and the use of spacecraft data. It is targeted for an Australian and international audience. Many people are hardly aware that space plays an essential role in daily life. Eye On Australia will show a number of interesting examples of satellite use throughout Australia.
About the speaker:
Fred Kamphues is an engineering consultant from the Netherlands. He has been involved in the development of spacecraft components and subsystems for more than 25 years. During the last 10 years he has concentrated on the design of space and ground based astronomical telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile. He is currently involved in the development of Silicon Carbide optics for the European Gaia mission. Besides engineering work, Fred is also involved in many outreach and PR activities in the space and science community in the Netherlands, working closely together with science institute TNO and the Netherlands Association for Spaceflight (NVR).
September 17
Land condition information for rangeland management
Mr Robert Karfs, Team Leader, Land Production Science for Queensland Primary Industries & Fisheries, Department of Employment, Economic Development & Innovation
Seminar Summary:
Consistent information on vegetation cover and condition is needed for improving the effectiveness of rangeland management. Information of where vegetation is changing with respect to livestock grazing operations and natural events is a critical information component. This presentation highlights the use of remote sensing satellite data and ground monitoring assessments to identify vegetation change as it relates to land condition. Examples discussed include remote sensing at moderate resolution (Landsat Thematic Mapper), high resolution (SPOT 5) and low resolution (MODIS) in combination with ground validation from rapid land condition assessment; in catchments where grazing is the dominant land use, namely in Queensland’s Burdekin Dry Tropics, Fitzroy Basin and the Northern Gulf regions. Specific land condition products include ground cover change maps, regional mapping of indicative very poor land condition, floodwater inundation, land condition photo standards and stratified land condition summaries. The VegMachine software for interrogating time-series satellite data will also be discussed. The major innovation has been a better understanding of NRM issues with respect to land condition across vast regional areas, and the effective transfer of decision-making capacity to ‘non-expert’ users. Likewise, users with increased capacity to address land management issues and policy questions from a consistent viewpoint should allow for improved levels of grazing land management to continue to emerge.
About the speaker:
Bob Karfs has over 20 years experience in rangelands conducting resource assessment and land resource condition studies in Queensland and in the Northern Territory. He has led numerous multi-agency rangeland monitoring projects across northern Australia funded through the Natural Heritage Trust, Tropical Savannas CRC, National Land and Water Audit, Meat and Livestock Australia, NRM Groups and Caring for our Country. A common theme of his work has been the development of land condition indicators from remotely sensed imagery. A significant outcome has been the translation of R&D into information systems and products that are useful to both the grazing enterprise and policy makers alike. Mr. Karfs qualifications include a BSc degree in Geological Sciences and Geography, an MSc in Remote Sensing, and Graduate Certificate in Public Administration. He is currently Team Leader, Land Production Science for Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, DEEDI.
August 28
Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector in South Africa: To Stress or not to Stress? . . . That is the Question
Professor Roland Schulze, Professor Emeritus of Hydrology & Senior Research Associate, School of Bioresources Engineering & Environmental Hydrology, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Seminar Summary:
The evolution of the climate – land cover – population – cycle of natural resources has focused attention on water for food in a climate changed future. With climate being a major determinant of agricultural production, especially in South Africa, projected first order changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, temperature and precipitation, as well as changes to related second order climate derivatives of frost, heat units, chill units and soil moisture are assessed for South Africa. Illustrations of projected shifts in optimum growth areas and yields of key crops, as well as shifts in pests/disease occurrences and irrigation water demand lead to concluding remarks on anticipated future stresses in the agriculture sector of South Africa and on potential adaptation issues.
About the speaker:
Professor Roland Schulze, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, has had a long and distinguished career and is an internationally recognised expert in hydrology. He has worked and lectured in several countries around the world and is particularly well know for his work on the ACRU hydrological model, the South African Atlas of Agrohydrology and Climatology, and more recently on climate change impacts on the water resources of South Africa.
Professor Schulze has many accolades to his name, including the SA Institute of Agricultural Engineers Gold Medal for “outstanding contributions to hydrology in SA”, Fellowship of the University of Natal in recognition of “distinguished academic achievement”, Fellowship of the Royal Society of South Africa for “distinguished contribution in the furtherance of science in South Africa”, Life membership of the International Water Academy of Norway, and Agricultural Researcher of the Year for KwaZulu-Natal.
