Conference paper
Quantifying carbon sequestration on saltland pastures in South West Australia
"Groundbreaking Stuff". Edited by Neil Turner and Tina Acuna. Proceedings of the 13th Australian Agronomy Conference (Perth, Western Australia, 10/09/2006–14/09/2006)
2006
Abstract
The large areas of saltland pastures in South West Australia offer opportunities for carbon (C) sequestration through re-vegetation. An investigation was carried out to quantify the amount of C sequestered in above- and below-ground biomass for wavy leaf saltbush (Atriplex undulata) at a saline site east of Wickepin with average EM38 readings of ~400 mS/m (in the vertical mode).
The preliminary results showed that the above ground and below ground biomass was higher under ungrazed than grazed management systems. The amount of above-ground biomass was 10.8 t/ha (4.01 t carbon /ha) for ungrazed saltbush plants and 3.6 t/ha (1.34 t C/ha) for grazed plants. Similarly, root biomass in the ungrazed system had higher biomass [2.7 t/ha (1.02 t C kg/ha)] compared with the grazed field [1.03 t/ha or 0.38 t C/ha]. Saltbush clearly has the potential to sequester a substantial amount of carbon and further research is underway to determine how amounts of carbon sequestered vary with species, soil type, site salinity and hydrology.
Details
- Title
- Quantifying carbon sequestration on saltland pastures in South West Australia
- Authors/Creators
- J.O. Issango (Author/Creator)R.W. Bell (Author/Creator)B. Waddell (Author/Creator)S. Mann (Author/Creator)E.G. Barrett-Lennard (Author/Creator)
- Conference
- "Groundbreaking Stuff". Edited by Neil Turner and Tina Acuna. Proceedings of the 13th Australian Agronomy Conference (Perth, Western Australia, 10/09/2006–14/09/2006)
- Identifiers
- 991005545444107891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Environmental Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
- Note
- Poster presentation
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