Colin J. Macgregor

Ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types: understanding the interactions and suggesting pathways for sustaining multiple ecosystem services

As ecosystem services supply from tropical forests is declining due to deforestation and forest degradation, much effort is essential to sustain ecosystem services supply from tropical forested landscapes, because tropical forests provide the largest flow of multiple ecosystem services among the terrestrial ecosystems. In order to sustain multiple ecosystem services, understanding ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types and identifying certain ecosystem services that could be managed to leverage positive effects across the wider bundle of ecosystem services are required. We sampled three forest types, tropical rainforests, sclerophyll forests, and rehabilitated plantation forests, over an area of 32,000m(2) from Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia, aiming to compare supply and evaluate interactions and patterns of eight ecosystem services (global climate regulation, air quality regulation, erosion regulation, nutrient regulation, cyclone protection, habitat provision, energy provision, and timber provision). On average, multiple ecosystem services were highest in the rainforests, lowest in sclerophyll forests, and intermediate in rehabilitated plantation forests. However, a wide variation was apparent among the plots across the three forest types. Global climate regulation service had a synergistic impact on the supply of multiple ecosystem services, while nutrient regulation service was found to have a trade-off impact. Considering multiple ecosystem services, most of the rehabilitated plantation forest plots shared the same ordination space with rainforest plots in the ordination analysis, indicating that rehabilitated plantation forests may supply certain ecosystem services nearly equivalent to rainforests. Two synergy groups and one trade-off group were identified. Apart from conserving rainforests and sclerophyll forests, our findings suggest two additional integrated pathways to sustain the supply of multiple ecosystem services from a heterogeneous tropical forest landscape: (i) rehabilitation of degraded forests aiming to provide global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services and (ii) management intervention to sustain global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services.

Social/Human Capital Rapid Appraisal Model (SCRAM): a method of remotely assessing social and human capacity in Australian rural communities

Abstract Social and human capital has received increasing interest during the last decade, partly because government organisations are encountering increasing demands for ‘triple bottom line’ accounting. Despite this, the dimensional nature and indicators of social/human capital are not broadly understood. Indicators are often selected because they ‘appear to have some link’. Limited secondary data sources and constraining research time frames and budgets exacerbate the problem. The Social/Human Capital Rapid Appraisal Model (SCRAM) proposed in this paper is an attempt to address these issues. It contains all the elements and primary indicators of social/human capital and it suggests a range of Australian data sources from which secondary or proxy indicators may be developed. SCRAM cannot compare to rigorous research methods involving primary data but the method should ensure indicators are not selected ad hoc and that there are empirical links between them and social/human capital as a contributor to community strength.

James Cook University's holistic response to the sustainable development challenge

The Rio+20 Conference in 2012 affirmed that higher education should be one of the key forces central to the process of Sustainable Development (SD) during the 21st century. SD implies strategic change away from ‘business as usual’, where effort and investment is put into achieving a sustainable future. However, much of ‘business as usual’ for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) involves generating income from learning/teaching and research programs so sustainability may not receive the support needed. James Cook University’s (JCU) sustainability vision is to become an exemplar of a sustainable tropical university, i.e. “committed to the principles of sustainability, we will ensure that our actions today do not limit the range of social, cultural, environmental and economic options open to future generations.” To support this vision many sustainability projects and initiatives are now underway at JCU. This paper provides an overview of the ways in which JCU is helping foster sustainability on its campuses, through its staff and students, through its operations and programs, and in the manner in which it engages with the northern Australia community. This paper may be of interest to other HEIs that are looking for practical ways to respond positively to the SD challenge.

Evaluating the Impacts of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones on the Environment and Farmers’ Practices: A Scottish Case Study

ABSTRACT Nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) have been established throughout Europe to tackle diffuse pollution. This research investigates the attitudes and practices of farmers in the River Eden catchment, within the Strathmore and Fife NVZ in eastern Scotland, and explores how these changed between 2002 and 2011. Attitudes were investigated using interviews; efficiency of nutrient use was evaluated using farm gate nutrient budgets (NBs). Most of the 16 farmers regard NVZ regulations as burdensome and costly; however, attitudes to NVZs became more positive during the period. NBs demonstrated that arable farms generate the least nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) surpluses, dairy the most. N efficiency improved on nine farms and declined on two; P efficiency improved on 12 farms and declined on two. Overall, the 16 farms were using 13% less N and 19% less P in 2011 compared with 2003. Water quality data demonstrate that Nitrate N in the catchments main rivers dropped between 2004 and 2011 by a mean of 15.5%, whereas mean phosphate P declined very little. Legacy P and Inefficient sewerage treatment facilities may explain the latter finding. Results demonstrate that NVZ regulations, combined with economic pressures, have affected farmers’ attitudes and behaviour, resulting in significant improvements in surface water quality.

A waterways management framework for Western Australia.

