Melbourne School of Land and Environment Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science

I completed my undergraduate studies in 1995 at The University of Sheffield, UK in Natural Environmental Science (Hons). I joined the Environmental Consultancy arm (ECUS) of Sheffield University for 8 months before commencing a Ph.D. in tropical agroforestry and soil resource competition at The University of Reading, UK in collaboration with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Maseno, Kenya. I completed my doctorate degree in 1999 and moved to Australia in 2000 to join The University of Western Australia investigating the use of isotopic techniques to quantify nutrient transformation in Albany’s effluent irrigated plantation in the south-west of WA. In 2003, I crossed the Nullabor to take up a research scientist position within the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to investigate the carbon cycle of Victoria’s plantation forests.  Since 2005, I have been a Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne, investigating greenhouse exchange and carbon cycling in natural and managed forest systems. 

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My research interests revolve around linking ecosystem scale biogeochemistry with detailed soil-plant-atmosphere process studies, to better understand and predict the mechanisms involved nutrient and element cycling and the environmental factors that influence these processes.

1. One focus has been the detailed and extended measurement of soil-atmosphere exchange of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) in relation to changing soil conditions, substrate availability and microbial processes (nitrification, denitrification, methanotroph oxidation, methanogenesis).
2. Another focus has been soil carbon, primarily the quantification of soil carbon change and the physical separation of soil carbon fractions to better understand susceptibility or resilience to mineralisation under different soil environmental scenarios
3. More recently, I have begun research to quantify the environmental benefits of vegetation and soil systems in the urban environment. This has included the greenhouse gas impact of garden management strategies, urban soil carbon change and the multiple environmental benefits of urban trees.

 
My research has been applied to issues of:

1. land-use change (afforestation – deforestation)
2. environmental or climate change (wetlands, forests, savanna)
3. fire disturbance (forests and savanna)
4. land management practice (forests and agriculture)
5. the urban landscape

The analytical techniques employed in this research include:

1. stable isotope (15N) and (13C) tracer techniques and mass spectrometer analysis,
2. gas chromatography, cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) and fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of nitrous oxide (N2O) methane (CH4) and other trace gas flux,
3. Infra-red gas analysis of carbon dioxide (CO2) flux,
4. Mass balance of ecosystem C and N pools above and below-ground.

Research Groups

Forests and Climate Change Research Group
Ecophysiology and Ecosystem Processes Research Group
Green Infrastructure Research Group

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Research Projects

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Projects

Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions in forested landscapes
DSE Research project 1.5
To respond to climate change appropriately we need to a) understand the magnitude of GHG emissions in various land-use forms, b) understand what effect a change in land-use may have on the magnitude of the emissions, c) investigate the fundamental processes and mechanisms that control the emissions and d) develop computer models that allow the prediction and up scaling of GHG emissions, climate change and the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems.

Improved Monitoring for Sustainable Forest and Natural Resource Management in Victoria
DSE Research project 1.7.
To support the FM&RIS proposed large area terrestrial vegetation monitoring and reporting system by scientifically evaluating and proposing sample strategies and methods for soil parameters and forest health measurements

Australian Research Council (ARC)

Integrative assessment of disturbance and land-use change on total greenhouse gas balance and nutrient cycling in savanna ecosystems
ARC Linkage Grant (LP0774812) 2007-2009
LB Hutley; J Beringer; SK Arndt; SJ Livesley; GD Cook; K Butterbach-Bahl. $190,000 (ARC) + 90,000 (AGO + Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts NT)

Non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in afforested ecosystems in southeastern Australia - fluxes, processes and regional budget
ARC Linkage Grant (LP0455475) 2004-2007
SK Arndt, CJ Weston, K Butterbach-Bahl, SJ Livesley.  $416,144 (ARC) + $120,000 (AGO + DSE industry contribution)

External Projects

Greenhouse gas benefits and ecosystem function of remnant woodlands in an agricultural landscape bordering Western Port Bay
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, 2009-2010 ($12,146)

Using STRATUM to estimate the benefits of Australian street trees
Nursery and Garden Industry Australia (NGIA), 2009-2010 ($7,000)

Internal University Projects

Impact of fire on the nitrogen cycle and greenhouse gas emissions in tropical savannas
Joint Research Project -. SK Arndt, SJ Livesley, J Beringer & LB Hutley. $25,000

Trace gas exchange in Australian forests – from the soil, to the canopy and net ecosystem scale
Joint Research Project (2006) $7,600 SJ Livesley, D Griffith (Univ. of Wollongong)

The impact of afforestation and harvest residue management upon greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O and CH4) from eucalypt plantations
UniMelb-CSIRO collaborative grant (2005) $15,000 SJ Livesley, D Mendham (CSIRO, WA)

Infrastructure funding

Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyzer (MEGA)
ARC Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Grant (LE0882936) 2008
SK Arndt, SJ Livesley, J Beringer
$130,000 (ARC) $130,000 (Universities)

MEGA - Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser for Australian landscape
AE Rowden White Foundation, 2008
MEGA - Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser for Australian landscape.
SK Arndt & SJ Livesley
$160,000

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Kahmen A., Livesley S.J., Arndt S.K. (2009) High potential, but low actual, organic N uptake of dominant plant species in three Australian land-use types with intermediate N availability. Plant and Soil (DOI 10.1007/s11104-009-9960-x) IF 1.998

Miehle P, Battaglia M, Sands P J, Forrester D I, Feikema P M, Livesley S J, Morris J D and Arndt S K (2009) A comparison of four process-based models and a statistical regression model to predict growth of Eucalyptus globulus plantations. Ecological Modelling 220: 734-746.

