Thursday 23 June, 2011

Director's update

As we move into June all our TERN Education Investment Fund (EIF) agreements have been finalised, so we now have a full set of funded facilities, with a number on their way to being operational, and are well placed to respond to the forthcoming federal government’s 2011 Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure.

At TERN Central and across the facilities, several new projects will become visible over the next month. Some of these are aimed at improving communication within TERN, although they are mainly focussed on improving communication with TERN’s potential users and contributors. The main activities are the development of a new communication strategy by Econnect Communication, and the release of our new website. These will enable us to clearly communicate the benefit of TERN to Australia’s ecosystem science and management communities, and to demonstrate the significant benefits of contributing and sharing research data sets for advancing individual and collective ecosystem science knowledge as well as our ability to manage our ecosystems. The website, in particular, will enable all the documentation used to establish TERN to be accessed, and will link to a number of key publications in scientific journals being prepared by facility directors to support the approaches being taken in their facility.

The two main messages our communication strategy and website will promote are collaboration within and across disciplines to enable ecosystem data to be shared, re-used and integrated, and the importance of sharing historical data sets. Most of our facilities are building new networks of scientists and their data, so setting up a network of people is an essential activity.

These messages are demonstrated by activities being undertaken over the rest of 2011 by the Multi-Scale Plot Network (MSPN) facility and Eco-informatics, and I asked the facility directors to comment on these.

MSPN and Eco-informatics
MSPN is complex — we house complimentary spatial–temporal scales of ecosystem monitoring, which comprises the diverse sub-facilities of AusPlots-Rangelands and AusPlots-Forests, the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) and the Australian Supersite Network. In each sub-facility there is a range of historical data, and new activities to assess ecological processes using plot and/or transect-based activities. These range from a broadscale assessment of biodiversity and ecological assets and baselines (AusPlots), through examination of the influence of major ecosystem drivers (e.g. fire, disturbance, management, climate) on community composition and turnover (LTERN), down to detailed examination of biogeographical and biotic flux (supersites). In the coming year there will be a series of workshops, and data integration and analysis activities, which are crucial for integrating such a vast and multi-scale collation of data and partners. What we learn from these activities will help maximise our understanding of Australian ecosystems by coalescing information across spatial and analytical scales. This work will be collaborative and will feed into a science implementation and reporting plan that spans the MSPN sub-facilities, to foster a shared outcome and align MSPN objectives and questions.

Legacy or historic data sets play an important role in helping us understand the historical context, and changes in and current functions of Australian ecosystems. In many cases historic data are the only record of the state of the ecosystem during the significant modifications that have occurred over the last two hundred years, particularly as a result of modifying habitats and clearing vegetation. Legacy information can also be used to compare the past with the present, and thus accelerate our understanding of emerging problems such as climate change. Without such data we would need to establish baselines now — and then wait for years to detect changes.

The most serious challenge relating to using these data sets concerns the need to understand them and thus obtain sufficient contextual information to enable fit-for-purpose assessment and valid interpretation. Ensuring the appropriate use of long-term legacy data requires contextual information (e.g. methodologies, details of classification systems used) to be stored with the data. Eco-informatics and its ÆKOS system are obtaining this valuable contextual information by establishing strong partnerships with key data providers , so that ongoing and frequent dialogue to understand and enrich the observation and contextual data can occur, and so that a successful operational model can be built and maintained to ensure data currency and quality in the long term.

My thanks to Andy Lowe, Craig Walker, Nikki Thurgate and David Turner for providing this overview.

In closing, we should also note that, as TERN moves into operational mode for many of its individual facilities, we need to consider cross-facility interactions as well as what we collectively, as the sum of TERN’s people and infrastructure networks, provide for ecosystem science. I’ll build on this in my next update, and I’ll also outline the TERN ecosystem portal project.

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Flux stations open a door to understanding climate

Through observations obtained from OzFlux stations, we now have a much better understanding of the environmental factors that affect the net uptake of CO₂ in Australian ecosystems.

OzFlux facility director Dr Helen Cleugh said that one thing that had become clear is that there is very large variability from year to year in the net uptake, which is the balance between plant growth (via photosynthesis) and decay.

Another is that we now know that the availability of water and nutrients, not light and temperature, are the main factors that limit the uptake of CO₂ in Australian ecosystems

OzFlux data have confirmed that disturbance created by fire and insects also play an important role in the net emissions of carbon dioxide.

