Reforestation on previously cleared land represents an effective way to offset climate change emissions, and the number of these reforestation projects in Australia is increasing thanks to the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. Under this scheme, landowners are rewarded for converting cleared land back to forest either by planting trees or seed directly, or allowing natural succession processes to occur. Incentive payments are made to landowners based on the weight of carbon sequestered in the forest, but the initiative also encourage the inclusion of multiple species, stating that mixed-species plantings can provide additional benefits such as ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Despite this, there are no guidelines on how to achieve optimum levels of diversity and productivity in forest plantings.

This project uses an Australia-wide dataset of plantings, natural regrowth and remnant forests collected by CSIRO, Greenfleet, Greening Australia and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. We aim to apply functional traits and principals of community ecology to explore the relationship between forest diversity and productivity, and to develop empirical guidelines on species selection and arrangement to aid landowners and restoration managers to maximise diversity-productivity co-benefits.

Project Collaborators

Margie Mayfield
The University of Queensland

John Dwyer
The University of Queensland
CSIRO Land and Water Flagship

Jacqui England
CSIRO Land and Water Flagship

Jean-Baptiste Pichancourt
CSIRO Land and Water Flagship

Data Contribution

CSIRO Land and Water Flagship
Greening Australia
Greenfleet
Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

Post-graduate Students

Timothy Staples (PhD)