This month’s featured achiever is Rhiannon Smith. Rhiannon has recently completed her PhD Thesis ‘Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Associated with Native Vegetation in an Agricultural Landscape’ at the University of New England. In her PhD Rhiannon quantified eight ecosystem services provided by native vegetation, including carbon storage, erosion mitigation and biodiversity conservation on cotton farms on the lower Namoi floodplain. Interestingly, Rhiannon found river red gum sites were by far the highest carbon storage in the landscape storing 216 tonnes of carbon per hectare-1. Rhiannon’s results will assist grower’s value and manage their native vegetation for ecosystem services.
Rhiannon has been researching ecosystem services in the cotton industry for some time now, completing her Bachelor of Natural Resources (Hons) in 2005 including an Honours thesis on ‘Biodiversity of Tree Plantings in Cotton Growing Areas of the Namoi Valley’. The project concentrated on cotton farms around Boggabri, Harparary and Narrabri with plantings ranging in size, species, age, health, management and establishment techniques. The project was funded through the Cotton CRC summer scholarship program.
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