August 27
Multi-Decadal Spatial Observation of Socio-Environmental Change in the Global Tropics, with Special Reference to Early Satellite Observation of Forest Regeneration
Prof Peter Scogings, Associate Professor, University of Zululand, South Africa
Seminar Summary:
This seminar aims to provide some insight into the current activities of his research programme on browse-browser interactions in savannas. The main focus is on the project he ran with numerous collaborators in Kruger National Park, South Africa, since 2005.
After a brief perspective on browse-browser interactions in savannas, he will introduce the project, address three specific components of the project that he has been analysing recently, briefly mention the other projects they are doing under the broader programme, and attempt to highlight directions for future research on the interactions between trees and browsing mammals in savannas.
Several factors influence woody plant palatability and responses to browsers in savannas. We have assumed that (1) water and nutrients limit tree growth in semi-arid savannas, except at the start of the wet season, (2) C-based secondary metabolites accumulate during the wet season, and (3) post-browsing re-growth is limited late in the wet season. We therefore postulated that phenolic concentrations would be higher and N lower in browsed compared to unbrowsed plants during the middle-late wet season.
Attempts to understand the responses of trees to browsing in savannas must recognise diverse responses of individual species to browsing intensity and type, effects of temporal and spatial scales of observation, influences of soil type, and interactions with rainfall. Development of a general model of browse-browser interactions in savannas remains a challenge.
About the speaker:
After completing his MSc in Wildlife Management at the University of Pretoria, Peter worked at the University of Fort Hare for 13 years, first as a researcher in the Agricultural & Rural Development Research Institute for 7 years and then as a lecturer in the Department of Livestock & Pasture Science. He has been in his current position at the University of Zululand since 2003. His work at ARDRI involved research on rangeland management in communal grazing areas. His PhD and postdoctoral research at Fort Hare was on the interaction between trees and goats. His main research interest continues to be the interactions between plants and herbivores, and how such knowledge can be applied to the management of vegetation for either conservation or animal production purposes.
Currently his main projects include the feeding behaviour of goats in different types of savannas, and the impacts of large herbivores on trees in savannas. In the past he has collaborated with researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the Macaulay Institute, and his current collaborations involve researchers and students from the University of Cape Town, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Hedmark University College (Norway), Joensuu University (Finland), Wageningen Agricultural University, the Agricultural Research Council (South Africa) and Kruger National Park.
August 6
Tropical Rainforests; hydrology controls ecology or vice versa?
Dr Jim Wallace, Hydrologist, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary:
The very name ‘rainforest’ invokes a strong connection between these wonderful vegetation communities and climate, via rainfall. The beauty of these forests is not just in their appearance, but also in the unique plants and animals that they contain. How then does the rain (or hydrology) affect the forest (or ecology)? We are indeed fortunate that in the recent past extensive data have been collected in several Australian rainforests that allow us to explore the intriguing interactions between their hydrology and ecology. Three of the most mystifying interactions are presented that provide evidence for either hydrological control of the ecology or vice versa. These are (i) cloud interception, (ii) rainfall interception and (iii) transpiration. Understanding these will help us predict what might happen to these rainforests under a future climate and this is demonstrated both in situ and downstream of the forests. Does the hydrology control the ecology?; does the ecology control the hydrology?; or are they both at the mercy of climate?
