Table 29 - uploaded by Trevor Hobbs
Content may be subject to copyright.
Summary of average annual rainfall, and estimated planting density and carbon sequestration rates for revegetation (Woodlots -100% trees; Environmental Plantings -88% trees) in agricultural lands by Trees For Life zones of South Australia.
Source publication
This study focuses on providing reliable estimates of carbon sequestration rates from revegetation activities using Australian native plants in the low to medium rainfall (250 650mm/year) dryland agriculture zones of South Australia. The purpose, design, species composition and carbon sequestration potential of revegetation is extremely diverse. Th...
Citations
... This is the current officially sanctioned method use in estimating credit values in the ERF that is most relevant for the case study. The second carbon supply estimation method relied on data developed by the South Australian Department for Environment and Water (DEW) as a part of the report Carbon Sequestration from Revegetation: South Australian Agricultural Regions (Hobbs et al. 2013). This method is not officially sanctioned as an ERF method but is more indicative of actual expected carbon yields than the relatively conservative FullCAM measure. ...
... net benefit); for the ERF FullCAM carbon method without opportunity costs ($1.8M net benefit); and for the not currently ERF eligible method (Hobbs et al. 2013) with opportunity costs ($2M net benefit). ...
... A negative net benefit is estimated for FullCAM method with opportunity costs (-$1.6M); but positive net benefit for ERF FullCAM carbon method without opportunity costs ($0.9M net benefit); and for the not currently ERF eligible method (Hobbs et al. 2013) with opportunity costs ($1.3M net benefit). ...
This report is one of a series of reports prepared for the Goyder Institute Assessing South Australian carbon offset supply and policy for co-beneficial outcomes project. The project seeks to provide improved understanding of the biophysical and economic potential for carbon sequestration through land use change to carbon plantings across South Australia’s intensive agricultural lands.This report presents a case study assessing potential for carbon plantings in gullies and creek lines in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Happy Valley Reservoir water supply catchment, where there is high potential to produce both significant carbon sequestration and water quality benefits
... The height, structure and cover of vegetation is strongly correlated to plant biomass and carbon sequestration values, and age of vegetation (Hobbs et al. 2013. For each ecotype, the average plant volume (i.e. ...
This study describes and maps the native flora and fauna communities of the Cooper-Eromanga Basin region of South Australia. In past decades, regional conservation planning and environmental assessments by natural resource managers and energy industries were constrained by the lack of consistent and spatial information on the biodiversity assets of the region. Prior to this work, vegetation mapping and ecosystem information were unavailable for large portions of the region (54 000 km²), especially within Strzelecki Desert and Cooper Creek channel country. During 2016–17, this study collated biological and environmental information from government and industry sources, identified gaps in existing information, conducted new surveys in priority landscapes, analysed relationships between flora and fauna and their environment, identified dominant ecosystems (i.e. vegetation and landscapes) and their associated flora and fauna species, mapped the distribution of ecosystems, and identified areas with highest risk of disturbance (including conservation-listed species under federal and state legislation).
The new information and spatial tools created by this study significantly improves our understanding regional biodiversity for conservation planning and natural resource management decisions. It facilitates more efficient and scientifically-robust environmental assessments of petroleum/geothermal or pastoral development activities, and vegetation clearance/offset proposals in the region. Future environmental assessment, monitoring and reporting activities under legislative, regulatory and policy requirements can now be based on more reliable information on the fauna and fauna communities of the Cooper-Eromanga Basin of South Australia.
... In many regions of Australia and the world, the diversity of landscapes, climates, people and land uses creates a complex setting for governments, policy makers and planners to make well-informed decisions about managing regional natural resources for multi-purpose use, now and into the future (Bryan and Crossman, 2008;Wei et al., 2009;Parrot, 2011;Parrott and Meyer, 2012). To assist planning with this uncertainty, considerable efforts have been made to gather comprehensive regional natural resource information, develop analysis tools and provide assessment of land use planning options with a range of possible future scenarios and timeframes (Selman, 2006;Polglase et al., 2008;Crossman and Bryan, 2009;Hobbs, 2009;Hobbs et al., 2010Hobbs et al., , 2013Bryan et al., 2011;Polglase et al., 2013;Wise et al., 2014;Summers et al., 2015;Connor et al., 2015;Gao et al., 2016). ...
