Models for biodiversity futures for massively altered agricultural landscapes
| What will Victoria's and Australia's landscapes and ecosystems look like in 30, 50, or 150 years' time? Australia’s agricultural landscapes and communities face imminent change due to economic, social and environmental pressures. Significant shifts in land-use may sustain agricultural productivity, but as a nation we risk the loss of our natural wealth - native flora and fauna. Native vegetation removal has caused degradation of soil and water as well as losses of native species diversity. We need to consider future landscapes with substantially more native vegetation than at present in order to deal with the degradation issues which vegetation clearing has created. Australia needs a framework for optimal planning of revegetation actions for sustainable biodiversity management within agricultural landscapes. This project aims to provide a functional framework that will inform land managers about optimal placement and scheduling of landscape revegetation. Because revegetation areas are slow to mature, revegetation planning must consider how long it will take for new vegetation to provide suitable habitat and resources for native flora and fauna. A framework will be developed using field surveys of a wide range of known-age revegetation stands across the catchments. Project home: Monash University (external link) Key personnel Chief Investigators Professor Ralph MacNally (external link)
Associate Professor Andrew Bennett |  |
Publications
The clock is ticking - revegetation and habitat for birds and arboreal mammals in rural landscapes of southern Australia. Peter A. Vesk and Ralph MacNally. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 112 (2006) 356-366.
This paper has been published in the Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment Journal. An abstract is provided below. The full-text version of this paper is available via the International DOI Foundation website (external link) and requires the unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to be keyed in - i.e. doi:10.1016/j.agee.2005.08.038 Those with subscriptions will be able to see the full document text - those without will be blocked but will be able to see a free summary and be able to purchase a copy of the paper via the website.
Contact
For any questions or clarification please don’t hestitate to contact David Duncan, LFA coordinator (03 9450 8750)
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This document was last reviewed on 18/08/2009