Soil carbon change across ten New South Wales farms under different farm management regimes in Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 616-632
Author(s):  
Kanika Singh ◽  
Brett Whelan
Soil Research ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Miklos ◽  
Michael G. Short ◽  
Alex B. McBratney ◽  
Budiman Minasny

The reliable assessment of soil carbon stock is of key importance for soil conservation and mitigation strategies related to reducing atmospheric carbon. Measuring and monitoring soil carbon is complex because carbon pools cycle and rates of carbon sequestration vary across the landscape due to climate, soil type, and management practices. A new methodology has been developed and applied to make an assessment of the distribution of total, organic, and inorganic carbon at a grains research and grazing property in northern New South Wales at a high spatial resolution. In this study, baseline soil carbon maps were created using fine resolution, geo-referenced, proximal sensor data. Coupled with a digital elevation model and secondary terrain attributes, all of the data layers were combined by k-means clustering to develop a stratified random soil sampling scheme for the survey area. Soil samples taken at 0.15-m increments to a depth of 1 m were scanned with a mid-infrared spectrometer, which was calibrated using a proportion of the samples that were analysed in a laboratory for total carbon and inorganic carbon content. This combination of new methodologies and technologies has the potential to provide large volumes of reliable, fine resolution and timely data required to make baseline assessments, mapping, monitoring, and verification possible. This method has the potential to make soil carbon management and trading at the farm-scale possible by quantifying the carbon stock to a depth of 1 m and at a high spatial resolution.


Soil Research ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Young ◽  
Brian R Wilson ◽  
Malem McLeod ◽  
Clair Alston

The organic carbon stock in biomass and soil profiles sampled from nearby paddocks with different land-use histories was estimated at 7 sites in the upper Liverpool Plains catchment and the Manilla district of north-western New South Wales, Australia. The distribution of soil carbon concentrations over a depth of 2 m was significantly affected by site and land use. Continuous cultivation and cropping over ≥20 years significantly depleted carbon concentrations compared with grassy woodlands in the surface 0.20 m at all sites and to a depth of 0.60 m at 3 sites. Depth of sampling (0–0.20 v. 0–1.0 m) significantly affected the differences between land uses at most sites regarding estimates of the stock of soil carbon. These results show that differences in soil carbon concentrations and stock size do not remain constant with depth between contrasting land uses. However, comparisons between land uses of the total amount of carbon stored were dominated by the number of trees per ha and the size of the trees in grassy woodlands. The implications of these results for carbon accounting are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 196 ◽  
pp. 147-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warwick B. Badgery ◽  
Aaron T. Simmons ◽  
Brian W. Murphy ◽  
Andrew Rawson ◽  
Karl O. Andersson ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian J. Links ◽  
Laurence J. Denholm ◽  
Marilyn Evers ◽  
Lloyd J. Kingham ◽  
Robert J. Greenstein

AbstractBackgroundMycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) causes Johne’s disease (or paratuberculosis), a chronic wasting disease of ruminants and other animals resulting from granulomatous enteritis. There are increasing concerns that MAP is zoonotic. The prevalence of Johne’s disease is increasing worldwide. In an attempt to control an epidemic of ovine Johne’s disease (OJD) in New South Wales (NSW), a government/industry sponsored voluntary vaccination/on-farm management program commenced in 2000. We report herein an observational study of changes in disease prevalence as vaccination progressed, based on abattoir surveillance data for OJD from 1999 to 2009. We also discuss the epidemiological, policy, regulatory, research, economic and sociological elements that contributed to the development of a mature control program, whose aim was to halt the epidemic spread of OJD in a naïve sheep population.MethodsNSW was divided into areas of “High” (HPA), “Medium” (MPA) and “Low” (LPA) OJD prevalence. A killed whole cell vaccine (Gudair®) was administered to sheep from 2000 to 2009. Trained examiners evaluated the viscera of adult sheep carcasses at slaughter for gross evidence of OJD. MAP infection was confirmed by histopathology.Principal findingsFrom 2000-2009, 12 million vaccine doses were administered in NSW (91%; 10.9 million in the HPA). Many of the vaccinated flocks were suffering > 5% annual mortality in adult sheep, with some individual flocks with 10-15% losses attributable to OJD. A total of 7.6 million carcasses were examined (38%; 2.9 million from the HPA). Overall, 16% of slaughter consignments (sheep consigned to the abattoir from a single vendor) were positive for OJD, of which 94% were from the HPA. In the HPA, the percentage of animals with lesions attributable to OJD at slaughter fell progressively from 2.4% (10,406/432,860) at commencement of vaccination in 2000 to 0.8% (1,573/189,564) by 2009. Herd immunity from vaccination in the HPA was estimated at 70% by 2009. This coincided with a progressive decrease in reports of clinical disease and mortalities in vaccinated flocks.SignificanceWe show a decrease in the prevalence of lesions attributable to OJD in NSW concomitant with initiation of voluntary vaccination, on-farm management plans, abattoir monitoring and feedback of animal prevalence data to sheep producers. We conclude that a target of ≤ 1% regional prevalence of OJD affected sheep at slaughter is achievable using these interventions.


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