Environmental management and regional land use planning has become more complex in recent years as growing world population, climate change, carbon markets and government policies for sustainability have emerged. Reforestation and agroforestry options for environmental benefits, carbon sequestration, economic development and biodiversity conservation are now important considerations of land use planners. New information has been collected and regionally-calibrated models have been developed to facilitate better regional land use planning decisions and counter the limitations of currently available models of reforestation productivity and carbon sequestration. Surveys of above-ground biomass of 264 reforestation sites (132 woodlots, 132 environmental plantings) within the agricultural regions of South Australia were conducted, and combined with spatial information on climate and soils, to develop new spatial and temporal models of plant density and above-ground biomass productivity from reforestation. The models can be used to estimate productivity and total carbon sequestration (i.e. above-ground + below-ground biomass) under a continuous range of planting designs (e.g. variable proportions of trees and shrubs or plant densities), timeframes and future climate scenarios. Representative spatial models (1 ha resolution) for 3 reforestation designs (i.e. woodlots, typical environmental planting, biodiverse environmental plantings) × 3 timeframes (i.e. 25, 45, 65 years) × 4 possible climates (i.e. no change, mild, moderate, severe warming and drying) were generated (i.e. 36 scenarios) for use within land use planning tools.
... The use of data aggregated by geographical region for household operational energy, transport and size may cause some under-or overestimation, since some degree of combination of housing types co-exists in each region; however, it ensures that spatial relevance is maintained when sourcing data from different datasets, such as the travel survey (NSW Bureau of Transport Statistics, 2014), ABS statistics (ABS, 2011) and Energy Regulator (AER, 2015 undated). In scenarios that include afforestation, a biomass carbon sequestration rate of 3 t C/ha/yr was used, this value being in the vicinity of data reported for various Australian conditions (Hobbs et al., 2013;Paul et al., 2008). Soil carbon sequestration rates in eucalypt forest are reportedly relatively low; a value of 0.1 t C/ha/yr has been suggested (Paul et al. in Czimczik et al., 2005). ...
The environmental consequences of the decision to urbanise and displace peri-urban (PU) food production are not typically evaluated within a comprehensive, cross-sectoral approach. Using a novel application of life cycle assessment (LCA) within exploratory scenarios, a method for integrating housing and food production land uses in PU regions is proposed, based on relative environmental impacts. Using two housing types (greenfield and infill) and two types of food production (field and high-technology greenhouse (HTG) lettuce production), environmental impacts for five exploratory land-use scenarios are compared for PU land in a developed and growing city. Each scenario is able to house an equivalent residential population whilst delivering equal quantities of fresh food to a city market. The results clearly indicate that infill housing and food production has less environmental impact than greenfield development. The environmental impact categories of climate change, freshwater eutrophication, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation and human toxicity are reduced by 25–43 percent under infill scenarios. Sparing PU land through infill housing development combined with sustainable food intensification using HTG production, enabled multifunctional PU land-use including food production, housing and afforestation while delivering lower relative environmental impacts. Urban afforestation on PU land made available by these measures reduces the effect of climate change by up to 5 percent per hectare per year.
... In recent years, DEWNR and its partners have completed detailed surveys of 264 known-age revegetation sites across the agricultural region of South Australia and undertaken analyses to quantify climate, soil, planting design and age influences on carbon sequestration rates and vegetation structure (Hobbs et al. 2013). Those models were adapted and recalibrated to LFAT specifications of planting designs and climate change scenarios to create 36 standard carbon sequestration model outputs (Hobbs et al. 2015). ...
... The objective of this project, as summarised by this report, was to undertake a desktop analysis of potential carbon sequestration rates from revegetation for Conservation Action Planning (CAP) priority vegetation communities (Berkinshaw et al. 2014) in the Southern Yorke Peninsula region using existing carbon sequestration models developed by DEWNR (Hobbs et al. 2013(Hobbs et al. , 2015. The study area is based on the Southern Yorke sub-region of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA Version 7, DotE 2012). ...
... Carbon sequestration rates of revegetation sites are influenced by climatic conditions, soils, time and vegetation structure (plant density and tree/shrub ratios) (Hobbs et al. 2013(Hobbs et al. , 2015. For this study, vegetation structure data from 108 Nature Conservation Society of South Australia's Bushland Condition Monitoring (BCM) sites ( Figure 2.1) were used to define a reference or benchmark vegetation structure at a target age of 45 years for each of the priority vegetation types. ...
