Revegetation to benefit biodiversity conservation for cotton farms
12 Dec '05
3 min read
Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd (CSD) informed that according to research recently completed by Cotton CRC Summer Scholarship holder, Rhiannon Smith, whose family live at Narrabri, the planting additional trees and shrubs leads to a greater diversity of bird and insect species on cotton farms.
Her project, which included a survey of tree and shrub plantings on cotton farms in the Namoi Valley was undertaken from January to April 2005. It quantified the potential for tree plantings on cotton farms to contribute to biodiversity conservation, and provided recommendations for maximising this potential.
The survey used birds, invertebrates and herbaceous vegetation as surrogates for biodiversity and related them to stand variables such as projected foliage cover and crown condition in order to assess the ability of different planting configurations and management techniques to encourage biodiversity.
Plantings consisting of a diversity of both trees and shrubs and therefore higher projected foliage cover contained more biodiversity than plantings consisting wholly of tall, open trees, however management of the planting was also a significant factor influencing the biodiversity of plantings.
Average species richness of bird species was increased by four species in revegetated plots, but at some locations double the numbers of species were found in plantings compared to cleared agricultural land adjacent to plantings.
Herbaceous vegetation was found to be influenced by projected foliage cover of the planting with increasing woody vegetation cover reducing the cover of herbaceous vegetation and manipulating species composition.
marketing@alchempro.com
