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
An upper detrimental threshold, where ecosystem health, stability, and long-term productivity are severely compromised, is likely exceeded when widespread, persistent bare ground surpasses 50%.
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 defines the upper detrimental threshold for bare ground cover in temperate dry woodlands and native grasslands under production forestry, beyond which ecosystem health and productivity are severely compromised.
At such levels, accelerated soil erosion becomes chronic, leading to substantial loss of topsoil, soil organic carbon, and essential nutrients.
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