Stomping out Sediment in the Burdekin Final Report | Page 33

while landscape function analysis ( LFA ) was conducted on permanently located 50m gradsects ( gradient directed transects ) in each plot , also starting in spring 2017 at Tabletop and Mt . Pleasant and then at the end of each growing season .
At Tabletop , fence and stock water dam construction impacted on monitoring areas at the broodmare and black soil project sites , requiring modification of the DAF monitoring program as some LFA gradsects were removed . All monitoring plots had two 50m permanently marked LFA gradsects except for black soil site Plot 7 which had four 25m gradsects . Plot 7 had one gradsect removed prior to the June 2018 recording . Plot 4 and 5 had all gradsects removed in October 2018 through fencing . Reporting of LFA at Tabletop was based on Plot 2 ( intact ) and Plot 7 from October 2018 and , at the next sampling , another gradsect at Plot 7 was unable to be recorded due to cattle ‘ camping ’ there due to the proximity of the stock water . Plot 7 therefore had two remaining 25m LFA gradsects .
Site monitoring was undertaken from November 2017 at Tabletop and Mt . Pleasant with subsequent sampling in June 2018 ( first sampling at Strathalbyn ), October 2018 , June 2019 , July 2020 , November 2020 and June-July 2021 . Sampling included pasture yield and composition ( Tothill et al . 1992 ), ground cover ( Anon , 2005 ), LFA ( Tongway and Hindley , 2004 ) and land condition ( Corfield et al . 2006 ).
Property
Land type Soil
Expected pasture
composition
Pasture composition 2017 / 18
Land condition 2017 / 18
Mt . Pleasant ( Plot 10 )
Tabletop - broodmare ( Plots 2,4,5 )
narrow leaf ironbark on deeper soils
Duplex with low fertility and rooting depth < 0.6m with highly erodible subsoil where exposed . Surface is hardsetting .
black speargrass , kangaroo grass , desert bluegrass , hairy panic , forest bluegrass
golden beardgrass , red Natal , Queensland bluegrass , Indian couch , black speargrass , desert bluegrass , wiregrass
abundant Indian couch
B
C
Mt . Pleasant ( Plot 11 )
Tabletop ( Plot 7 )
Strathalbyn ( Plots 12,13 )
clayey alluvials
Self-mulching black cracking clay ( vertosol ).
Queensland bluegrass , desert bluegrass , curly bluegrass , curly and hoop Mitchell grass , tall cup grass , native millet ; green couch * ( naturalised ), Flinders grass , button grass , native or spider couch
golden beardgrass ; black speargrass yabila ; early spring grass ; Indian couch ; red Natal
abundant Indian couch
abundant Indian couch , parthenium , annual broadleaved plants
B
C
C / D
Table 7 : DAF monitoring program site descriptions
NQ Dry Tropics has a longer term PATCHKEY monitoring site at Mt . Pleasant , on a narrow leaf ironbark on deeper soils , land type . Site monitoring was continued throughout the Stomping out Sediment project to provide complementary pasture and land condition monitoring data .
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