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A sustainable agricultural landscape for Australia: A review of interlacing carbon sequestration, biodiversity and salinity management in agroforestry systems
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A sustainable agricultural landscape for Australia: A review of interlacing carbon sequestration, biodiversity and salinity management in agroforestry systems

S.J. George, R.J. Harper, R.J. Hobbs and M. Tibbett
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Vol.163, pp.28-36
2012
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Abstract

Transformation of the south-western Australian landscape from deep-rooted woody vegetation systems to shallow-rooted annual cropping systems has resulted in the severe loss of biodiversity and this loss has been exacerbated by rising ground waters that have mobilised stored salts causing extensive dry land salinity. Since the original plant communities were mostly perennial and deep rooted, the model for sustainable agriculture and landscape water management invariably includes deep rooted trees. Commercial forestry is however only economical in higher rainfall (>700 mm yr(-1)) areas whereas much of the area where biodiversity is threatened has lower rainfall (300-700 mm yr(-1)). Agroforestry may provide the opportunity to develop new agricultural landscapes that interlace ecosystem services such as carbon mitigation via carbon sequestration and biofuels, biodiversity restoration, watershed management while maintaining food production. Active markets are developing for some of these ecosystem services, however a lack of predictive metrics and the regulatory environment are impeding the adoption of several ecosystem services. Nonetheless, a clear opportunity exists for four major issues - the maintenance of food and fibre production, salinisation, biodiversity decline and climate change mitigation - to be managed at a meaningful scale and a new, sustainable agricultural landscape to be developed

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#14 Life Below Water
#15 Life on Land

Source: InCites

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InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.40 Forestry
3.40.86 Plant Communities
Web Of Science research areas
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Environmental Sciences
ESI research areas
Environment/Ecology
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