Go straight to the publications from this project

Project Overview

This is a pilot study to rigorously determine if broad-scale pasture legume plantings, particularly of leucaena and butterfly pea, represent a risk to reef water quality by increasing loads of nitrogen in runoff waters compared to grass only pastures. Nitrogen loads from both grass only and grass/legume pastures will be contrasted against loads from virgin Brigalow scrub to investigate the change from the native, pre-European landscape to the current agricultural landscape.

Project Deliverables

• Determination of loads and Event Mean Concentrations (EMC) of nitrogen in runoff waters from the three pasture land uses of buffel grass only, grass + leucaena, and grass + butterfly pea, and compare and contrast them to loads and EMCs from virgin Brigalow scrub.
• The use of historical data from the long-term internationally recognised Brigalow Catchment Study (BCS) to refine estimations of nitrogen loads and EMCs from virgin Brigalow scrub, providing a pre-European context for nitrogen movement.
• The development of an understanding of the biophysical interaction of nitrogen in these systems by investigating seasonal trends in nitrogen levels in both soil and plants.

PROGRESS UPDATES are summarised here

Study Areas

Fitzroy Basin, long term Brigalow Catchment Study site; complimented by plot scale rainfall simulation in the Burdekin and Burnett-Mary basins.

 Associated Reef Rescue R&D Research

• RRRD011 – Will be one of the studies captured in this program.
• RRRD038 – This project will be run at the RRRD009 site

Related External Research

Paddock to Reef Program

• Fitzroy monitoring (grazing)
• Source Catchments modelling and load estimation

Reef Rescue WQ Grants

• Fitzroy Basin Association

 Publications From This Project

The Research Outcomes Report for RRRD009 is available for download via the Final Report page. This report should be cited as:

Thornton, C.M. and Elledge, A.E. (2013). Runoff Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sediment Generation Rates from Pasture Legumes: An Enhancement to Reef Catchment Modelling (Project RRRD009). Report to the Reef Rescue Water Quality Research and Development Program. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns (85 pp.). ISBN: 978-1-925088-11-3.

A Report Addendum was completed in 2014 following additional funding from the Australian Government Reef Programme in 2013-2014. The Addendum can be downloaded from the Final Report Addendum page. This report should be cited as:

Thornton, C. M. and Elledge, A.E. (2014). Runoff Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sediment Generation Rates from Pasture Legumes: Addendum to Paddock Scale Water Quality Monitoring for 2013 and 2014 (Project RRRD009). Report to the Reef Rescue Water Quality Research and Development Program. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns (12 pp.).

Several presentations at Reef Rescue R&D forums have summarised the project results; visit the Events page.

Project Fact Sheets

Pasture type effect on runoff nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment generation rates: a comparison of grass, butterfly pea and leucaena pastures to the virgin brigalow landscape2.75 MB

Land use effect on runoff nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment generation rates: a comparison of cropping and grazing to the pre-European landscape3.42 MB

Seasonal trends in soil and plant nutrient concentrations from grass pastures with and without legumes and risk to runoff water quality3.32 MB

Publications:

Elledge, A. and Thornton, C. (2012) The Brigalow Catchment Study: Comparison of soil fertility, forage quality and beef production from buffel grass vs. leucaena-buffel grass pastures. In "Proceedings of the Joint SSA and NZSSS Soil Science Conference, Soil solutions for diverse landscapes", 2-7 December 2012, Hobart, Australia.

Elledge, A. and Thornton, C. (2012) The Brigalow Catchment Study: Nitrogen runoff generation rates from pasture legumes and changes since land development. In "Proceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium", 19-22 November 2012, Sydney, Australia.

Thornton, C. and Elledge, A. (2012) The Brigalow Catchment Study: Increases in runoff associated with land development can still be detected in flood events at a small catchment scale. In "Proceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium", 19-22 November 2012, Sydney, Australia.

Thornton, C., Cowie, B. and Silburn, M. (2012) The Brigalow Catchment Study: forty-five years of paired catchment monitoring in the Brigalow Belt of Australia. In: Revisiting experimental catchment studies in forest hydrology, IAHS Publication 353 (eds. A. Webb, M. Bonell, L. Bren, P. Lane, D. McGuire, D. Neary, J. Nettles, D. Scott, J. Stednick and Y. Wang), 26-32. Proceedings of a workshop held during the XXV IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne, Australia, June-July 2011.

Thornton, C. and Yu, B. (2012) The Brigalow Catchment Study: Effects of land development on peak runoff rate and its prediction in central Queensland, Australia. In "Proceedings of the 34th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium", 19-22 November 2012, Sydney, Australia.

Thornton, C. and Buck, S. (2011). Beef production from buffel grass pasture compared to leucaena-buffel grass pasture in the brigalow belt of Central Queensland. In: Proceedings of the Northern Beef Research Update Conference, Holiday Inn, Esplanade, Darwin, 3 & 4 August 2011.

Relevant Publications

Buck, S., Thornton, C. and Dixon, R. (2011) Comparison of beef cattle diet quality on grass-only and leucaena-grass pastures in central Queensland. In: Proceedings of the Northern Beef Research Update Conference, Holiday Inn, Esplanade, Darwin, 3 & 4 August 2011.

Robinson, J.B., Shaw, M., Silburn, D.M., Roberts, A., Viagak, O., Thornton, C., McClymont, D. (2011). An improved model for linking phosphorus loads in runoff to climate, soil and agricultural management. In 'MODSIM 2011 - 19th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation - Sustaining Our Future: Understanding and Living with Uncertainty'. pp. 2620-2626.

Shaw, M., Silburn, D.M., Thornton, C., Robinson, B., McClymont, D. (2011). Modelling pesticide runoff from paddocks in the Great Barrier Reef using HowLeaky. In 'MODSIM 2011 - 19th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation - Sustaining Our Future: Understanding and Living with Uncertainty'. pp. 2057-2063.

Silburn, D.M., Wilkinson, S.N., Whish, G., Stokes, C. J., Thornton, C., O’Reagain, P., Hawdon, A. A., Henderson, A. E., Dougall, C. (2012). Paddock to Reef Synthesis of Management Practice Effectiveness in Grazing (GBR-wide) knowledge to date. (In press).