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When I was a little one like 5-6 grandad and dad used to hook up a chain between the bulldozers and clear our land. Its arid as hell now... used to flood to like a foot deep in the wet season.
As soon as the tree cover is built up again the amount of moisture loss from sheer evaporative effects will drop and the environment will return to equilibrium.
Wow what a great isea this is to be able to simply loosen the soil this way to alow such an iconic shrub or tree to geminate like this. Yes as always it is out arrid country areas that will always suffer regardless of how clever thses great Sveintists are. Thank you for the most informtive infprmation any thing to help this Country be saved arrid or not. Aussie Bob.
Loosen the soils containing the tree roots (up to 30 metres from the "parent" tree) You can rip holes all over the desert but unless the tree's roots are chopped up promoting suckering .....that would otherwise be a waste of time......
I drove extensively in the outback and its vastness gives you a real spiritual feeling. it is great to see researchers doing this work to improve the landscape for the whole ecology of this system.
May I suggest we need to look after what grows naturally, where it is already growing. Perhaps we could ask why Rosewoods do not grow where it floods after a big rain? Why do Rosewoods grow on deep sandy-loam soils?
Amazing to see a machine of such environmental destruction put to use to help regenerate and repair the environment. Bulldozers and heavy machinery are fascinating bits of kit. It really goes to show technology itself isn't bad. It's how it's used that matters.
OK Let's suppose that rosewood is restored across Australia. Then what? Without eliminating cattle, goats, sheep and kangaroos it seems like a never ending battle. And those tractors run on the evil fossil fuels. Solar powered tractors?
Aren't the trees you get just clones of the mothertree, with the same biological age, so you stand the risk of the new trees dying off at the same time as the mothertree, and you don't get any new blodlines?
After rabbit netting the farm we had seedling bullock bush come up at Mannum, which is very marginal country. So the issue isn't likely that they're hard to grow but that they don't deal well with grazing pressure. Also a side note in areas where tracks are ripped for rehabilitation after mineral exploration, these can become lined with sucker and seedling growth. Many native plants do well in disturbed soils and some thrive in niche environments such as roadsides, Sturt Desert Peas for example.
I agree with you about soil disturbance, everywhere you look now in WA there are yellow road side markers indicating "rear & endangered" plant species. Inside of these markers no soil disturbance is permitted. A grader operator that worked for the Govt. Dept. I was with highlighted the increased appearance and growth of many of the endangered species were in the windrows from previous grading operations. This wasn't for all endangered species but just highlights how Australian native species can be unique in their regeneration requirements.
Interesting that the disturbance is triggering the new tree growth. I wonder if you could use high-intensity animal impact as a tool a la Holistic Management. Hooves would break open the capping, allow moisture to penetrate and potentially trigger growth just like the disturbance with machinery, except the animals would be profitable unlike a depreciating tractor
Australia has a lot of brilliant scientists who often get way less respect and funding than they deserve. As an agriculture educator for more than 30 years I've taken every opportunity to have students see what is done on research stations here in Qld, and have never failed to be impressed at the breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding of the ecosystems we use to provide our food. This is great work, and so important. Well done Prof Westbrooke and team!
We need to lift the research and development budget of a whole lot of projects in Australia. More importantly, we need to train people up and preserve the knowledge we already have and pay people enough to it stays here...
@@James-mb6jt : It's a real shame that these so called Ag research projects are little more than jobs for mates within the uni's. Most are a total waste.
GOATS are The PROBLEM !That is OBVIOUS, you can do all The Ripping, and walk around with pen and paper, enjoying The Country Air, BUT you KNOW IT'S JUST a Waste of Money and Resources.The Occasional Fire Does Wonders.
This is very interesting, and a promising development. Do the trees born of suckers have the same longevity and resilience as trees grown from seeds? My thought is that the DNA of the sucker trees will be the same as the original tree, whilst those that have seeded will combine the DNA of 2 trees. Plants such as bamboo which sucker are prone to mass die off which gardeners have noted occurs world wide in cases where cloned bamboo have been exported for use in gardens. In animal cloning the use of ‘older’ DNA has led to the offspring being prone to health issues normally associated with aging at a younger age. Hence the question, I hope someone can answer. 🙂
Many trees have an inhibitor system where the exising growing tree prevents germination of its own seeds. In dry times, a plant's most serious competitor for soil moisture is other plants of the same species growing too close. Say a fierce fire kills the old mature parent tree. Over time the germination inhibitor dissipates and the most resilient seeds germinate when good growing conditions return. This could be an evolutionary strategy to survive multi year droughts vegetatively while providing decades long drought survival via sexual droughts and
@@einfelder8262 oh sure genius !!!!! Deep ripping is bad , take a look around some tree farming areas that have been deep ripped during a heavy or prolonged rain event and tell me what you see cupcake .....
