Australian Coastal Ecosystems

The Australian Coastal Ecosystems Facility (ACEF) is a new facility of TERN. It aims to provide long-term collection and distribution of key coastal datasets for use in making policy and management decisions about the protection and use of Australia’s coastal assets, both marine and freshwater. It will address data collection needs from fine scale to satellite and airborne collections of flora, fauna and biophysical properties of coastal ecosystems.

Australia’s coastal and freshwater aquatic ecosystems are highly complex and dynamic. They are also home to more than 85% of the Australian population, and this puts great pressure on the ecosystems and means that management responses are also complex. However, although some data collection programs exist (e.g. monitoring in coastal and freshwater ecosystems), many of the interactions between biophysical factors, time, weather conditions, management actions and changing climate are poorly understood. ACEF aims to link past and ongoing research, future data collection, and the integration of knowledge by:

• establishing a coastal community of practice to bring together researchers, managers, industry and the community to identify key coastal datasets, improve technologies (e.g. for monitoring water quality) and identify funding opportunities;
• identifying national datasets that need to be collected, and funding strategic research that addresses key gaps in datasets; and
• enabling better digital access to observational data, and to analysis and visualisation methods.

The key challenges to providing a coordinated national infrastructure on these ecosystems are improving the coordination of and access to coastal data; providing seamless data across subtidal and terrestrial environments on coastal vulnerability to climate change; improving monitoring and mapping; and tracking the movement of rare, endangered and sentinel species.

ACEF will answer the following research questions:

1. How far do vagile coastal and marine organisms move and what are the key coastal habitats they depend on?
2. How are coastal ecosystems and geomorphology, and the productivity of coastal ecosystems, changing in response to anthropogenic pressures, climate change and extreme events?
3. Can accurate coastal ocean colour products be developed to use in a national environmental information system?
4. Can we measure the relative benefits and impacts of environmental management legislation and programs on Australia’s coastal ecosystems?
5. What are the key gaps in our understanding of marine and freshwater coastal ecosystems?

ACEF will work closely with the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), AuScope (an organisation for a national Earth science infrastructure program), and with other TERN Facilities.

ACEF will deliver its products to the community through the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) and TERN’s Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Portal  to provide a distributed archive and access capability of existing coastal information, and will contribute datasets for the National Plan for Environment Information (NPEI) and the second National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment.

Key data sets collected by the Coasts Facility

Here's an example of applications of the coastal video data to be accessed through the ACEF portal.

Facility Director:

Associate Professor Andy Steven
CSIRO Land and Water
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If you are in Adelaide on Tuesday 27 March, you might be interested in attending The ACEAS Great Debate as a prelude to the TERN Symposium.

Registration to the 3rd TERN Annual National Symposium is now open. Program and registration information are on the symposium webpage.

TERN's AusCover Facility is holding a Data Users Workshop in Brisbane on 8 March. Visit the web page for links to the program and information on how to register.

TERN's AusPlots Sub-Facility is holding a Field Method Training workshop at the Renmark and Calperum Station Supersite in South Australia, 4-9 March. Limited places available, so get in quick!

In our December newsletter the TERN Director summarises — and celebrates — the huge effort that has gone into creating the TERN network so far. We introduce you to the complex world of the Australian Supersite Network. At workshops in Adelaide and Perth, TERN facilities work with various collaborators; we invite you to get involved in TERN; and there's some wild talk. You'll have to read the newsletter to find out more.

New research supersite will tell woodlands climate story (media release)

What would it take to get you to share (both deposit and use) data in TERN facility portals? If this question interests you join our discussion on LinkedIn.