Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

AbstractWind erosion is a land degradation process with global consequences. Understandingspatial and temporal patterns in land susceptibility to wind erosion is essential forintegrating wind erosion research across scales and enhancing management strategies tocontrol potential land degradation. There are significant gaps in our knowledge of whichareas of the Earth’s surface are susceptible to wind erosion, and how the erodibility ofland changes through time in response to climate variability and land managementpressures. This stems from a lack of research into spatial and temporal patterns of landerodibility, particularly at the landscape to regional scales (10 3 to 10 4 km 2 ). This thesisaddresses these knowledge gaps by presenting research into the development andapplication of a model to assess land susceptibility to wind erosion in the rangelands ofwestern Queensland, Australia.The foundation for a new Australian Land Erodibility Model (AUSLEM) is establishedthrough a systems analysis of the factors controlling wind erosion, and a review ofapproaches for representing land erodibility in wind erosion modelling systems. Thethesis explores how meteorological, soil and vegetation conditions affect thesusceptibility of land to wind erosion, synthesising the analysis in a conceptual model ofthe land erodibility continuum. The conceptual model provides the basis for a review ofwind erosion models that are applicable from the paddock (10 3 m 2 ) to regional (10 4 km 2 )and global scales. Current limitations to modelling soil and land erodibility are evaluatedand the thesis identifies research priorities for developing new models to predict landsusceptibility to wind erosion.The lack of robust schemes to model temporal changes in soil erodibility adverselyaffects the performance of wind erosion models. To address this issue, a framework wasdeveloped for modelling temporal variations in soil erodibility. The framework is anapproach for assessing temporal responses of soils to short-term (event-based) variationsin climate and land management conditions. Application of the model was restricted by alack of quantitative data to parameterise the model functions. To address the issue, thethesis presents an analysis of the current status of soil erodibility research and outlinespriorities for future research into soil erodibility dynamics.i