Att2 - Permaculture Report

               Biodiversity

               Permaculture practices emulate natural systems, therefore biodiversity is extremely
               important as all thriving natural systems are biodiverse in nature.
               By introducing more biodiversity into the existing system, there will be an ongoing e ect.
               For every animal or plant species brought into a more natural system, other bene cial
               species are attracted as well. A stable system needs a complex ecology to function. By
               encouraging a more complex and diverse ecology, studies have shown more bene cial
               species are attracted to that ecosystem exponentially.

               Even though the site has orchards on contour, as well as some other permaculture design
               elements, we would recommend improving biodiversity on the site as this seems to be
               lacking (eg citrus orchards with grass surrounding trees, which is an unnatural system).
               A natural tree forest system has a forest oor of detritis for saprophytic and mycorrhizzal
               funghi ecology to thrive in (a forest lives on a fallen forest). We can emulate and speed up
               this process by including more biodiversity in tree systems and focus on building the
               forest oor with detritis.

               By adding pig tractors between the existing orchard rows, followed by chicken tractors,
               we introduce more biodiversity in this system. Once chickens have prepared that area, it
               can be planted out with a diverse green manure mix to improve biodiversity and
               regenerate soil fungal and bacterial activity. We would suggest chipping excess tree
               material from the site and adding the chip around the fruit trees to create a more fungal
               environment for the fruit trees, as trees thrive on a fungal environment rather than the
               bacterial environment generated by grass. We would also recommend interspersing the
               citrus trees with other productive trees and nitrogen xing trees to improve biodiversity
               and regenerative capacity of the soil. Trees such as macadamias, avocado, persimmon,
               co ee and other productive trees will improve productivity as well as create a more
               biodiverse environment. Trees such as pigeon pea, cassia and icecream bean are
               nitrogen xers which improve the growing capacity of the productive trees.
               Improving the biodiversity will improve ecology, thus creating a more natural and
               productive ecological system.

               By introducing growing systems such as Syntropic Farming, a focus will be on
               biodiversity as this natural creation of biomass will improve soil nutrients quickly. A
               biodiverse environment to grow food in will mean better nutritional value of the food as
               the biomass will create a healthier soil environment and thus healthier food.
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