The State of Western Australia (WA) occupies one third of the Australian continent. The hydro-climate varies enormously from the tropical monsoon region in the north; through an erratic, semi-arid climate of the northwest and interior; to temperate regions of the south. Most waterways in the State are intermittent, with summer flow in the north, winter flow in the south and ephemeral flows in the northwest. Perennial streams are comparatively rare geographically. For much of WA there is insufficient water quality and riparian vegetation condition data to make comprehensive, objective assessments of the health of waterways. In many parts of the State, a comprehensive assessment of the values and condition of, and threats to, waterway ecosystems has not been undertaken. Most information and management is centred on the southwest land division and there is comparatively little known of waterways elsewhere. However, regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups and other organisations are mapping, classifying, evaluating and prioritising their waterway activities. This paper presents and describes the development of a State-wide waterways management framework. The framework is based on values-threats models and allows assessment of waterways’ attributes even when comprehensive or inadequate data is unavailable. It is also capable of incorporating objective and subjective information so it could prove valuable to waterways managers operating in relatively remote regions where rapid appraisal-type assessments are required.

Working towards sustainability in small towns: perspectives from northern Australia

Local Agenda 21 emphasises the role of local governments in initiating sustainability strategies. However, there is considerable debate about what constitutes a sustainable community and about how to progress towards it. Local sustainability initiatives also require wide support from the community but for what sorts of sustainability initiatives can we expect to find support? The towns of northern Australia provided a useful geography to examine these questions. The emerging global economic playing field has offered economic opportunities as never before to some towns in the region whilst others have experienced rapid decline. In short, different sustainability issues have emerged depending upon regional circumstances. An analytical model capable of assessing community support for local sustainability initiatives is presented. The model was used to compare and contrast a sample of towns from northern Australia and it was found that there was good support for many strategic initiatives that would encourage ustainability.

Pedagogy and Learning for Sustainability in a Virtual World Scaffold

Higher education institutions have an important contribution to make to learning for sustainability and education for sustainable development. A blended learning approach utilising a virtual world called Second Life was utilised in The Case for Sustainability, a second year core subject at James Cook University in Cairns Australia. The aim was to provide a rich contextual landscape to stimulate learner engagement with sustainability curricula. Data from student assessment tasks—a written review, an oral presentation, and ePortfolio submission, a voluntary online survey, tutorial observations, and conversations with students—were comparatively analysed with subject learning outcomes and desired graduate attributes. Findings confirm a high level of learner engagement with the topic, improved student engagement with the subject’s learning outcomes, and developed graduate attributes of information literacy, self-reliance and interpersonal understanding, and using tools and technologies. This blended learning activity in a virtual world scaffold augmented undergraduate critical thinking and problem solving for real-world sustainability learning.

Urban Sustainability Profiling: A Case Study from Far North Queensland, Australia

Cities and towns are places for human survival and well-being. They are also places where the greatest sustainability challenges of the century are expected to emerge. In Australia, urban development is largely the responsibility of accredited planners who are inclined to prioritize bureaucratic and political requirements over local scientific knowledge in decision-making. Sustainable development (SD) emphasizes local scientific knowledge because it draws attention to the social and environmental fabric of communities that is known to support economic performance. One of the first steps in any urban SD initiative is to ‘take stock’ (profile) the town’s ecologic, social, economic and political capital and comprehensive urban sustainability profiling can support effective planning decision-making and SD. This paper reports on research underlying an urban sustainability profile for the town of Malanda in Far North Queensland, Australia. The research was conducted by a team of students from James Cook University as part of their sustainability studies. The research required collection of primary and secondary data (qualitative and quantitative) and a credible and useful urban profile emerged. The research process also provided an effective problem-oriented, place-based learning (POPBL) experience for the students.

Environmental change: prospects for conservation and agriculture in a southwest Australia biodiversity hotspot

Accelerating environmental change is perhaps the greatest challenge for natural resource management; successful strategies need to be effective for decades to come. Our objective is to identify opportunities that new environmental conditions may provide for conservation, restoration, and resource use in a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot in southwestern Australia. We describe a variety of changes to key taxonomic groups and system-scale characteristics as a consequence of environmental change (climate and land use), and outline strategies for conserving and restoring important ecological and agricultural characteristics. Opportunities for conservation and economic adaptation are substantial because of gradients in rainfall, temperature, and land use, extensive areas of remnant native vegetation, the ability to reduce and ameliorate areas affected by secondary salinization, and the existence of large national parks and an extensive network of nature reserves. Opportunities presented by the predicted environmental changes encompass agricultural as well as natural ecosystems. These may include expansion of aquaculture, transformation of agricultural systems to adapt to drier autumns and winters, and potential increases in spring and summer rain, carbon-offset plantings, and improving the network of conservation reserves. A central management dilemma is whether restoration/preservation efforts should have a commercial or biodiversity focus, and how they could be integrated. Although the grand challenge is conserving, protecting, restoring, and managing for a future environment, one that balances economic, social, and environmental values, the ultimate goal is to establish a regional culture that values the unique regional environment and balances the utilization of natural resources against protecting remaining natural ecosystems.