Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

Chapter 7 – Land Erodibility Dynamics 1980-2006Finally, the sensitivity of the bioregions to land erodibility change can be described. Theerodibility of the Mulga Lands is most sensitive to climate variability (Figure 7.5). This issupported by the correlation of land erodibility with rainfall, the SOI and the PDO, andhistorical reports of land degradation in the bioregion in response to drought and overgrazingin the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s (McKeon et al., 2004). The sensitivity of the bioregion todegradation can be attributed to the region’s arid climate, high stocking rates and thefragmented nature of the landscape (Stokes et al., 2008). These factors contribute to lowvegetation resilience to short-term climate variability and a response of significant reductionsin understory grass cover during periods of low rainfall. This sensitivity exists in othersimilarly fragmented semi-arid rangelands around the world (Galvin et al., 2008), suggestingthat other dust source areas will be as responsive to global teleconnections.Figure 7.5 indicates that land erodibility dynamics in the Channel Country operates at asimilar time scale to the Mulga Lands, but that rapid (