News
Director’s Update – July 2020
Earlier this month, the TERN Advisory Board met and discussed the outcomes of June’s independent audit of TERN’s governance model—part of a periodic evaluation of TERN’s present and future needs. The Advisory Board compared several business structures, including the current ‘Lead Agent’ model in which the University of Queensland is signatory to the funding agreement with the federal government.
Time is honey: Predicting future honey harvests using remote sensing and weather data
West Australian researchers and industry partners taste sweet success as a new model predicts good marri honey harvest years with 90% accuracy. Read about the approach and the opportunities it presents to other regions, species, and in the assessment of ecosystem services.
Centre Spotlight: Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Remediation
This edition we highlight RMIT University’s Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Remediation (EnSuRe) and its research and work with industry to minimise the impact of land, water and air pollution.
Effective ecosystem monitoring requires a multi-scaled approach
New research has critically reviewed the main types of environmental monitoring and recommended the widespread adoption of three classifications to provide consistency and clarity. The scheme allows scientists and land managers to design programs suited to their needs that inform on multiple aspects of ecosystem change. It sets researchers in good stead to understand some of our greatest environmental challenges.
Collect Earth
Creative desktop methods for plot-based monitoring of Australia’s ecosystems—the next best thing to fieldwork in a time when fieldwork is not the best thing.
Director’s Update – June 2020
This year, we have a unique opportunity to take advantage of a large, widespread, unintended ecosystem experiment in which human patterns have changed for several months. COVID-19 restrictions may have temporarily stopped TERN’s fieldwork, but fortunately, we’ve had our automated sensors still hard at work during the pandemic lockdown and hope to examine any changes in trends compared to other years.
OzFlux Conference: Celebrating 20 years of the community measuring our breathing ecosystems
With talks from Australian and international experts and students, and topics ranging from ecosystem measurements at the local scale to global scale syntheses and modelling, this year’s OzFlux conference promises something of interest to everyone.
Centre Spotlight: University of New England – SMART Farms
This month we head to the Northern Tablelands region of NSW to look at the University of New England’s SMART Farms and the range of ecosystem data collected on properties used predominantly for agriculture.
Trusted environmental monitoring protocol
A detailed rationale and description of TERN’s much respected AusPlots method for environmental monitoring has been published in a peer-reviewed international science journal. With the paper’s publication, it becomes easier for researchers to access the method and its modules, adapt them for use anywhere and cite them in further research. Wider use of the protocol helps TERN to learn more about researchers’ future needs.
Queensland Government co-invests in NCRIS-enabled TERN
Investments will create jobs, improve the discoverability, usability and management of ecosystem data, and allow for upgrades to TERN’s critical land ecosystem monitoring equipment—essential for monitoring environmental changes, including responses to extreme events.
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