Livesley S J, Kiese R, Miehle P Weston C J, Butterbach-Bahl K, Arndt S K (2009) Soil-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases in a Eucalyptus marginata woodland, a clover-grass pasture and P. radiata and E. globulus plantations, Global Change Biology 15: 425-440.

Fest, B, Livesley S J, Drossler, M, van Gorsel, E and Arndt, S.K. (2009) Soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas exchange in a cool, temperate Eucalyptus delegatensis forest in south-eastern Australia. Agriculture and Forest Meteorology 149: 393-406.

Livesley S J, Eckard R and Arndt S K (2008) Nitrous oxide and methane flux in Australian and New Zealand landscapes: measurements, modeling and mitigation. Plant and Soil 309: 1-4.

Livesley S J, Kiese R, Graham J, Weston C, Butterbach-Bahl K and Arndt S K (2008) Trace gas flux and the influence of short-term soil water and temperature dynamics in Australian sheep grazed pastures of differing productivity. Plant and Soil 309: 89-103.

Gleeson D, Hermann A M, Livesley S J, Murphy D V (2008) Influence of water potential on nitrification and structure of nitrifying bacterial communities in semi arid soils. Applied Soil Ecology 40: 189-194.

Arndt S K, Livesley S J, Merchant A, Bleby T M, Grierson P F (2008) Quercitol and osmotic adaptation of field grown Eucalyptus under seasonal drought stress. Plant, Cell and Environment 31: 915-924.

Dalal, R C, Allen D E, Livesley S J, Richards G (2008). Magnitude and biophysical regulators of methane emission and consumption in the Australian agricultural, forest, and submerged landscapes: a review. Plant and Soil 309: 43-76.

Livesley S J, Adams, M A, Grierson P F (2007) Soil Water Nitrate and Ammonium Dynamics under a Sewage Effluent–Irrigated Eucalypt Plantation. Journal of Environmental Quality 36: 1883-1894

Macfarlane C, Arndt S K, Livesley S J, Edgar A C, White D A, Adams M A and Eamus D (2007) Estimation of leaf area index in eucalypt forest with vertical foliage, using cover and full-frame fisheye photography. Forest Ecology and Management 242 756-763)

Miehle P, Livesley S J, Feikema P M, Li C, Arndt S K (2006) Large scale predictions of growth and carbon sequestration in tree plantations. Global Change Biology 12 1421-1434

Miehle P, Livesley S J, Feikema P M, Li C, Arndt S K (2006) Assessing productivity and carbon sequestration capacity of Eucalyptus globulus plantations using the process model Forest-DNDC: Calibration and validation of the forest growth sub-module PnET. Ecological Modelling 192 83-94

Livesley S J, Gregory P J and Buresh R J (2004) Competition in tree row agroforestry systems. 3. Soil water distribution and dynamics. Plant and Soil 264: 129-139

Livesley S J, Gregory P J and Buresh R J (2002) Competition in tree row agroforestry systems. 2. Distribution, dynamics and uptake of soil inorganic N. Plant and Soil 247: 177-187.

Book Chapters

Buresh R J, Rowe E C, Livesley S J, Cadisch G and Paramu Mafongoya 2005 Opportunities for capture of deep soil nutrients. In Below-ground Interactions in Tropical Agroecosystems (Eds) Ong C K, van Noordwijk M and Cadisch G., CABI.

Akinnefesi F K, Rowe E C, Livesley S J, Kwesiga F R, Vanlauwe B and Alegre J C 2005 Tree root architecture. In Below-ground Interactions in Tropical Agroecosystems (Eds) Ong C K, van Noordwijk M and Cadisch G., CABI.

Other Publications

Adams M A, Coote M, Grierson P F, Livesley S J and Williams K (2001) Improved Management of the Albany Effluent Irrigation Tree Farm – Final Report. University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

Livesley S J, Adams M A, and Grierson P F (2005) Generic Techniques in Soil Process Measurements and Monitoring at the Albany Effluent Irrigation Tree Farm – Final Report. University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

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PhD Students

Current students

Hizbullah Jamali (2007 -  )
Yadav Kandal (2008 -  )
Benedikt Fest (2008 -  )
Nina Hinko (2008 -  )
Rama Majumder (2009 -  )
Tonja Wright (2009 -  )

Former students
Katherine Whittaker (2004 - 2007, completed)
Oka Karyanto (2004 -  )

Masters projects:

Danial Idzak (2009)
Tom Fairman (2009)

Honours:

Sascha Andrusiak (2009)

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Master of Forest Ecosystem Science

220 405 Forest Ecosystems (course co-ordinator)
220 511 Forest Landscape Restoration (course co-ordinator)
220513 Forest Research Projects (supervisory contributor)

Master of Urban Horticulture

207 412 Environments of Urban Landscapes (contributor)

Bachelor of Horticulture / Associate Degree in Environmental Horticulture

202 311 Industry Project (supervisory contributor)

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