This project has produced data which confirmed past findings of the robustness of cotton to compensate for levels of insect damage exceeding those of current industry thresholds for Helicoverpa and mirids. We have further quantified cotton’s ability to recover from damage by compiling a significant database of yield outcomes in a variety of single and multiple damage situations across a wide range of agronomic conditions (i.e. cultivar, plant density, N and Pix application) and in a number of regions from northern Australia to Queensland and NSW (to assess compensation under diverse climatic regimes). To link artificial damage, which is normally implemented evenly within a row of cotton, with the more patchy damage caused by insects, we assessed the effects of various spatial distributions of damage within a stand on growth and yield.

This project was based on the results of extensive research on fruits, ornamentals, vegetables and cotton (in NSW) in which the effectiveness of petroleum-derived spray oils (PDSOs) on insect and mite pests has been unequivocally demonstrated. Oils kill susceptible pests through suffocation (e.g., mites, thrips, aphids and scales). They also influence the feeding and oviposition behaviour of some pests that are not generally susceptible to suffocation (e.g., Helicoverpa armigera and H. punctigera). This has led to behavioural effects on a very broad range of pests becoming much more important than suffocation, the traditionally accepted mode of action, of a much narrower range of pests. Contemporary PDSOs classed as either horticultural mineral oils or agricultural mineral oils are not toxic and pose no threat to human health or the environment. Their impact on natural enemies is generally negligible and arthropod resistance to PDSOs has not been empirically demonstrated in over 100 years of use.

The Strategic Plan builds on the work undertaken by previous Audit activity since 1997 and is directed at providing data and information that will underpin the monitoring and evaluation of investment by the Australian Government and State and Territory Governments and regional organisations in improved natural resource management.

The National River Contaminants Program is a significant research and development program jointly funded by Land & Water Australia and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. It expands and builds on the highly successful National Eutrophication Management Program, which concluded in 2000 and provides a broad indication of the scale of the challenges Australia faces in maintaining or restoring landscape health.

ANNUAL REPORT NATIONAL LAND AND WATER RESOURCES AUDIT 2000 - 2001

The report explains and justifies the value of material flow analysis as a method to inform natural resource management at the regional level. It further develops material flow analysis methodology as a heuristic basis upon which to develop strategies to foster rural revitalisation. Also, it resolves some long-standing dilemmas concerning data collection and reconciliation at the regional level by presenting a new approach to the determination of bioregional and systems boundaries. The report develops some methodological concepts to facilitate bioregional planning, and demonstrates how metabolic mapping might be further developed and applied more broadly in policy development and community decision making.

This report summarises the results of the project Economics of remnant native vegetation conservation on private property. The project ran from June 1996 to November 1999 The main project objectives were to: 1. identify and characterise the remnant native vegetation (RNV) on private land in the study areas (North-east Victoria and the Murray catchment in New South Wales); 2. estimate the market economic value of these remnants; 3. estimate the non-market economic value associated with these remnants; and 4. recommend mechanisms by which the values identified in objectives 2 and 3 could be translated into policies and incentives for remnant vegetation conservation.

Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001 reports on landscape processes, soil, nutrient and water movement and serves as a key input towards improved land and water resources management.

For the 2007/08 Defeating the Weed Menace program (DWM), we proposed to build and test a prototype robotic aircraft and surveillance system to detect aquatic weeds in inaccessible habitats. The know-how and technology is not new: we have been working on such systems for the aerospace industry for over a decade. However, a new application of the technology and the different test environment meant we had to devise new technologies and approaches.

This report outlines and analyses the Far North Queensland Citizens' Jury (FNQCJ), which attempted to replicate the ideals of deliberative democracy in considering future management options for the Bloomfield eld Track, a controversial road between Cape Tribulation and the Bloomfield eld River in the far northeast of Australia.