Victorian Long-term Agro-ecological Sites Network

Horsham Long-Term Sites | Rutherglen Long Term Sites | Walpeup Long Term Sites

What is the LTAE network? The long-term Agronomic-Ecological research sites (LTAE) and expertise of custodian scientists represents a research network across the agro-ecological zones where cropping occurs in Victoria. The network currently includes locations at Horsham, Rutherglen and Walpeup (Figure 1). These sites recently underwent a rigorous review process that made several important recommendations for their future use with regard to researchers, stakeholders, and the public good value for the community (Crawford et al. 2003). Overview of land-use change in relation to location of LTAE network Grain production is expected to remain prominent in the Victorian landscape with increased demand from markets in Asia, particularly China and increasing reliance of intensive animal industries such as dairy, on local feed grains. This will occur in coincidence with greater production in the high rainfall zones (HRZ), competition from other land uses (eg. small-farm lifestyle agriculture, plantation forestry) economic limitations, climate change, consolidation into larger enterprises due to investment capacity and management constraints due to local government planning provisions.

Figure 1. Map showing locations of LTAE sites within Victoria in relation to long-term mean annual rainfall.

LTAE’s for natural resource management (NRM) benchmarking

Long-term agro-ecological sites are assuming increased importance as benchmarks of sustainability against a range of diverse land uses. These land management regimes are likely to range from small farm enterprises to large operations controlled by corporate bodies such as superfunds. In this situation, the long term agronomic experimental sites (LTAE’s) across Victoria represent a valuable early warning system of the ecological impacts of farming management practices that may threaten food security, sustainability of soil and water resources and potential impacts on biodiversity. Being strategically located on government owned land and controlled by custodians at research centres, these sites are currently representative of the mean annual rainfall (MAR) isohyets of most agricultural production in Victoria. Each has a unique regional context with a range of plant communities, management practices and ecological communities within the landscape. The sites are located at Horsham (LR1 and SCRIME; mean annual rainfall 425 mm) (Table 1), Rutherglen (SR1, RGL6 and PTD’s; Mean Annual Rainfall 592 mm) (Table 2) and Walpeup (MC14 and DDL; mean annual rainfall 320 mm) (Table 3) and Hamilton (High P; mean annual rainfall 700 mm).

Advantages of long-term experiments

The main advantage of long-term experimentation is that it allows the quantification of the impacts of management practices on soil processes which may be relatively slow in terms of change (i.e. pH, soil organic matter, microbial diversity) but extremely important in terms of sustainable agriculture. Change can occur quite rapidly after long periods of gradual change. Thus, monitoring these changes gives the opportunity for evaluating biological, biogeochemical and environmental dimensions of agricultural sustainability; for predicting future global changes; and for validating model competence and performance (Rasmussen et al. 1998). These sites are represented as part of a global network of activity, which highlights their importance (e.g. Longerenong LR1 and Rutherglen PTD) in an international context.

Research capacity from LTAE’s for addressing NRM and productivity issues

Increasing use of computer simulation models to predict the long-term consequences of different agricultural practice demands the use of actual data sets as provided by the LTAEs to validate these assessments. The LTAE model has international equivalents in the USA (long term ecological research (LTER) sites of the USA National Science Foundation (e.g. Michigan State University), and others in Europe within the global terrestrial ecosystems (GTE) network (e.g. Rothamstead long-term fertiliser trials). The value of the LTAE sites to interpret rates of organic carbon depletion and processes in different farming systems that are not restricted to the crop sequences, fertiliser, stubble and tillage regimes represented at the sites. The LTAE results give benchmark values for retention of organic carbon in the soil that are being compared with data from other plant communities and greenhouse gas studies to define long-term contributions to global warming. Several research papers have resulted from the research carried out in the Victorian LTAE site network.

LTAE Site Administration

Funding:
Key Program One: Integrating Farming Systems into Landscapes
Key Project 1.1: Understanding Agriculture Ecosystems

Contacts: SWL Grain or LTAE network co-ordinator:

Custodians
Horsham: Roger Armstrong (03 5362 2111)
Rutherglen: Phil Newton (02 6030 4500)
Walpeup: Roy Latta (03 50917200)

References

Crawford MC, Sonogan R, Unkovich M and Yunusa IAM (2003) Review of Long-term Agronomic Experiments in Victoria. CLPR Research Report, Bendigo, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria. To view the information PDF requires the use of a PDF reader. This can be installed for free from the Adobe website (external link).

Rasmussen PE, Goulding KWT, Brown JR, Grace PR, Janzen HH and Körschens M (1998) Long-term agroecosystem experiments: Assessing agricultural sustainability and global change. Science 282, 893-896.

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