3pm July 23
Large herbivore effects on phenolics and nutrients of woody species
Sean Sloane, University of Melbourne / CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship
Seminar Summary:
Understanding the human dimensions of pan-tropical environmental change is increasingly important. Yet understanding is constrained by the poor spatial and temporal scale of available data, derived predominantly from published censuses and satellite-imagery archives. Research on tropical forest regeneration as a function of socio-economic development is reviewed, and found to be wanting due to such data limitations. In the context of this research, two novel data sources are discussed: (i) respondent-level census micro-data, and (ii) forest-cover maps derived from Landsat MSS satellite imagery. The use of these data sources obviate the spatial and temporal limitations to modeling socio-environmental change, potentially heralding more precise understanding and more effective policy. The utility of these data extend to all disciplines concerned with long-term, large-scale environmental change having a human dimension
About the speaker:
Sean Sloan is a geographer interested in the interface of social and environmental change in the tropics. In particular, Sean investigates the intimate relationship between social and environmental well-being. His current work focuses on the satellite observation and spatial modeling of tropical forest regeneration due to socio-economic development, with implications for biodiversity conservation and climate change. Previous work has considered the use of biofuels in West Africa as a means of forest conservation, and land redistribution programs in Guatemala. Sean is presently a PhD Candidate in The Department of Resource Management and Geography of The University of Melbourne. Previously, Sean was a fellow of the Organization of American States and visiting researcher at The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.
July 9
Salinisation of a Tropical Groundwater System
Matt Lenahan, Post Doctoral Research Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary:
The Burdekin coastal floodplain aquifer is an example of a tropical groundwater system exploited for irrigation that has exhibited steady declines in groundwater quality since monitoring began in the 1960’s. The coastal aquifer and Burdekin River supply irrigation water to Australia’s premier sugar cane growing area, which drains into environmentally sensitive Ramsar listed wetlands and the world heritage listed Great Barrier Reef Lagoon (GBRL). The floodplain aquifer is comprised of complex successions of Quaternary terrigenous and marine sediments hosting groundwater up to 4 times more saline than seawater (total dissolved solids > 140,000 mg/l). Trends in major element chemistry indicate the increases in groundwater salinity are the result of mixing between fresh river water/groundwater and highly saline end-member water(s). Potential end-members include modern seawater, older saline groundwater developed through transpiration of seawater and connate marine waters. The data suggest that evapotranspiration of irrigation water, intensive fertilizer application and mobilization of unsaturated zone solutes have had smaller impacts on groundwater salinity. However, leaching of agricultural nitrate and sugar cane sap through coarse-grained palaeochannel sediments has resulted in NO3/Cl mass ratios > 1 and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations > 10 mg/l. Bacterial oxidation of DOC is evident from HCO3/Cl ratios > 10, while pH values > 7 and Si/Cl ratios > 5 suggest that carbonic acid (H2CO3) generated through these reactions is buffered by silicate weathering. It is unknown whether trace metals associated with silicate minerals are mobilized through this process.
Combined high density extraction (> 2,000 production bores) and artificial recharge schemes have created a semi-closed hydrologic cycle, where groundwater is extracted, recharged and then re-extracted. This cycle continuously mobilizes saturated zone solutes, increasing the salinity beyond the salt tolerance level of crops. Rising groundwater levels in some parts of the floodplain aquifer suggest that in the future there will be increased discharge of saline groundwater, nutrients and potentially harmful trace metals into the Burdekin River and near shore marine environment. This highlights the need for implementation of appropriate deep drainage and drainage disposal management strategies.
June 4
Assessing land erodibility dynamics in western Queensland
Dr Nicholas Webb, Post Doctoral Fellow, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary:
Land degradation by wind erosion affects large areas of the world’s arid and semi-arid lands. At the field scale, wind erosion has on- and off-site effects on agricultural productivity, farm infrastructure and ecosystem health. Dust emissions from wind erosion also have numerous impacts at regional to global scales relating to: atmospheric radiation transfers, cloud nucleation, biogeochemical processes, and ocean nutrient availability. Central to the study of these processes are the requirements to monitor potentially erodible land areas, to understand conditions giving rise to spatial and temporal variations in dust emissions, and to integrate research across scales so that wind erosion mechanics can be better linked to regional and global studies of dust processes.
This presentation will provide an overview of the development and application of a model to assess land susceptibility to wind erosion, i.e. land erodibility, in western Queensland. The model was developed in a GIS environment and can be run at a 5x5 km spatial resolution on a daily time-step using inputs of grass and tree cover, soil moisture, soil texture and stone cover. The model performance was tested against time-series observational records of wind erosion activity and visual assessments of land condition acquired by rapid mobile assessments from a moving vehicle.
