Constructed Wetlands Suitability for Sugarcane Profitability, Freshwater Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Freshwater ecosystems, such as wetlands, are among the most impacted by agricultural expansion and intensification through extensive drainage and pollution. There is a pressing need to identify ways of managing agricultural landscapes to ensure food and water security without jeopardising biodiversity and other environmental benefits. Here we examine the potential fish biodiversity and landholder financial benefits arising from the integration of constructed lagoons to improve drainage, flow regulation and habitat connectivity within a sugarcane dominated catchment in north Queensland, Australia. A hybrid approach was used, combining the findings of both fish ecological surveys and a financial cost-benefit analysis. We found that the constructed lagoons supported at least 36 native freshwater fishes (over half of all native freshwater fishes in the region), owing to their depth, vegetated margins, moderate water quality and high connectivity to the Tully River. In addition to biodiversity benefits, we estimated that surrounding sugarcane farms would have financially benefited from reduced flooding of cropland and the elevation of low-lying cropland with deposited spoil excavated from lagoon construction. Improved drainage and flow regulation allowed for improvement in sugarcane yield and elevated land increased gross margins from extending the length of the cane production cycle or enabling a switch from cattle grazing to cane production. Restoring or creating wetlands to reduce flooding in flood-prone catchments is a globally applicable model that could improve both agricultural productivity and aquatic biodiversity, while potentially increasing farm income by attracting payments for provision of ecosystem services.

Identifying innovation discourses for nitrogen management in the sugarcane sector in Great Barrier Reef catchments using Q-methodology.

Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) run-off from sugarcane farms along Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) coast is implicated in poor catchment water quality and putting pressure on reef health. Reducing DIN is the focus of innovative policies to cut pollution and to maximize social benefit across economic sectors. We use Q-methodology to gain insight into discourses present amongst sugarcane sector stakeholders in GBR catchments. Issue statements, which we aligned with concepts from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, were ranked and correlations identified to generate factors that informed our descriptions of discourses. We found four discourse groups we called sector stalwarts, scientific rationalists, economic maximisers, and sector defenders. We also collected respondent demographic data from which we could judge the propensities of respondent groups to identify with different discourses. This information can help industry innovators and policymakers identify the attributes, mindsets, and appropriate language metaphors for engaging stakeholders in reducing catchment pollution.