1. Survey responses

2. Survey questions
 Which discipline areas do you think are relevant to the Ecosystem
Science Long-Term Plan? (List as many as you like.)
 What do you see as the advantages of developing a long-term plan
for ecosystem science, in comparison to maintaining the status
quo (no coordinated plan)?
 What do you see as the biggest impediment(s) to delivering
ecosystem science and outcomes in Australia?
 What do you see as the greatest opportunities for advancing the
delivery of ecosystem science and outcomes in Australia over the
next 20 years?

3. Relevant discipline areas (1)
Atmospheric sciences
Atmospheric chemistry
Biogeochemistry
Biogeography
Biodiversity
Biology
Botany
Carbon science
Climatology
Conservation
Coral reef sciences
Earth System science
Ecology (and all of its
variants)
Behavioural, Community,
Disturbance, Physiology,
Applications, Freshwater,
Functional, Landscape, Marine
and Estuarine, Molecular,
Palaeoecology, Population,
Terrestrial,Wetland, Wildlife
disease
Economics
Ecosystem dynamics
Environmental Geoscience
Environmental Health
Environmental Science
Environmental Management
Evolution
Fisheries
Forestry
Future casting
Genetics
Geochemistry
Geoengineering
Geography (and all of its
variants)
Geology (and all of its
variants)
Geomorphology
Geospatial analysis

4. Hydrology (and all of its
variants)
Information technology
Land surface modelling
Landscape systems
Limnology
Management (wildlife and
ecosystem)
Marine Ichthyology
Marine and coastal studies
Marine science
Marine systems
Meteorology
Microbiology
Mitigation science
Monitoring
Nutrient cycling
Oceanography (Physical and
biological)
Pedology
Plant Science (Terrestrial and
aquatic, plant physiology)
Political science
Rangelands
Range of different survey
techniques (wildlife and
ecosystem)
Remote sensing
Satellite communications
Sedimentology
Species and climate change
Sociology
Soil Sciences
Statistics/Mathematics
Vegetation science
Zoology
Relevant discipline areas (2)

5. Advantages of a Plan (1)
A long-term coordinated plan is essential for us to
improve collaboration, coordinate efforts, make the
most of the limited resources we have, and position
ourselves to leverage greater resourcing in future.
 ‘Formation of a cohesive and inclusive group to facilitate effective decision making.’
 ‘A unified voice that can represent this broad discipline.’
 ‘A coordinated approach to our needs has political influence and is cost effective to
implement.’
 ‘An ability to act collectively and obtain substantive and enduring recognition and support
for ecosystem science.’
 ‘It would build a more coherent research community.’
 ‘Achieve more and better outcomes with limited resources’

6. Advantages of a Plan (2)
Ecosystem science address questions at long
time scales, therefore we should have long-
term plans in place to support our work.
 ‘Continuing ecological measurements over many decades so that people in
(say) 2100 can look back objectively over what has changed and what has
not.’
 ‘Ecology suffers from short term research and short term thinking.We need
experiments and studies that span the 50 to 100 year timeframe.’
 ‘A long-term coordinated plan is essential for understanding the influence of
temporal and spatial variability.’
 ‘Much of the most important ecological dynamics operate over long time
scales, hence ecosystems can only be understood and managed with long-
term strategic planning.’

7. Advantages of a Plan (3)
Taking the long view, ensuring continuity of
ecosystem science inAustralia.
 ‘Allow us to build up enough background knowledge to be able to make sensible
decisions about allocation of resources.’
 ‘Having a long view is always the best way to start.’
 ‘Flow-on benefits for continuity of increased resources over the long haul.’
 ‘Identifies the needs for maintaining the science to ensure future.’
 ‘The management of Australian environments needs far more coherence and
long-term vision than that now operating.’
 ‘If you do not have a strategy you have no basis for prioritisation of investment
or any basis for seeking long term support for this area of science.’

