Assessing carbon sequestration in saltbush plantations

Project Lead: Adrian Fisher, University of NSW

Project Partners: DCCEEW, Grazing Management Systems (GMS)

The project will examine plantations of native old-man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia) as a carbon sequestration frontier. Saltbush has been planted in areas of NSW that are degraded by dryland salinity to restore vegetation cover, and increase sheep grazing productivity. Plantations have been shown to improve biodiversity and can sequester carbon by 2.2-8.3 Mg per hectare. Australian carbon credit schemes that are currently restricted to the use of tree plantings could be expanded to include old-man saltbush if questions regarding saltbush biomass quantity and possible extent are answered. The project will bring together university, government, and industry to develop novel remote sensing technology to answer key questions about the biomass quantity and possible extent of saltbush. We will assess historical plantings using measurements, drone data, and satellite data, to develop biomass models, and create maps of persistent bare ground caused by dryland salinity to determine the extent of future plantings.

Project Timeline: April 2025 – June 2026

Project update (16 May 2025): Fieldwork

In late April, UNSW researchers Adrian Fisher, Will Magney and Andres Sutton were out in Narromine collecting data to assess and model carbon stocks in Oldman Saltbush plantations as part of the ‘Assessing carbon sequestration in saltbush plantations’ project funded by LPIN through the NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub. During the trip they were joined by project partners Geoff Horn (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) and Ben Sippel (Grazing Management Systems).

The fieldwork involved diverse tasks such as drone flights to capture multispectral images and LiDAR three-dimensional data, shrub crown measurements, destructive biomass and soil sampling, as well as exploring Oldman Saltbush cuisine!