Setting the Baseline for Regeneration of Temperate Native Grassy Ecosystems in Montane Agricultural Landscapes: An Agroecological Approach to Soil Health
type: CreativeWork
description: As the Earth and humanity face an uncertain climate future, finding solutions to alleviate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change is more important than ever. Land use changes for agricultural production significantly contribute to the accelerating rates of land degradation and biodiversity loss in Australia and globally. In response, there has been a shift in agroecological thinking, giving rise to the regenerative agriculture movement. This movement aims to go beyond sustainable land management by employing agroecological approaches to regenerate, restore, and enhance biodiversity, soil health, and ecosystem function on farm. Regenerative agriculture is a non prescriptive approach to land management that is focused on outcomes. However, there is limited research explicitly exploring how to monitor and measure the impacts of a regenerative transition. Establishing a quantitative ecological health baseline through the measurement of a suite of vegetation and soil health indicators will enable long-term ecological monitoring of a regenerative transition on farm. This project employs a descriptive ecological case study to demonstrate how this can be achieved in an impacted montane agricultural landscape dominated by native grassy vegetation in NSW, Australia. The study establishes a comprehensive understanding of the case study site's native vegetation and soil health by measuring a range of vegetation and soil health indicators. The selected indicators were chosen for their simplicity, repeatability of methods, and sensitivity to changes in land management. Five soil profiles were assessed through full characterisation and classification surveys to a depth of one metre. Vegetation health was evaluated using a modified biometric tool that assesses percentage cover, canopy cover, species richness, and habitat availability. Topsoil chemical and microbiome health were measured through comprehensive nutrient analysis and microbiome DNA metabarcoding. Results from soi…
abstract: As the Earth and humanity face an uncertain climate future, finding solutions to alleviate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change is more important than ever. Land use changes for agricultural production significantly contribute to the accelerating rates of land degradation and biodiversity loss in Australia and globally. In response, there has been a shift in agroecological thinking, giving rise to the regenerative agriculture movement. This movement aims to go beyond sustainable land management by employing agroecological approaches to regenerate, restore, and enhance biodiversity, soil health, and ecosystem function on farm. Regenerative agriculture is a non prescriptive approach to land management that is focused on outcomes. However, there is limited research explicitly exploring how to monitor and measure the impacts of a regenerative transition. Establishing a quantitative ecological health baseline through the measurement of a suite of vegetation and soil health indicators will enable long-term ecological monitoring of a regenerative transition on farm. This project employs a descriptive ecological case study to demonstrate how this can be achieved in an impacted montane agricultural landscape dominated by native grassy vegetation in NSW, Australia. The study establishes a comprehensive understanding of the case study site's native vegetation and soil health by measuring a range of vegetation and soil health indicators. The selected indicators were chosen for their simplicity, repeatability of methods, and sensitivity to changes in land management. Five soil profiles were assessed through full characterisation and classification surveys to a depth of one metre. Vegetation health was evaluated using a modified biometric tool that assesses percentage cover, canopy cover, species richness, and habitat availability. Topsoil chemical and microbiome health were measured through comprehensive nutrient analysis and microbiome DNA metabarcoding. Results from soi…
author: Martin-Stuart, Bonnie Clare
language: en_AU
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:32Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733794068