8. Advantages of a Plan (4)
Raising the profile of ecosystem science.
 ‘increased respect and public engagement with the discipline
nationally’
 ‘Raise the profile of ecosystem science within the research
community and the public’

9. Impediments - themes
1. Lack of coordination, cooperation and collaboration across silo-ed disciplines,
organisations and jurisdictions
2. Lack of awareness/understanding/engagement in wider community and political leaders
about what ecosystem science is, what we do, and why it’s critical for the nation’s future
3. Short term focus – in funding schemes, our approach to education/training, employment
contracts, approach to research. Lack of capability to build a ‘baseline’ of data and
human capital.
4. Lack of funding
5. Lack of long-term data available and easily accessible
6. Lack of necessary human resources in Government agencies and management bodies
7. Lack of strong questions underpinning science which undermines strong outcomes and
potential for links to policy/management.
8. Training – not matched with future needs

10. 1. Lack of coordination, cooperation and
collaboration
 ‘Compartmentalisation of knowledge into disciplines that do not talk
to each other well.’
 ‘The inability to link seamlessly with other groups.’
 ‘Multiple overlapping but independent disciplines competing for
diminishing resources has held us back, but increased funds won’t
bring about better solutions unless we have agreement on what these
should be.’
 ‘Lack of recognition of the need for demonstrated cooperation across
ecosystem science disciplines to deliver long term support to science
and research.’

11. 2. Lack of community and political
awareness and engagement
 ‘A major division between what ecological researchers know and
what the broader public (and politicians) understand about ecological
issues.’
 ‘We have not successfully articulated, nor communicated, the
importance of a long term plan for ecosystem science to politicians
and the broader community.’
 ‘Limited awareness from key decision makers in government and
private industry of their reliance on ecosystem services.’
 ‘Lack of dialogue across Australian society about what sort of future
we actually would like.’

12. 3. Short term focus. Lack of capability to build
a ‘baseline’ of data and human capital.
 ‘Having a short-term focus for resources, training, employment, and
monitoring of environmental changes is an impediment to delivering
better outcomes.’
 ‘Infrastructure and human capital for ecosystem science remains too
reliant on short-term terminating funding schemes.’
 ‘Short-term funding and research environments that favour short-
term outcomes.’
 ‘Government which are hopeless in thinking beyond the next 3 years.’
 ‘Ecosystem science is commonly a long term proposition – with long
term commitments of investment and that is hard to achieve.’

13. 4. Lack of funding
 ‘Key obstacle to long-term ecological monitoring is that there is not
commitment for continuing funding, such as exists for monitoring
rainfall or river flows.’
 ‘Money. Simple. Ecology is driven much more by person power than
by expensive gadgets.The granting bodies think it important to spend
lots on gadgets and little on people.’
 ‘Lack of long term funding for research that requires longer time
frames.’
 ‘A science research and funding scheme that is dysfunctional and
wasteful in relation to available personnel and expertise across
ecosystem sciences.’

14. 5. Lack of long-term data available and
easily accessible
 ‘Lack of long term data available.’
 ‘Stochasticity of the environment (meaning that we may need to
sit through many years of nothing much happening before an
ecologically pivotal event will occur).’
 ‘Insufficient focus on the importance of long-term data.’
 ‘Lack of accessibility and/or re-use of hard won research and
survey data.’

15. 6. Lack of necessary human resources in
Government agencies &management bodies
 ‘Decreasing number of staff in land management organisations and
institutions who can deliver research and monitoring needed for
sustainable management of Australia’s ecosystems.’
7. Lack of strong questions underpinning
science & links to policy/management
 ‘We have not posed succinct and defensible research questions that will
provide the basis for developing and running a long term ecosystem
science program.’
 ‘We haven’t identified the links between the ecosystem questions we
want to answer and the data we want to collect, archive and analyse to
do this.’

