Mr Ryan
Burrows
PhD student
Topic: Biogeochemical cycling
and ecosystem processes in small headwater streams - assessing the
effects of forest management
University of Tasmania
Email:ryanb1@utas.edu.au
Headwater streams represent a major link between
the terrestrial ecosystems and aquatic systems, but these
ecological linkages are poorly documented. Headwater streams are a
major component of a catchment, where they typically contribute in
excess of 75% of the length of a river system. They are closely
connected to riparian vegetation and upland terrestrial systems,
and are subject to large volumes of allochthonous (terrestrial)
organic matter and nutrients relative to stream size. Any
alterations to the riparian vegetation and upland terrestrial
systems, such as what happens in forestry operations, may have
strong effects on the retention and breakdown of carbon, nutrient
cycling and sediment transport of headwater streams.
Currently, forestry guidelines in Tasmania involve
clear-burn-and-sow (CBS) harvesting with a 10 meter exclusion zone
around headwater streams, but still include the harvesting of
riparian vegetation where practical. These guidelines provide a
mechanism that may cause changes to the flux and pools of nutrients
between upland areas and headwater streams. Quantifying the flux of
essential nutrients into headwater streams after CBS operations and
the ability of in-stream biota to retain or store nutrients is
critical, and will provide a measure of the impact that
silvicultural operations may have upon ecosystem functioning and a
catchment’s overall health.
The overall project objective is to assess changes to headwater
stream nutrient and carbon dynamics, in-stream habitat, water
quality, and riparian vegetation before, during and after forestry
operations (under the Forest Practices Code) using a BACI
(Before-After-Control-Impact) experimental design. This will enable
me to evaluate the effectiveness of current and proposed forest
practices in protecting the ecosystem functioning and habitat
structure of small, headwater streams in tall, wet forests subject
to harvesting and regeneration to tall, wet native forest.
Before starting my project I completed my undergraduate degree in
Natural Resource Management (Hons) at the University of Western
Australia. My honours project investigated the spatial distribution
of surface litter in the northern Jarrah forest of Western
Australia, which was supported by the Bushfire CRC and supervised
by
Dr Matthias Boer and
Dr Pauline Grierson.
My supervisors are
Assoc/Prof Leon Barmuta (School of Zoology, UTas),
Dr Regina Magierowski (School of Zoology, UTas), and
Dr Neil Davidson (School of Plant Science, UTas). My PhD
research is funded by the CRC for Forestry and Forestry
Tasmania.
My research contributes to the Trees in the Landscape research
program of the CRC for Forestry.
