Building resilient alpine environments with less snow. In this project, we aim to build resilience into alpine National Parks and Alpine Resorts to counter the effects of ongoing declines in snow. Alpine environments depend on snow to regulate water flows, insulate vegetation, control soil erosion and promote proper ecosystem functioning. How these processes will operate in a snow-free future is unknown. We will determine how and where snow characteristics drive soil water availability for plant ....Building resilient alpine environments with less snow. In this project, we aim to build resilience into alpine National Parks and Alpine Resorts to counter the effects of ongoing declines in snow. Alpine environments depend on snow to regulate water flows, insulate vegetation, control soil erosion and promote proper ecosystem functioning. How these processes will operate in a snow-free future is unknown. We will determine how and where snow characteristics drive soil water availability for plants and which plant species have the best adaptation and regeneration potential under extreme conditions such as heat, frost and drought. Benefits of the project include innovative land management and rehabilitation solutions, to safeguard Australia's alpine areas under changing environmental conditions.Read moreRead less
Securing soil and water using carbon. This project will ascertain the role of sequestered carbon in positively impacting on chemical, physical and biological and associated feedback mechanisms in order to increase the capacity of soil to store water and carbon. This information will allow us to maximise our ability to manage and rehabilitate Australia's increasing degraded soil resource.
Soil inference system for bridging the environmental modelling gap. The Australian environment is confronted with issues of degradation and long-term sustainability. There is a need to predict landscape processes into the future using simulation models. The limited availability of appropriate information on the soil is a fundamental barrier to this crucial modelling. This project will develop an inference system to predict soil properties from the very limited information. The results will be us ....Soil inference system for bridging the environmental modelling gap. The Australian environment is confronted with issues of degradation and long-term sustainability. There is a need to predict landscape processes into the future using simulation models. The limited availability of appropriate information on the soil is a fundamental barrier to this crucial modelling. This project will develop an inference system to predict soil properties from the very limited information. The results will be used to describe soil quality, to monitor the effects of agricultural management, and principally to provide information needed by policy makers concerned with sustainable land use.Read moreRead less