Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

Chapter 1 - IntroductionChapter 2 provides a systems analysis of the controls on wind erosion, discussesanthropogenic influences on wind erosion, and presents a conceptual framework formodelling land erodibility. Chapter 3 presents a review of approaches to modelling landerodibility to wind, and discusses requirements for future research into model application toaddress a deficiency in land erodibility mapping. Chapter 4 examines a significant limitationto wind erosion modelling, presenting a framework for modelling temporal changes in soilerodibility in rangeland environments. The framework is based on a soil crust formationdisturbancetemporal model. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 constitute three stand-alone publications.Minor alterations have been made to these publications to integrate the research withprevious chapters in the thesis and to remove repetition in the study area descriptions.Chapter 5 reports on the development and validation of a model (Australian Land ErodibilityModel, AUSLEM) to predict landscape to regional scale patterns in land erodibility acrosswestern Queensland, Australia. Chapter 6 presents a field method for monitoring landsusceptibility to wind erosion at the landscape scale and examines application of the data forvalidating AUSLEM. Chapter 7 reports on the application of AUSLEM to assess landerodibility dynamics in western Queensland between 1980 and 2006. Spatial and temporalpatterns in land erodibility dynamics are then examined in the context of regional to globalscale climate variability. Finally, Chapter 8 synthesises the outputs and outcomes of theresearch. The thesis concludes by identifying the priorities for future research.24