The model was applied to assess land erodibility dynamics in western Queensland from 1980 to 2006. The application shed light on the spatial distribution of erodible land areas, and the frequency at which land may become erodible within different bioregions. The model indicates a north-south spatial variation in the seasonality of land erodibility changes across western Queensland, reflecting regional differences in precipitation and the seasonal pattern of observed wind erosion activity. At inter-annual time scales, modelled land erodibility was found to be influenced by regional scale rainfall variability and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Spatial patterns in the strength of these interactions appear to be driven by the sensitivity of land types to climate variability and land management pressures.
May 28
Conducting participatory and integrated multi-scale research in Indonesia: Energy, Forests & Poverty
Dr Alex Smajgl, Research Scientist, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary:
Adaptation dynamics of communities to environmental change, such as rainfall, forest stocks, fish stocks and flooding, have a multitude of consequences for livelihood choices, poverty and natural resource use. Emerging properties of such household level behaviour are analysed in the context of energy related policy changes in an agent-based model implemented in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The underlying hypothesis is that complex systems modelling can help decision makers to better understand the responses of a socio-ecological system to macro-policy changes, for example fuel subsidy reductions. Challenging characteristic of most sustainability related research projects is the relevance of multiple decision making scales to the system to be analysed. Research process and methodologies have to be aligned to contribute effectively to political decision making processes. This presentation will frame the principle design for participation and integration across scales. Additionally main results for an agent-based model will be presented that was developed for East Kalimantan, one of three modelling activities conducted in this research.
The participatory model development process revealed that many decision makers implied linear responses of poverty indicators to policy interventions (“if we double cash payments we can double our impact on poverty”). The agent-based model offered the opportunity to consider feedbacks created by interactions in the socio-ecological system. Model results indicate that poverty responses to changes in fuel subsidies and poverty cash payments are highly non-linear. Three important messages emerge from the model results. Firstly, petrol price reductions have a rather low impact on poverty alleviation. Secondly, diminishing marginal returns have to be expected as poverty levels do not seem to respond linearly to fuel subsidy changes. Thirdly, model results suggest that not just marginal but also absolute returns can decrease due to environmental feedbacks.
About the speaker:
Dr Alex Smajgl is a Research Scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Townsville.
May 14
Vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change - challenges for managers and scientists
Roger Beeden, Manager, Climate Change Group, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Seminar Summary:
Climate change is now recognised at the most serious long-term threat to coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef has been spared the level of devastation seen in many parts of the world, yet it is far from immune from the alarming impacts of coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification. To fully understand the risks from climate change, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park coordinated a comprehensive analysis of the vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change. Bringing together 86 experts, Climate Change and the Great Barrier Reef – A Vulnerability Assessment provides a comprehensive and contemporary evaluation of climate change risks and potential management responses.
Building on this knowledge base, the GBRMPA developed the Great Barrier Reef Climate Change Action Plan. The Action Plan outlines a 5-year program to develop and test strategies for building the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem, industries and communities to a changing climate. In conjunction with stakeholders and partners, including the CSIRO, the GBRMPA is exploring approaches to support resilience of the GBR, increase adaptive capacity of GBR communities and industries and reduce climate footprints.
The magnitude of the climate change challenge, its rate of onset and the potential for irreversible impacts dramatically increase the imperative for science to be explicitly targeted to management needs. Scientists and managers need to work closely to ensure that applied research is directed at gaps that give the greatest return for investment in terms of management outcomes. A shared understanding of the constraints and opportunities facing natural resource management, and of the emerging scientific ideas and existing knowledge, will be key to effective science-management partnerships in our efforts to address climate change.
May 8
Decision tools for the water industry – an eWater CRC perspective
Jane Blackmore, Decision Science Leader, eWater CRC; and Urban Systems (North Ryde), CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Seminar Summary:
eWater CRC is building new tools to support the Australian and international water management industry. At the heart of the CRC’s activity are new biophysical models to assist in river management, urban water planning, and catchment management, restoration and conservation decisions. The core models however provide only part of what is needed to make good decisions in a complex environment. Consideration of the wider decision-making context, understanding risks and uncertainties, optimising solutions for multiple objectives and ensuring that stakeholder views have been taken into account will all lead to better, more sustainable outcomes.
