Bare Ground
Benchmark Value
Scoring Curve
This curve shows how a field measurement for this indicator would score across all available benchmark forms in this context.
Evidence & Context
A lower critical threshold (i.e., the point at which increasing bare ground becomes problematic) is considered to be approached when persistent bare ground exceeds 30-40% across a significant portion of a managed coupe, leading to increased erosion risk and declining soil health.
Bare ground: areas of the soil surface devoid of vegetation, litter, or biological soil crusts, where the mineral soil is directly exposed to atmospheric elements.
This benchmark marks the maximum acceptable bare ground cover in temperate dry woodlands and native grasslands under production forestry, beyond which soil erosion and degradation risks increase significantly.
Beyond this level, significant increases in soil erosion, surface water runoff, loss of soil organic matter, and degradation of site productivity are likely.
Sources (1)
Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (2021). Australia State of the Environment 2021: Land.
View SourceSupporting Sources (6)
Additional references from the underlying research that informed this benchmark.
Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. (2012, June). Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa) Grassy Woodlands and Derived Native Grasslands of south-eastern Australia. Nationally Threatened Ecological Communities.
View SourceCunningham, S. A., et al. (2014). Woodland habitat structures are affected by both agricultural land management and abiotic conditions. Landscape Ecology, 29, 1237-1249.
View Source
Geoscience Australia. (2025, April 30). DEA Fractional Cover (Landsat). Digital Earth Australia.
View Source
Gibbons, P., Briggs, S. V., Murphy, D., Lindenmayer, D. B., McElhinny, C., & Brookhouse, M. (2010). Benchmark stem densities for forests and woodlands in south-eastern Australia under conditions of relatively little modification by humans since European settlement. Forest Ecology and Management, 260(11), 2047-2058.
View SourceGill, T., et al. (2016). A method for mapping Australian woody vegetation cover by linking continental-scale field data and long-term Landsat time series. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 37(24), 5848-5870.
View SourceStewart, S. B., et al. (2025, March 6). Improved estimates of Australian woody and grass foliage cover from time series of satellite-derived total foliage cover. Biogeosciences, 22(%), 1165-1185.
View Source