‘One of the key elements of data that the OzFlux stations contribute is direct and continuous measurements of the net uptake of CO₂ for a plant canopy,’ Helen said.

‘Until we started taking these measurements, we didn’t know about the relative roles of climate (drought, for example) and disturbance in determining whether an ecosystem, for a given time period, is a sink or source of CO₂.

‘Now we can verify whether ecosystems are net sources or sinks, and assess the capacity of these land-based carbon sinks—that is, forests and soils—to sequester carbon in the future.

‘With this and measurements of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the OzFlux network provides the observations needed to track changes in greenhouse gas levels and evaluate the effectiveness of strategies to reduce emissions.’

In this way, information derived from the network of people, data and equipment that OzFlux provides is useful in domestic climate change policy and management, and contributes to world-wide data gathering to improve understanding of climate change globally.

Why forests? Helen explained: ‘Forest ecosystems play a vital role in buffering the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The forests on Earth together store three billion tonnes of carbon every year through net uptake. However, forests are vulnerable to natural and human-induced disturbances (including management of the land) that can lead to significant losses of carbon from the land back to the atmosphere.

‘We examine these vulnerabilities by interpreting and analysing the data from the OzFlux stations, which measure the net carbon exchange and the weather and climate factors that cause variations in this exchange, as well as the energy balance of forests and the water used by evapotranspiration. The latter is important because most of the rain that falls on Australia’s landscapes is returned to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration, leaving only a small amount to run into rivers and dams.

‘We believe that, if we can understand the mechanisms that control the exchanges of carbon, water vapour and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere, we can better understand how land-based carbon sinks will behave in the future.’

At the OzFlux station at Tumbarumba, scientists using OzFlux infrastructure developed a method that allows researchers to interpret micro-meteorological measurements made in complex terrain. It is now being used at other flux stations, and is making an internationally significant contribution to the discipline of micrometeorology and its application to carbon budget measurements.

Data from Australian and international flux stations have also been used to test algorithms that estimate evapotranspiration at regional scales using remote-sensing data. These algorithms and land-surface-evaporation products are essential in understanding continental and global scale ecosystem dynamics and variations over time.

OzFlux began in 2001, before TERN existed, but with TERN funding the network will grow to more than 15 flux stations by next year. It is part of an international network  of more than 500 flux stations. For more information on OzFlux, visit the facility’s website.

Below: The Alice Springs flux station stands in mulga woodland
Bottom: Flux tower, Dry River, Northern Territory
 

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Instant capture of field data on PDAs and tablets

AusPlots-Rangelands and its collaborators Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and Gaia Resources have just finished developing state-of-the-art software that will allow people to capture field data on PDAs and tablets.

The software, known as a biological data recording system (BDRS), was given an intensive field test from 14 June to 17 June, and the developers will help field crews iron out any bugs.

The software itself is a major extension of products originally developed for ALA by Gaia Resources as part of their citizen-science project.

The finished product will mark a significant advance in field-data-capture software because it will allow for the rapid collection of geo-coded data which can be uploaded for use and distribution through TERN facilities such as Eco-informatics.

The software will be available free to anyone who wants to use it.

As well as field testing the software, the AusPlots team will be kept busy trialling other field methods:

• the point-intercept method for assessing vegetation cover
• soil description methods and sampling procedures
• sample collection for DNA barcoding
• application of the Leaf Area Index meter, and
• procedures for creating and using field photo-points.

This last is being developed in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Video Technology at the University of Adelaide.

In late June, staff from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (South Australia) will be the first group to be trained in the use of the new software and field methods. They will use them to capture data from permanent biodiversity monitoring plots that are being established in South Australia.

The data will be used by state and federal government agencies, natural resource managers, modellers and researchers, and will be available for download through the TERN Eco-informatics facility.

In addition, data collected will be used for the field validation of TERN AusCover remote sensing products. In the future these methods can provide a foundation for the development of the TERN Multi-Scale Plot Network.

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Making ecosystem data easy to find and use

Eco-informatics is undertaking a world first—building a national, web-based system for providing ecological observations and knowledge using a common science language so that planners and decision-makers can make as much use of its data as researchers.

The system has been named the Australian Ecological Knowledge and Observation System, ÆKOS.

