Atherton Queensland

Regional Patterns and Landscape Dynamics

There is currently little knowledge of the amount of carbon and other elements that are stored across the humid tropics region. Similarly, we are unable to predict how climate change or land-use change will alter this ecosystem function in the future. Thus the objective is to estimate the stocks and fluxes of carbon and key mineral elements across the humid tropics region and use these estimates to model, along with estimates of biomass accretion, the ways that these will be affected by changes in climate and land-use.

The project will also identify historical changes in land use and land cover patterns and contributes to the analysis of regional vegetation dynamics by including the anthropogenic parts of the landscape. Analysis of the imagery will also help to identify regrowth in forests that is necessary information for the estimation of carbon fluxes at a regional scale.

The objectives of the project are to:

1. Estimate the stocks of biomass, carbon and key mineral elements across the humid tropics region.
2. Use these estimates to model, along with estimates of biomass accretion, the ways that these will be affected by changes in climate and land use.
3. Develop techniques, applicable to the humid tropics, to classify satellite imagery by land cover types.
4. Quantify historical trends in land cover across the humid tropics region.
5. Assess the possiblility of using modelling of forest types and their responses to climate as surrogates for biodiversity patterns in the Wet Tropics.

Project stakeholders

1. Rainforest CRC
2. Carbon CRC
3. Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO)
4. Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA)
5. Environment Australia (EA)
6. Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (QEPA)
7. Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mining (QDNR)
8. Joint Board NQ
9. Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI)
10. Other scientists
11. Landcare Groups

Project leader

David Hilbert
CSIRO Land and Water
Tropical Forest Research Centre
PO Box 780
Atherton, QLD, 4883
Ph: (07) 4091 8800
Email: dave.hilbert@csiro.au

>> More information >> Rainforest CRC or >> CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

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