This month we’re showcasing one of the newest sites in the TERN OzFlux network—French Island—and its measurement of methane and the dynamic coastal wetlands that protect our natural and managed landscapes.
The prestigious journal Nature has just published a substantial international study involving TERN Australia personnel and use of TERN data. The study identified three main factors controlling the function of terrestrial ecosystems and their predicted responses to climate change. The findings reveal that >70% of the variability within ecosystems is described by these three key characteristics.
Environmental DNA (or eDNA) profiling is being used increasingly to analyse a range of substrates and historical samples, apparently even thin air, but what about soil? Join Prof. Andy Lowe as he investigates an important and cost-effective method of environmental DNA profiling.
Detailed time-series weather and air-quality data collected at Sydney schools are now available for download via TERN. The data collected by the Schools Weather and Air Quality (SWAQ) citizen science project includes the Black Summer bushfires and multiple COVID-19 lockdown periods. This presents a valuable dataset for urban ecology, air pollution, and climate research, and future urban planning. It also provides an opportunity for international collaborations and global-scale science.
Since 2011, TERN’s research infrastructure in southwest Western Australia has been helping us understand how climate, water and vegetation are interacting at the Gnangara groundwater mound. The Gnangara Mound is a crucial water resource for Perth—and its dependent ecosystems. Rainfall is declining, the banksia woodlands still need water, so what does this mean for the sustainability of Perth’s water supply? TERN’s Research Infrastructure and data are helping to investigate some of these questions and a new interactive website, built by uni students, tells this story, and visualises the data behind it.
In this, our second popular science articles from TERN, Prof. Andy Lowe discusses the measures and metrics used to track the state, condition and trajectory of our ecosystem services. Read on to find out how TERN data streams can provide accurate estimates or supporting information to monitor the stocks and changes in critical ecosystem services now and into the future.
This month’s spotlight is aimed at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) Forest Research Institute. This group undertakes work in the broad spectrum of forestry research areas that make direct and meaningful contributions to the sustainability of our wooded landscapes, including important areas of studies such as smallholder and forest conservation-based research, along with work to ensure industries profitable while meeting regulatory requirements and public expectations.
From on-ground monitoring plots, to high-tech sensor-laden towers and satellite measurements, all scales of TERN’s ecosystem observatory are coming together at TERN’s Mitchell Grass Rangeland SuperSite in Queensland to deliver critical data for research, policy, management and industry-led extension.
An international team of scientists hoping to uncover global patterns in the relationship between a plant’s form and the environment and climate in which it lives, were only able to explain <10% of the variation found in key functional patterns of leaves, the primary organ for light and carbon capture. In this, the first of several popular science articles from TERN, Prof. Andy Lowe explores alternative ways of solving this global scientific dilemma.
From better weather forecasting and carbon budgeting to improved agricultural productivity forecasts, the on-ground data and research infrastructure TERN provides to space agencies, including NASA, are ensuring the accuracy of some of the planet’s most important ecosystem monitoring and prediction tools.
Physical & Mail Address
The University of Queensland
Long Pocket Precinct
Level 5, Foxtail Building #1019
80 Meiers Road
Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia
TERN is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, NCRIS.
Key Operating Partners
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations.
We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
© 2021 TERN | Excite Media: Digital Marketing Agency