Jane will outline the eWater Decision Framework, and describe how approaches to risk, uncertainty, optimisation and multi-criteria assessment are being incorporated into the eWater toolkit to enhance the decision-making process to make richer use of the core model outputs.
POSTPONED
Tropical rainforests; hydrology controls ecology or vice versa?
Dr Jim Wallace (Hydrologist) and Dr Dave McJannet (Hydrologist), CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary:
The very name ‘rainforest’ invokes a strong connection between these wonderful vegetation communities and climate, via rainfall. The beauty of these forests is not just in their appearance, but also in the unique plants and animals that they contain. How then does the rain (or hydrology) affect the forest (or ecology)? We are indeed fortunate that in the recent past extensive data have been collected in several Australian rainforests that allow us to explore the intriguing interactions between their hydrology and ecology. Three of the most mystifying interactions are presented that provide evidence for either hydrological control of the ecology or vice versa. These are (i) cloud interception, (ii) rainfall interception and (iii) transpiration. Understanding these will help us predict what might happen to these rainforests under a future climate and this is demonstrated both in situ and downstream of the forests. Does the hydrology control the ecology?; does the ecology control the hydrology?; or are they both at the mercy of climate?
March 26
Laguna Bay Institutional Strengthening and Community Participation Project
Emiterio C. Hernandez, Thematic Group Leader, Soil Erosion and Flood Management, Laguna Lake Development Authority, Philippines
Seminar Summary:
The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) in the Philippines was established in 1966 as a quasi-government agency that leads, promotes and accelerates sustainable development in the Laguna de Bay Region. Regulatory and law-enforcement functions are carried out with provisions on environmental management, particularly on water quality monitoring, conservation of natural resources, and community-based natural resource management. In 2000, the LLDA Decision Support System (DSS), containing an integrated set of mathematical modelling tools was set-up for the whole Laguna de Bay Basin with financial and technical support from the Royal Dutch Government. It provides discussion platforms aimed to enable scientists and managers to reach a common perspective on managing the lake. Through the DSS, the LLDA is able to integrate research efforts in scientific disciplines, translate the results to the management level, increase the understanding of the relations between users of a water system and the system itself, provide a common and user-friendly framework for the analysis and comparison of management decisions, and facilitate the comparison of many different management options and measures. Complemented by the ongoing re-engineering of the LLDA, this completes the institutionalization of an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach by the LLDA, as it evolved into a technologically advanced lake basin management authority that exercises and performs its mandate more effectively.
March 24
Pasture Management in Mongolia – the Green-Gold Experience
Dr. D. Dorligsuren, Programme Coordinator, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Seminar Summary:
Pasture lands are the backbone of Mongolian agriculture. However, overuse is putting a strain on grassland resources. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in cooperation with the government of Mongolia, established the” Green Gold” initiative in 2002. Since then the project has grown in scope to encompass several sectors critical to the successful management of Mongolia's pasturelands.
The SDC’s “Green Gold” programme aims to enable sustainable use of grasslands. The combination of overgrazing, desertification, a harsh climate, consecutive droughts and severe winters have dramatically revealed the vulnerability of herders who rely on the income from extensive livestock that need access to grazing areas. The overall goal of the “Green Gold” Pasture Ecosystem Management Programme is to strengthen the self-reliance of poor and vulnerable herders to improve their livelihoods through more productive and sustainable use of pastures in Mongolia. Through development and testing of appropriate technologies, encouraging schemes for co-management for natural resources and participation in pasture lands policy dialogue, the Green-Gold program aims to build capacity in pasture ecosystem research and empower herder groups to develop sustainable grassland management systems. This seminar will explore the experiences of the Green-Gold Program and the lessons learned so far.
Note: This seminar is presented as part of a study tour visit to Australia and New Zealand by members of the Mongolian Society for Range Management (MSRM). The MSRM (which includes both professional rangeland and herder members) hosted a highly successful post-congress tour for delegates to the 2008 International Grasslands and Rangelands Congress (Hohhot, China) in July 2008. This visit reciprocal study tour visit is a consequence of that engagement.
March 5
Irrigation – damned if we do, damned if we don’t?
