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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #295995
Title: The impacts of grazing land management on the wind erodibility of the Mulga Lands of western Queensland, Australia

Author
item AUBAULT, HELENE - Griffiths University
item WEBB, NICHOLAS - New Mexico State University
item SCANLAN, JOE - Department Of Agriculture - Australia
item STRONG, CRAIG - Griffiths University
item LEYS, JOHN - New South Wales Agriculture

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/2012
Publication Date: 9/23/2012
Citation: Aubault, H., Webb, N., Scanlan, J., Strong, C., Leys, J. 2012. The impacts of grazing land management on the wind erodibility of the Mulga Lands of western Queensland, Australia [abstract]. Proceedings of the Australian Rangeland Society 17th Biennial Conference, September 23-37, 2012, Kununurra, Western Australia. p. 60.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: An estimated 100 Mt of dust is eroded by wind from the Australian land surface each year. Wind erosion may be widespread across the arid and semi-arid rangelands, with impacts on soil nutrients, carbon and ecosystem services, human health, and climate. The susceptibility of landscapes to wind erosion (their erodibility) is highly sensitive to changes in vegetation cover and soil properties like crusting and aggregation, which control the area of bare ground exposed to erosive winds, and the availability of fine erodible sediment. Pastoralism, including the production of cattle and sheep, is thought to modify these controls through its impacts on vegetation cover and soil surface properties. However, research is yet to quantify the impact of grazing land management on the erodibility of rangelands, or how these impacts vary between land types. We present a simulation analysis that implements the Australian Land Erodibility Model (AUSLEM) in line with a pasture growth and animal production model (GRASP) to evaluate the impacts of grazing management on the erodibility of 5 land types in western Queensland. The study has tested separately the effects of stocking rates, stocking strategies and land condition on wind erodibility. Our results show that wind erodibility increases with stocking rate, showing a nonlinear response that varies in intensity between land types. Susceptibility of the land types to wind erosion is shown to increase under stocking strategies that lack flexibility or the capacity to rapidly destock in response to drought conditions. However, moving from high stocking rates under a fixed stocking to a more flexible strategy is shown to have a greater effect on erodibility than differences between flexible stocking strategies based around the long term safe stocking rates. The degradation of land condition results in an increase of wind erodibility with an abrupt change of rates representing major shifts in environmental conditions. The analysis indicates that historical stocking rates have had a high impact on wind erodibility; however, under the current stocking rate, impacts on wind erodibility are reduced. Wind erodibility can be reduced by adopting a conservative management with low stocking rates as well as maintaining the land in good condition.