Robert Purves

Bio: Robert Purves is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Carbon. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 3 publications receiving 30 citations.

Optimising Carbon in the Australian Landscape

Abstract: How to guide the terrestrial carbon market to deliver multiple economic and environmental benefits

Carbon stock and its responses to climate change in Central Asia

Abstract: Central Asia has a land area of 5.6 × 10(6) km(2) and contains 80-90% of the world's temperate deserts. Yet it is one of the least characterized areas in the estimation of the global carbon (C) stock/balance. This study assessed the sizes and spatiotemporal patterns of C pools in Central Asia using both inventory (based on 353 biomass and 284 soil samples) and process-based modeling approaches. The results showed that the C stock in Central Asia was 31.34-34.16 Pg in the top 1-m soil with another 10.42-11.43 Pg stored in deep soil (1-3 m) of the temperate deserts. They amounted to 18-24% of the global C stock in deserts and dry shrublands. The C stock was comparable to that of the neighboring regions in Eurasia or major drylands around the world (e.g. Australia). However, 90% of Central Asia C pool was stored in soil, and the fraction was much higher than in other regions. Compared to hot deserts of the world, the temperate deserts in Central Asia had relatively high soil organic carbon density. The C stock in Central Asia is under threat from dramatic climate change. During a decadal drought between 1998 and 2008, which was possibly related to protracted La Nina episodes, the dryland lost approximately 0.46 Pg C from 1979 to 2011. The largest C losses were found in northern Kazakhstan, where annual precipitation declined at a rate of 90 mm decade(-1) . The regional C dynamics were mainly determined by changes in the vegetation C pool, and the SOC pool was stable due to the balance between reduced plant-derived C influx and inhibited respiration.

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Adaptation: The Case of Irrigated Agriculture in the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia

Abstract: Le changement climatique risque d'avoir des repercussions considerables sur l'agriculture irriguee. Les phenomenes climatiques extremes, tels que les secheresses, risquent de devenir plus frequents. Ces phenomenes sont mis en evidence dans les projections medianes du changement climatique etablies pour le bassin de Murray-Darling, en Australie. Pour comprendre les repercussions du changement climatique sur le rendement des cultures irriguees, il faut disposer d'une representation explicite des changements spatiaux qui touchent les stocks naturels (c.-a-d. l'approvisionnement en eau) et de leur variabilite temporelle (c.-a-d. les etats de la nature de la frequence de la secheresse) et assurer une gestion active des stocks de capital grace a des strategies d'attenuation et d'adaptation selon l'etat de la nature. Une variation de la frequence des secheresses entrainera une modification de l'allocation des terres et de l'eau entre les activites de production. Dans le present article, nous avons utilise un modele de simulation etats-contingences pour analyser les repercussions des strategies d'attenuation du changement climatique et d'adaptation a ce changement. En l'absence de strategies d'attenuation, le changement climatique aura des repercussions defavorables sur l'agriculture irriguee dans le Bassin. Toutefois, des strategies d'attenuation combinees a des strategies d'adaptation comprenant des changements dans l'utilisation des terres et de l'eau permettront de maintenir l'utilisation de l'eau a des fins agricoles et les debits environnementaux.

Declining inflows and more frequent droughts in the Murray-Darling Basin: Climate change, impact and adaption

Abstract: It is likely that climate change will be associated with reductions in inflows of water to the Murray-Darling Basin. In this study, we analyse the effects of climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin using a simulation model that incorporates a state-contingent representation of uncertainty. The severity of the impact depends, in large measure, on the extent to which climate change is manifested as an increase in the frequency of drought conditions. Adaptation will partially offset the adverse impact of climate change.

Current status and future prospects for carbon forestry in Australia

Abstract: Carbon forestry is part of a suite of land-based activities that can be used to mitigate carbon emissions, and also provide a range of other environmental co-benefits. Components are included in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. There is large divergence in Australian estimates of the areas of land that may be used for carbon forests and there has been a vigorous public debate about carbon forestry, partly based on concerns about displacement of food-producing land. We identify four distinct afforestation or reforestation (AR) activities that involve carbon mitigation and suggest a terminology based on these. These are (1) 'plantations' that also produce timber and wood products, (2)carbon-focused' sinks, (3)environmental' or natural resource management plantings and (4)bioenergy' plantings for use either as a feedstock for stationary energy production or transport fuels. After accounting for AR projects established for other purposes (e.g. timber and pulpwood), we estimate that the current area of carbon forests in Australia is 65 000 ha. Despite the national Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 and its 2010 amendments there are few extant biomass projects. However this may change with the development of new technologies and the imposition of a carbon price on electricity production. The reasons for the gulf between actual and potential carbon AR activity are proposed to include (1) the absence of a formal carbon compliance scheme, (2) challenges in managing carbon through an entire product cycle, (3)degree of understanding of carbon forestry by financiers, (4) landholder preference, (5) technical barriers and (6) regulatory uncertainty. We suggest an extension of the National Plantation Inventory from traditional plantations to carbon forestry, so that future policy can be developed on the basis of good-quality underpinning information that can be disaggregated to analyse trends in AR for different purposes. To encourage innovation in the sector, we also suggest either the extension or establishment of research and development funding arrangements, similar to those already existing for other rural industries.

Integrating agriculture and climate change mitigation at landscape scale: Implications from an Australian case study

Abstract: Rural and regional hinterlands provide the ecosystem service needs for increasingly urbanised communities across the globe. These inter-related ecosystem services provide key opportunities in securing climate change mitigation and adaptation. Their integrated management in the face of climate change, however, can be confounded by fragmentation within the complex institutional arrangements concerned with natural resource management. This suggests the need for a more systemic approach to continuous improvement in the integrated and adaptive governance of natural resources. This paper explores the theoretical foundations for integrated natural resource management and reviews positive systemic improvements that have been emerging in the Australian context. In setting clear theoretical foundations, the paper explores both functional and structural aspects of natural resource governance systems. Functional considerations include issues of connectivity, knowledge use and capacity within the natural resource decision making environment. Structural considerations refer to the institutions and processes that undertake planning through to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. From this foundation, we review the last decade of emerging initiatives in governance regarding the integration of agriculture and forests across the entire Australian landscape. This includes the shift towards more devolved regional approaches to integrated natural resource management and recent progress towards the use of terrestrial carbon at landscape scale to assist in climate change mitigation and adaptation. These developments, however, have also been tempered by a significant raft of new landscape-scale regulations that have tended to be based on a more centralist philosophy that landowners should be providing ecosystem services for the wider public good without substantive reward. Given this background, we explore a case study of efforts taken to integrate the management of landscape-scale agro-ecological services in the Wet Tropics of tropical Queensland. This is being achieved primarily through the integration of regional natural resource management planning and the development of aggregated terrestrial carbon offset products at a whole of landscape scale via the Degree Celsius initiative. Finally, the paper teases out the barriers and opportunities being experienced, leading to discussion about the global implications for managing climate change, income generation and poverty reduction.