Dr Greg McKeon

superuser — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:07:06 +0000

Climate change and natural resource management in Australia’s grazing lands

Greg McKeon’s Land & Water Australia Senior Research Fellowship is a synthesis of the significant management issues, uncertainties and risks analyses needed to inform productive and sustainable rangelands agriculture. Climate change impacts on rangeland livestock carrying capacity: where the risk of an already hot, dry and variable climate changes under global warming. The project has built on an analysis of historical degradation and climate phenomena to then review some of the major issues being encountered by land managers and researchers in the rangelands.

IDs and People

Program:

Innovation

Program Theme:

Senior Research Fellowships

Research Type:

Senior Research Fellow

Researchers:

Dr Greg McKeon

Subjects

Subjects:

Climate Change

Keywords:

Grazing lands

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Climate Change and Variability: Assessing regional impacts of sugar cane production

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:20:54 +0000

IDs and People

Program:

Managing Climate Variability

Research Type:

Research Project

Subjects

Subjects:

Innovation

Climate Variability

Climate Change

Keywords:

sugar cane

regional impacts

Project Information

Summary:

This task is to determine how best the sugarcane industry in the Mackay Whitsunday region can meet the sustainability challenge of increasingly extreme events as are predicted to occur with Australia’s changing climate. In particular, will the current best practices be sufficient to keep downstream water quality impacts within the targets required for Great Barrier Reef water quality.

Current Activities

Status:

Active

Location

State & NRM Region:

National

The effect of changing irrigation strategies on biodiversity

superuser — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:20:58 +0000

IDs and People

Program:

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

Legacy (KMS) Project ID:

CSE5029

Host Organisation:

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Researchers:

Sue McIntyre

Subjects

Subjects:

Water (General)

Irrigation

Biodiversity

Climate Change

Keywords:

environmental

Project Information

Summary:

The irrigation industry is facing substantial change that is likely to affect the quantity and timing of water supply, as well as the infrastructure involved in water delivery and use. Managing these changes without further compromising environmental sustainability requires knowledge of how irrigation practices effect local and regional biodiversity, and the implications for biodiversity persistence of possible changes in policies, district water management and farming methods. This project will identify likely changes to irrigation practice, predict how these changes might influence biodiversity in irrigated regions, and explore strategies to ameliorate any negative effects of predicted changes.

Outcomes:

The primary outcomes of this project will be:

Improved understanding of the relationships between biodiversity and irrigation practices and the potential effects of change in black box depressions and deflation basins
Strategies to ameliorate any negative effects on biodiversity of predicted changes to irrigation practices
Incorporation of this improved understanding and the strategies identified into decision-making and management at irrigation policy, supplier and farm scales

This incorporation may include changes to on-farm management practices, improved landscape planning strategies, modifications to irrigation infrastructure designs, strategies for the management of drainage waters, and modified policies relating to water management that incorporate better outcomes for biodiversity (e.g. relating to timing, quantities of flow). The potential for the project to be influential will be high, but diffuse, due to the complexity of paths to outcomes. There are also time lags between new knowledge and outcomes that generally exceed the life of the project.

Current Activities

Status:

Active

Current Activities:

During Spring and Summer 2008 we will be working with landholders, the Ricegrower’s Association of Australia, and Murrumbidgee Irrigation to further develop conceptual models and hypotheses, collect and collate existing data, select appropriate study sites, and conduct a pilot study to finalise the design and on-ground methods. We anticipate that this process will be followed by an intensive data collection period in Autumn 2009. We will also be involved in development of a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the project and selected communications activities.

Background

Project Background:

Irrigated agriculture in Australia’s Riverina consists of a variety of industries - rice, cereal, pulse and oilseed production, as well as livestock. Rice is the dominant crop, and is reliant on irrigation water supply from the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers, supplemented in some cases by underground water. Riverina irrigators are currently experiencing unprecedented restrictions on production due to water shortages. The current drought, together with the ramifications of the NSW environmental flow legislation of 1997, has resulted in irrigators receiving only a fraction of their water allocations.

The Riverina’s irrigation industries have significantly improved water use efficiency over the past 20 years through research and improved irrigation layouts. Given recent climate change projections (Australian Greenhouse Office 2003), and increasing pressure on water supplies, the need for even more efficient use of irrigation water in the future is certain. Options for reducing water use are being implemented or canvassed at both the enterprise and supply scales. Examples include changes in the cropping mix at an enterprise level, reduction or cessation of flooding of rice crops, fewer crops and more efficient water use. At the regional scale, changes to the nature of supply channels are possible, while the application of more efficient techniques may result in less drainage being received in regional wetlands.

Aims:

The overall aim of the project is to assess the impacts of changed irrigation practices on native biodiversity at local and regional scales, using the irrigation districts of the New South Wales Riverina as a case study.

More specifically, the objectives are to:

Identify likely changes to irrigation practices and patterns of water use through consultation with practitioners and stakeholders
Review the available information (including published literature) on the biodiversity of the natural and managed ecosystems of the Riverina
Predict the local and regional implications of changed irrigation practices for biodiversity persistence
Collect, collate and analyse new and existing information on biodiversity responses to irrigation practices
Predict the local and regional implications of changed irrigation practices for biodiversity persistence
Identify strategies which may help ameliorate any negative impacts for biodiversity that may occur

All in Climate Change

Dr Greg McKeon

Climate change and natural resource management in Australia’s grazing lands

Climate Change and Variability: Assessing regional impacts of sugar cane production

The effect of changing irrigation strategies on biodiversity