The southern Yorke Peninsula region is recognised as a significant biodiversity hot spot in South Australia. To restore and conserve the unique and diverse ecosystems of the region the Yorke Peninsula community has undertaken a collaborative, landscape-scale planning approach to biodiversity conservation. The community is involved in a Conservation Action Planning (CAP) process to identify important biodiversity assets within the region, and developed a strategy for their future care and maintenance. The CAP process has identified several open woodland and mallee vegetation communities as important assets in the region.
Targeted revegetation is part of Southern Yorke Peninsula’s integrated strategy to restore the extent and functionality of these plant communities. While these revegetation activities may be designed for ecological benefits, they also have the potential to provide co-benefits to the community and individual landholders through the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and access to carbon markets. Estimates of carbon sequestration rates from targeted revegetation activities in the region can assist planners and landholders to evaluate the potential economic value of these new assets through carbon markets.
The ability of revegetation activities to sequester carbon dioxide is strongly influenced by climate, soil, vegetation structure and time. These influences have been quantified from previous South Australian Government studies of carbon sequestration from revegetation, and the resulting spatial-temporal models have been recalibrated for five priority vegetation communities in the Southern Yorke Peninsula region. This report provides estimates of carbon sequestration rates from potential targeted revegetation activities for several open woodland and mallee plant communities at 25 and 45 years of age under historic climatic conditions. These models have also been used to explore the likely impact of several potential climate change scenarios on carbon sequestration, plant mortality and vegetation structure in the region.
The use of priority vegetation community types, pre-1750 vegetation mapping and local reference sites has more clearly defined the intended purpose, locations and vegetation structure of targeted revegetation activities in the region. Targeted revegetation criteria have facilitated more reliable:
• estimates of carbon sequestration rates from revegetation activities in cleared agricultural lands
(average of +25% more carbon than using ‘typical environmental plantings’ estimates of Hobbs et al. 2015);
• indicators of expected changes in planted vegetation structure over time and influenced by changing climates; and
• evaluations of carbon market stocks resulting from revegetation activities in the region.
Future revegetation and conservation action planning activities in the region should also consider that:
• the mortality of plants on revegetation sites is significant over 45 years, and initial plant densities may need to be 2 or 3 times higher than desired rate at vegetation maturity;
• severe climate change has the potential to reduce average carbon sequestration rates by up to 24% over the next 45 years compared to historic climate averages, and make plant density in revegetation plant communities 11% lower;
• most cleared agricultural landscapes, with good soils and rainfall, would also have higher than average carbon sequestration rates if targeted by revegetation; and
• locations within existing native vegetation communities with higher than typical potential sequestration rates may provide potential indicators of other ecological values (e.g. source populations or refugia for plant and animals).
... In December 2013 the basal area of the regrowth was manually measured at 0.5m from the ground with a tape, while height and crowns were determined using data obtained from the LIDAR flyover (see Section 2.6.2). Regrowth biomass was then calculated using standard allometrics of Hobbs et al. 2013 (see Section 2.7 below). ...
A series of FloraSearch woody crop field trials were established between 2004 and 2010 in South Australia by the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) to evaluate the potential of native plants species to produce biomass for wood fibre, bioenergy, eucalyptus oil, fodder and carbon sequestration industries. Sites were established at Murray Bridge, Roseworthy and Lucindale in 2004-2005 to undertake preliminary species performance evaluation and limited experiments to evaluate the influences of planting density and harvesting on regrowth. This work was conducted in partnerships with allied government departments in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, CSIRO and the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) as part a national network of woody crop trial sites.
In 2006, more detailed studies commenced at the Monarto Research Site to establish germplasm collections of most prospective species, including a national collection of the fodder shrub Oldman Saltbush Atriplex nummularia and suite of prospective FloraSearch “development” species in provenance trials. The best performing Oldman Saltbush plants were selected from this site for clonal propagation and development as commercial cultivars by South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), CSIRO and DEWNR as part of research activities funded by the Future Farm Industries CRC. In 2010, an extensive selection of germplasm from an oil mallee (Eucalyptus loxophleba) were established on the site by DEWNR in partnership with WA Department of Parks and Wildlife under a woody crop development project funded by the Future Farm Industries CRC. The best selections of these oil mallees are intended to be maintained as a seedlot orchard for future biomass industries in Australia.
The following report provides a summary of 2013 performance evaluations of native woody crop species and provenances established across four trial sites in South Australia under the DEWNR’s FloraSearch woody crop program.
