News
Centre Spotlight: Training Centre for Forest Value
In August we showcase the University of Tasmania’s Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Forest Value and its work in capacity building for the forest industries and wood products through training and applied research.
Site of the Month: Wombat Stringybark Eucalypt SuperSite
This month, we’re in the Wombat State Forest located near Daylesford in Central Victoria, showcasing a decade of research infrastructure-enabled science on forest carbon cycles, soil, vegetation growth dynamics, and their responses to drought and other disturbances.
Aussie plants used to study eco-evolutionary dynamics
Research drawing upon TERN’s collection of more than 100,000 environmental samples provides new understanding on the adaptation of plants to climate change. Read on to find out which set of factors combine to create predictable relationships between plant traits and the changing environment.
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.
Site of the Month: Kopuatai Bog
In this edition of Site of the Month, we’re off to Aotearoa (New Zealand) to learn more about the Kopuatai Bog, its unique biodiversity and storage of 24 million tonnes of carbon—the equivalent of more than five million cars driven for a year. The OzFlux site’s research infrastructure provides critical insights on environmental change and the role that peatland ecosystems play in regulating the global carbon cycle.
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.
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