National

Making farm decisions in a changing climate

Climate change presents all farmers with a new challenge that will fundamentally affect all farm decisions. CSIRO describes the implications for natural resource management as follows: “Compared to most threatening processes that we deal with, climate change is more complex, uncertain, dynamic and poorly (more)...

Grain marketing considerations under climate change scenarios

Climate change may have major impacts on grain marketing in Australia, especially for producers.

Producers need to consider the viability of production, the flexibility of their planting window, and the costs of holding harvested crops on farm.

Domestic and international grain buyers will need responsive and flexible supply chains.

Climate change impacts on pest animals and weeds

Predicted changes in climate will affect the spread and competitiveness of pest animals and weeds in Australia. For example, in southern Australia, we can expect to see: more very hot days (in excess of 35°C) less incidence of frost less winter rainfall across all southern regions; spring rainfall is expected to be lower in south-eastern Australia, and autumn rainfall is more likely to be lower in the south-west of (more)...

The carbon cycle and land management

The carbon in living organisms and in the products derived from them has been absorbed from the atmosphere. It is returned to the atmosphere by a number of processes that occur over different time periods. We call this the carbon cycle (Figure 1). The atmosphere, the oceans, the Earth’s crust and its living organisms (the biosphere) are major reservoirs of carbon. These reservoirs are sometimes called carbon stores or carbon sinks. The complex (more)...

Climate information on the internet

Links to various websites publishing climate information.

Climate change: the scientific basis for concern

The climate of the Earth is changing; it always has and always will. At very long time scales, natural drivers of climate change include subtle shifts and wobbles in the Earth’s orbit. These shifts account for the ice ages and warm interglacial periods over the last million years. At decadal time scales, natural climate drivers include variations in ocean currents and solar output. At the annual scale, drivers such as volcanic eruptions (which cool the earth by adding reflective (more)...

Investigating lake/groundwater interactions at Lake Tutchewop

Salinity is an on-going environmental concern that causes damage to agricultural land, downstream water users, aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as to regional and urban infrastructure. One strategy to manage increasing salinity in the Murray Darling Basin is the construction of 13 major salt interception schemes that divert 550,000 tonnes of salt away from the Murray River each year. The Barr Creek Drainage Disposal Scheme is one of these schemes diverting saline water into (more)...

Agricultural land retirement as an environmental policy

This fact sheet outlines research that uses the shadow price (the value of a land parcel over a year ) of land and analyses the potential use of contract design for cost-efficient agricultural land retirement schemes in Australia.

How does the international experience of agri-environmental schemes inform Caring for our Country?

Should agricultural land be used for producing private agricultural gain or public environmental goods – can farmers be encouraged to do both? This fact sheet looks at agri-environmental schemes in the USA and Europe and what Australia can learn from them.

Agri-environmental stewardship program architecture: towards convergence in the USA and Europe?

This discussion paper reviews the evolution and experience with environmental stewardship schemes or agri-environmental measures (AEMs) as they are generically known in the USA and in Europe, particularly the UK.