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Landscape - carbon, nutrients, water and productivity - Kolan River

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Kolan River

Why are material budgets useful?

The availability of light, water and nutrients determines the capacity of land to produce natural vegetation and agricultural yield. In Australia, long-term availability of resources and the consequent potential for generating yield, can be assessed by examining the mass balances of the key resources: water and nutrients (in this case nitrogen and phosphorus). Mass balance gives a quantitative picture of:

• resource inflows or sources;
• resource outflows (including both production outputs and unproductive losses or leakages);
• the resource stock (the amount available for use); and
• the way that the stock changes with time in response to the various inflows and outflows.

The mass balances of water and nutrients are linked by carbon (or biomass) since plant biomass is approximately 50% carbon. Balances and cycles of water, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon interact and constrain each other.

The figure below provides a schematic of how the couple balances carbon, nutrients and water were constructed and linked to sediment and nutrient transport.

Landscape carbon, nutrients, water and productivity budgets

The table below presents the key material budget terms modelled or collated as part of the Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001 projects.

The budget terms cover:

• Coupled balances of carbon, water, nitrogen and phosphorus

Detailed separately are:

• Water borne erosion and sediment transport; and
• river nutrient transport

Key river basin characteristics such as broad agricultural land use categories and climate are provided for context. All attributes are presented as aggregate mass, rate, ratio or percentage estimate at a river basin scale

Context for understanding the material budgets for Kolan River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
Basin area	km2	2,909	7,208
Improved pasture	%	2	1
Cropping	%	6	0
Horticulture	%	1	1
Total agricultural land proportion	%	9	7
Climate
Rain	mm/y	860	860
Total evaporation	mm/y	797	584
Runoff	mm/y	83	249

Carbon, nutrients, water and productivity in Kolan River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
Net Primary Production	tC/ha/y	5	3
Plant carbon	t/ha	79	76
Litter + soil carbon	t/ha	77	78
Landscape nutrients
Nitrogen from fertiliser	kgN/ha/y	1	0
Nitrogen fixation	kgN/ha/y	17	17
Total nitrogen	kgN/ha	6,639	6,742
Mineral nitrogen	kgN/ha	73	85
Mineral nitrogen concentration in soil water	mgN/kgwater	48	50
Nitrogen leached	kgN/ha/y	7	9
Nitrogen volatilised	kgN/ha/y	3	2
Phosphorus from fertiliser	kgP/ha/y	0	0
Total phosphorus	kgP/ha	953	1,062
Dissolved mineral phosphorus	kgP/ha	13	14
Phosphorus concentration	mgP/kgwater	9	9
Phosphorus leached	kgP/m2/y	1	1

Further information

• Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001 report
• Landscape balances chapter of the Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001 (theme) report
• Report prepared by CSIRO Land and Water in the development of this work on the coupled balances of water, nutrients and carbon in Australian landscapes (PDF - 3.5 MB)
• Report prepared by CSIRO Land and Water in the development of this work on the coupled balances of water, nutrients and carbon in Australian landscapes (PDF - 1300 KB)
• Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.
• Data Library