Dr Keith Bristow, Senior Principal Research Scientist, River and Irrigation Hydrology Research Group, CSIRO Land and Water
Seminar Summary:
Irrigation is fundamental to meeting the world’s food requirements but currently uses some 60-70% of our freshwater withdrawals to achieve this. It is no surprise therefore that irrigation is coming under increasing scrutiny as people gain a better appreciation of the trade-offs between meeting food needs through manipulation of the water cycle and the associated environmental and ecological costs of doing so. In this seminar I discuss some of the primary drivers impacting on irrigation and water management. I revisit the basics of irrigation and highlight things we know we need to do but often still choose to ignore. I address issues of complexity, balance, quality, environmental flows and efficiency, and argue that Australia needs a national approach to irrigation. We are learning that the future of irrigation depends on the health of our environment and that there is no ultimate trade-off between the economy and the environment. No environment, no economy. This tells us we need to change the way we think about and invest in the environment as its health will determine the productivity of irrigation and hence food supply.
About the speaker:
Professor Keith L. Bristow is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Land and Water and joint Program Leader of the CRC for Irrigation Futures System Harmonisation Program. He is a soil physicist/hydrologist by training with interests in water, the environment, complex systems, irrigation and integrated water resources management. He currently leads the Northern Australia Irrigation Futures project which works closely with governments and other organisations to develop new knowledge, tools and processes to support debate and decision making regarding irrigation in northern Australia.
February 5
Problems in estimating pollutant loads to the Great Barrier Reef and measuring changed loads as a result of management
Jon Brodie, Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research, James Cook University
Seminar Summary:
The objectives of the Reef Rescue program of the Australian Government are to reduce loads of suspended sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus, and herbicides to the Great Barrier Reef from the rivers which discharge into the GBR. This is to be accomplished by voluntary arrangements with farmers and others to implement improved management practices in agriculture (e.g. fertiliser management) and other catchment remediation measures (e.g. riparian vegetation restoration). Reef rescue is funded to $200m and hence there is a strong need to have scientifically credible auditing and monitoring of the results of theexpenditure. However measuring loads of the key pollutants being delivered from the catchments to the GBR is fraught with difficulties. Almost all delivery takes place in high flow events and there are logistical as well as many other problems in alculating loads from a sampling program in these circumstances. A range of these problems will be discussed. Detecting change in the loads has another set of problems associated with time lags from management action to water quality response, variable climate and flow, detecting the trend from the noise and measurement uncertainty. While models such as SedNet can be used to estimate loads there are a separate set of problems with this approach. Overall it may be difficult to ever detect trends in loads at the end of major rivers due to management in the time frames required by the political process - 2 to 10 years. Alternative strategies will be discussed.
About the speaker:
Jon Brodie spent time as a lecturer in chemistry at Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove, Brisbane) and the University of the South Pacific (Suva, Fiji) and as an analytical hemist with the CRA Metallurgical Research Section (Newcastle). For the last 20 years his interests have been in environmental research and consultancy and the management of marine and freshwater ollution. He spent ten years as an environmental researcher/consultant with the University of the South Pacific (Fiji and other Pacific island states) and the ACTFR. For 11 years he managed the Water Quality Research and Management Program of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. He has been at ACTFR at JCU for the last 8 years working mostly on GBR water quality issues. He
works closely with CSIRO and will be a visiting scientist at Davies for the next 2 years. He has also been recently involved in a number of environmental projects overseas in the Middle East (Yemen), the Pacific islands (American Samoa, Samoa, Kiribati and PNG) and ASEAN countries.
Jon's research interests are in the sources of pollutants in catchments; transport of pollutants to the marine environment; the dispersal of land-based pollutants in coastal and marine environments; and the effects of terrestrial pollutants on marine ecosystems. He is particularly interested in the following research areas:
- water quality in tropical coastal marine environment
- the effects of sediments and nutrients on coral reef and seagrass bed ecosystems
- catchment sources of sediment and nutrient discharge to coastal environments
- land use practices which lead to enhanced rates of sediment and nutrient discharge to coastal environments
- river plume dynamics and biological, physical and chemical processes occurring in river plumes, and
- temporal and spatial dynamics of water quality on the Great Barrier Reef; water quality management systems in coral reef environments.
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