Data managers and custodians from several state and commonwealth departments and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) met with Eco-informatics in Adelaide recently for the first face-to-face meeting of the Data Providers Reference Group, an advisory group supporting the development of ÆKOS.

Eco-informatics coordinator Craig Walker said the first step was to design and populate the system with the help of existing government ecological data sets.

‘The data managers of state and territory agencies contribute substantially to the design through their extensive knowledge of data,’ Craig said.

‘They provide the raw ecological data and, importantly, additional contextual information to add meaning to the raw data. So you can see why their sponsorship is important to the development of ÆKOS.’

The director of the University of Adelaide node of TERN facilities, Professor Andy Lowe, agreed.

He said that collating data from across Australia and adding meaning to it would improve the capacity of researchers to make informed decisions about the value of a dataset for their research, showcase the wealth of ecological data housed by government agencies, and encourage the re-use of the data.

The data ÆKOS provides will be used to help address major environmental challenges such as the impact of climate change on biodiversity.

If you want more information, contact Dr Anita Smyth, the data facilitator at Eco-informatics, on (08) 8313 1270, 0427 619 140, or at anita.smyth@adelaide.edu.au.

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Workshop a first for TERN in WA

More than 70 people attended TERN’s first workshop in Western Australia, held in Perth at the end of May.

Its main purpose was to provide information about the roles and capabilities of the WA researchers involved in TERN, and information on the data streams and ecosystem services the program will produce.

Professor Mervyn Lynch, who coordinates the Perth node of AusCover, said: ‘The meeting was a beginning, and, I think, something that we really needed: we had twice the number of people attend that we anticipated.

‘While most of the delegates were from state and commonwealth agencies and universities, there were a number of industry sector people who expressed interest in coming along to hear about TERN and checking out prospects for accessing and working with the data that TERN will deliver.’

Several challenging questions were asked that will no doubt have an impact on TERN’s evolving role as it responds to stakeholder feedback. Among them were questions about:

• why most funding had gone into commonwealth agencies and universities, and not into places, for example the private sector, that collect a significant amount of ecosystem data
• data standards, particularly alignment with international standards used for biophysical descriptors
• incentives to encourage state agencies to share their existing data sets
• when and how data are released.

The workshop was organised by WA TERN participants and a local committee drawn from state agencies (the Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA) and two divisions of CSIRO.

A follow-up workshop later in the year would focus on applications of TERN products and services.

‘We may be able to build on the feeling from those attended the first one that we present case studies from organisations that are using TERN products,’ Mervyn said.

For more information, contact Prof. Mervyn Lynch at Curtin University on (08) 9266 7540 or m.lynch@curtin.edu.au.

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TERN monitoring sites used to study flood

Three monitoring stations that TERN set up in the Logan River, in south-east Queensland, 18 months ago as part of its supersite program have played an inadvertent role in scientists’ efforts to understand the impact of the Queensland floods.

The monitoring stations not only survived the flooding that occurred in Queensland from December to January, they continued to capture data during the flood, yielding useful information on water velocity, water turbidity and nitrogen concentrations.

They show that, during the flood, tidal flows in waterways close to the coast disappeared, overpowered by floodwater moving downstream to the sea.

CSIRO will make use of the data collected on the Logan River as part of its own research on the impact of large floods on coastal environments. During the flood it collected data from monitoring sites in Moreton Bay and from satellite images, which showed a huge plume of sediment-laden fresh water infiltrating much of Moreton Bay on 15 January, and over the course of the next month dispersing through the whole bay.

The size of the flood and the length of time parts of Queensland were flooded are uncommon, and have given researchers from CSIRO and Queensland Government departments a rare opportunity to study how marine ecosystems respond to being swamped by fresh water, sediment, nutrients and contaminants.

However, the main purpose of the Logan River stations is in helping us to understand the impact increases in human populations have on other species.

The rich biodiversity of south-east Queensland is being put under intense pressure by rapid population growth, which is driving changes in land use, including the growth of peri-urban development.

TERN is using south-east Queensland as a research ‘supersite’ to study the impact of peri-urban development. The supersite includes transects in the Logan area, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and in Pine Rivers, between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

CSIRO has more on monitoring the flood; there is more on the south-east Queensland supersite, and on the supersite network.

Below: The flood that swept Brisbane last summer has given scientists an opportunity to research the impact of large floods

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