Lessons from visualising the landscape and habitat implications of tree decline-and its remediation through tree planting-in Australia's grazing landscapes

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Kate Sherren
  • Joern Fischer
  • Helena Clayton
  • Adam Hauldren
  • Stephen Dovers

Tree decline has been documented in farming and grazing landscapes around the world, with negative consequences for biodiversity and important ecosystem services. We have used solution-oriented transdisciplinary research to understand the possible consequences of scattered tree decline in Australia's temperate grazing landscapes, and explore appropriate management and policy responses. Here, we document the scenario modelling process that culminated our stakeholder engagement. We simulated tree decline and its consequences for landscape aesthetics and biodiversity, using photo-realistic visualisations based on photographs identified as significant by graziers, and empirically derived habitat relationships for a series of birds and bats. The results foreshadow dramatic visual and ecological impacts for the region. We also modelled the aesthetic and habitat impacts of fully costed remediation scenarios, including widespread scattered tree planting and densely seeding poor paddocks under temporary stock exclusion. The visualisations revealed to the research team that: (1) dense seeding has a more lasting impact for scattered trees than scattered planting; (2) the benefits of any kind of planting is short-lived if accompanied by conventional grazing practices; and (3) grazed woodlands are most at risk. The graziers to whom we presented our scenarios in the last of our stakeholder workshops responded well to both kinds of visualisations, but it was clear that the experience also extracted a cost. We reflect here on our methods and outcomes, and draw out lessons from our work for other studies of tis kind.

Original languageEnglish
JournalLandscape and Urban Planning
Volume103
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)248-258
Number of pages11
ISSN0169-2046
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30.11.2011
Externally publishedYes

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Jordis Grimm

Publications

  1. Crisis Management by Subjectivation
  2. One for all, all for one
  3. Digital Workplace Transformation
  4. Fingerprint analysis of brominated flame retardants and Dechloranes in North Sea sediments
  5. The impact of TV ads on the individual user's online purchasing behavior
  6. Von der Beharrlichkeit der Ungleichheit
  7. Ull Hohn
  8. What Will This Century Be Known As?: Deleuze and Resistance for Theory
  9. Institutional change in the German higher education system
  10. Pfad einer integrativen Gerechtigkeit
  11. Wie fange ich an ?
  12. Success Factors of Digital Start-ups
  13. Grain Structure Evolution Ahead of the Die During Friction Extrusion of AA2024
  14. Playing the past to understand the present
  15. Sekem – Humanistic Management in the Egyptian Dessert
  16. Outcome expectations and work design characteristics in post-retirement work planning
  17. An overview of European programs to support energy projects in Africa and strategies to involve the private sector
  18. Klimaschutz
  19. Repatriate knowledge transfer
  20. Protest 2.0 - Don't believe the Hype
  21. Global Learning in Teams: „Think Tank Ideal City“
  22. Determinants in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing Decisions—A Cross-Country Study
  23. §50 Windenergie auf See
  24. Competitive interactions shape plant responses to nitrogen fertilization and drought
  25. Remediation of PAHs, NSO-Heterocycles, and Related Aromatic Compounds in Permeable Reactive Barriers Using Activated Carbon
  26. Luminescence dating of late holocene dunes showing remnants of early settlement in Cuddalore and evidence of monsoon activity in south east India
  27. Germany
  28. Größen bauen auf Längen
  29. Protecting older workers' employability
  30. Interdisciplinary engineering education in the context of digitalization and global transformation prozesses.
  31. Antigott
  32. Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations