News

With this year’s Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) conference kicking off this Sunday, it’s high-time we showcase what TERN related events will be happening at and around the conference.

This year’s ESA conference will be held in Alice Springs from 28 September to 3 October and TERN will yet again be a major sponsor of the event.  TERN staff and associated researchers will be running a booth that will provide conference goers with the perfect outlet for learning more about TERN and our ecosystem research infrastructure or for some, just a place to catch-up with a friendly face.

In addition to the booth, there are also a number of other exciting TERN associated events during the conference that you might be interested in checking out:

LTERN’s Desert Ecology Plot Network will be on show at ESA with a number of presentations including:

• Plot leader Prof Chris Dickman’s keynote address ‘Boom-bust cycles in arid environments: times of plenty, times of hazard’, Thursday 2 October 0900 (MacDonnell Room B/C),

• Plot leader A/Prof Glenda Wardle’s presentation ‘Watching the grass grow: long-term dynamics of spinifex cover and biomass’, Thursday 2 October 1030 (Ellery Room B),

• Aaron Greenville’s presentation ‘The web of arid life: biotic and abiotic interactions in a changing world’, Monday 29 September 1645 (Ellery Room D), and

• Alan Kwok’s presentation ‘Patterns of invertebrate abundance over 7 years of sampling in central Australia’ Thursday 2 October 1200 (Ellery Room B).

A range of work undertaken in association with SuperSites and OzFlux will be featured throughout the special symposium ‘Water, nutrient and carbon fluxes in tropical savannas: from plots to ecosystems’ running on Thursday 2 October 1500-1725 and Friday 3 October 1045-1245 (Ellery Room A)

At the Barbara Rice Memorial Poster Session on Monday evening, 29 September, you can find out more about some of the research being enabled by TERN’s AusPlots, AusCover, Transects and Eco-Informatics Facilities with the following posters:

• ‘Vegetation communities from AusPlot rangeland sites. First insight on their relationship with the environmental matrix.’ Zdravko Baruch, University of Adelaide

• ‘Australian transects: windows to our environmental future.’ Stefan Caddy-Retalic, University of Adelaide (Student presenter)

• ‘Enhancing long-term surveillance monitoring across Australia.’ Ben Sparrow, TERN AusPlots

• ‘Raising your research profile by publishing your data.’ A/Prof Glenda Wardle, University of Sydney

• ‘AEKOS: a next generation data resource for 21^st century researchers.’ A/Prof Glenda Wardle, University of Sydney

• ‘Linking Long-Term Field Survey & Satellite Measurements of Vegetation Structure to Understand Ecosystem Dynamics’. Stuart Phinn along with AusCover and LTERN staff, TERN, University of Queensland

There are also chances for you to get a ‘hands-on’ insight into TERN’s work through:

• an interactive workshop on using TERN’s data infrastructure to enhance your ecosystem research, on Wednesday 1 October 1300-1630, delivered by TERN Assoc Science Director Stuart Phinn and a range of TERN staff and partners, and

• a field trip to TERN’s Alice Mulga SuperSite on Wednesday 1 October, held in conjunction with the annual OzFlux meeting (see below for more details on that).

And if that’s not enough, there are a range of presentations peppered throughout the week on projects enabled by TERN, including LTERN plot leader Prof David Keith’s presentation ‘Active adaptive management for biodiversity conservation in a fire-prone mallee ecosystem’ Monday 29 September 1145 (Ellery Room A) and Bek Christensen’s presentation on the recently released Ecosystem Science Long-Term Plan, ‘Building our future: a national plan for ecosystem science’ on Monday 29 September, 1130 (Ellery Room D)

In addition to the above events during ESA 2014, there are also a number of TERN events in Alice before and after the conference:

• OzFlux Data Processing Workshop 2014

22 – 26 September

Brings together site principal investigators (PIs), students and technical staff – both TERN associated and external micrometeorologists/ecologists that are doing electrical conductivity measurements at OzFlux sites – for lectures on the theory and key principles of micrometeorology, measurements, and instrumentation.

• OzFlux Meeting 2014

29 September – 1 October

This annual event brings together the OzFlux community of site PIs, students and staff of other TERN facilities for three days of site updates and presentations on the science of flux measurements. The last day of the meeting will be a field trip to TERN’s Alice Mulga SuperSite organised in conjunction with ESA (more details above).

• AusPlots Field Method Training

5-9 October

The four day training course covers all aspects of AusPlots’ work, including their Rangelands Survey Methodology, which provides a simple agreed method for anyone undertaking research or monitoring in the rangelands. Led by experienced ecologists, participants will have a day of lectures and then three days in the field at Owen Springs Reserve.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at ESA or one of these exciting events.