干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Carbon fixation by afforestation is one of a few effective countermeasures against the carbon dioxide problem. In particular, afforestation of and land is promising, since the and land exists in large quantities in the world. Under the above background, the authors started a research project supported by the Japan Science and Technology Corporation in 1998. The main research area was set up in the interior of Western Australia where mean annual rainfall is about 200 mm. The growth tendency of trees at the site C, where the breakage of the impermeable layer was conducted, is reported. At this site, 12 water ponding banks were developed surrounding a planting area (50 m x 50 m) to collect runoff and retain rainfall. Then, around 50 trees were planted in each planting area. Tree height, crown diameter and trunk diameter at 0.3 m and 1.3 m from ground level for several species such as Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Acacia aneura, and Casuarina obesa were measured every few months after planting. The results from other site are also reported. Finally, an integrated simulator of plant growth, photosynthesis, transpiration, and soil water transport was developed as a platform for the competition of and land afforestation technologies for CO2 Fixation. Mathematical models of processes from rainwater to vegetation; these were implemented as a web application and the amount of primary production of planted tree calculated. Thus, the effect of introduction of various technologies could be quantitatively evaluated.