Academic Advisor

Richard grew up in Perth, Western Australia, with an architect father, and was a keen member of the army reserve and swimmer at Perth's beaches during his university studies. After completing a BSc (with honours in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry) in 1970 from the University of Western Australia, Richard undertook a PhD in Soil Science from 1971-1975, also at the University of Western Australia. He then joined the Victorian Department of Agriculture, and from 1975 to 1985 worked as a soils research officer at the Irrigation Research Institute, Tatura. Then from 1985 to 1993, he worked as a Senior Research Scientist in the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, firstly at Deniliquin, NSW, and later in Canberra, ACT. In 1993 he joined The Australian National University as a Lecturer in Soil and Land Management in the Fenner School (then the School of Resources, Environment and Society).

Professional Activities

Research and consulting experience includes:

1. Rehabilitation of degraded lands: have investigated the formation and rehabilitation of degraded rangelands, alpine and sub-alpine regions, minesites and semi-arid cropping-grazing lands.

2. Development of sustainable cropping/grazing enterprises including: time-controlled grazing, pasture cropping, natural sequence farming and conventional and organic systems of agriculture.

3. Research on properties of aeolian dust and its implications for : (i) soil formation and soil-landscape proceses such as erosion and salinity, (ii) mineral exploration, (iii) minesite rehabilitation

4. Carbon sequestration: with staff from Lachlan CMA, NSW DECC and L.Cowal Foundation researching the effects of land management practices on carbon sequestration and soil properties.

• Consultancies with TRANSGRID on evaluation of erosion hazard following clearing and rehabilitation and EMBRAPA (Brazilian federal research organisation) on management of hardsetting soils.
• Author of approximately 60 refereed publications in clay colloid chemistry, amelioration of soil structure, rehabilitation of degraded lands, and the development of sustainable cropping systems.
• Funding from competitive research grants from the NSCP, RIRDC, HRDC, ARC.

My current research supervision includes five PhDs, three masters and two honours students. I also lecture in three undergraduate courses in soil and land management.

Academic Highlights

Invited keynote speaker at three international conferences on (i) erosion processes in patterned landscapes (ii) processes of soil-water interaction and (iii) management of hardsetting soils.

Selected Publications

Greene, R.S.B., Valentin, C. and Esteves, M. 2001. Runoff and erosion processes. In Banded Vegetation Patterning in Arid and Semi-arid Environment-Ecological Processes and Consequences for Management. (Eds. C. Valentin, D. Tongway, J. Seghieri and J.M. d'Herbes), Springer-Verlag. Ecological Studies 149. (pp. 52-76).

Greene, R.S.B., and Hairsine, P. 2004. Elementary processes of soil-water interaction and thresholds in soil surface dynamics: a review. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Special Issue. 'Soil Surface Characteristics: dynamics and impact on soil erosion' (Eds Auzet A.-V., Poesen J., Valentin C), 29, 1077-1091.

Tate, S.E., Greene, R.S.B., Scott, K.M., and McQueen, K.G. (2006). Recognition and characterisation of the Aeolian component in soils in the Girilambone Region, north western New South Wales, Australia. Catena, 69, 122-133.

Turner, M. L., Greene, R.S.B., Knackstedt, M., Senden, T.J., Sakellariou, A, and White, I. (2008). Use of gamma emission CT to study the effect of electrolyte concentration on regions of preferred flow and hydraulic conductivity in deep regolith materials. Australian Journal of Soil Research, 46, 101-111.

Greene, R.S.B., Cattle, S.R., and McPherson, A.A. (2008). The Role of Aeolian Dust Deposits in Landscape Development and Landscape Degradation in Southeastern Australia. In Special Publication on Australian Cainozoic Cratonic Basins; International Association of Sedimentologists (in press).