16. 8.Training – not matched with future needs
 ‘Narrowness of training programs.’
 ‘Science education at secondary schools; are we losing training
in the 'hard' sciences? Also lack of training in data management
skills, bioinformatics, new technologies.’
 ‘Skill bases need to be supported and sustained over multiple
decadal time scales.’

17. Impediments
1. Lack of coordination, cooperation and collaboration across silo-ed disciplines,
organisations and jurisdictions
2. Lack of awareness/understanding/engagement in wider community and political leaders
about what ecosystem science is, what we do, and why it’s critical for the nation’s future
3. Short term focus – in funding schemes, our approach to education/training, employment
contracts, approach to research. Lack of capability to build a ‘baseline’ of data and
human capital.
4. Lack of funding
5. Lack of long-term data available and easily accessible
6. Lack of necessary human resources in Government agencies and management bodies
7. Lack of strong questions underpinning science which undermines strong outcomes and
potential for links to policy/management.
8. Training – not matched with future needs

19. Opportunities - themes
1. Improving coordination, cooperation and collaboration.
2. Influencing funding system to get greater funds specifically for ecosystem science, and to simplify
processes for accessing funding.
3. Establishing a cohesive long-term view/approach to ecosystem science.
4. Environmental changes / natural disasters / big challenges / big issues (e.g. GBR) as leverage to: (1)
improve community awareness; (2) ‘galvanise’ ecosystem science community; (3) demonstrate
importance of multidisciplinary ecosystem science.
5. Technical and technological advances that are helping our fields to progress.
6. Australia’s strong economic base (resources boom).
7. Concept of sustainability is now more widely understood in community – gives leveraging for arguing
in support of ecosystem science.
8. Improving general awareness in wider community and political leaders about importance of
ecosystem science.
9. Leveraging/building upon our existing success and excellence in our science.

20. 1. Improving coordination, cooperation and
collaboration.
 ‘Make sure that agencies work together to have a good interface.’
 ‘Collective actions from a grass roots approach can mobilise good will
and avoid wasting energy unnecessarily competing across the broad
discipline area.’
 ‘Demonstration of clear national cooperation across ecosystem science
disciplines to identify points of support required to deliver long term
support to science and research.’
 ‘Developing inclusive research centres with focused goals, and
opportunities to interact and collaborate.’
 ‘Centralised data storage facilities.’

21. 2. Influencing system to get greater funds for
ecosystem science& simplify processes.
 ‘Development of well funded networks of scientists that can be free to
focus on research that provides knowledge, solutions and benefits.
e.g. Big scale ARC funding. Simplified ARC system. Small pots of
money distributed to ecosystem science can go a long way to
facilitating scientific contributions to ecosystem management.’
 A completely revised science research and funding scheme that makes
full use of the range of ecosystem scientists working in government,
university and private industry.’

22. 3. Establishing a cohesive long-term
view/approach to ecosystem science.
 ‘Identify the key goals and stick to them.’
 ‘We are in a position to establish long-term sustained observations for
detection and attribution of change, coupled with historical and/or
paleoecological benchmarks.’
 ‘Long-term funding with multi-disciplinary teams.’
 ‘Well conceptualised but substantial research questions.’
 ‘Coordinated programs focusing on long-term monitoring of ecosystems.’
 ‘Nationally organised community with aligned goals.’

23. 4. Environmental changes / natural disasters /
big challenges / big issues (e.g. GBR) as leverage
 ‘Put up a big question that can be carried forward easily.’
 ‘Focus on major challenges – the Great Barrier Reef is the most urgent one now.
It has it all – iconic ecosystem, strong stewardship argument, strong economic
argument, and it is being threatened by proximate causes (agriculture, fishing,
coal ports) and by ultimate ones (warming SSTs, increasing ocean acidity etc.)’
 ‘A big mob of natural disasters that serve to concentrate the mind of the
nation.’
 ‘The likely negative impacts that climate change will have on natural
environments and production ecosystems provides greater impetus than ever
to understand the interactions between climate, hydrology and ecosystems.’

24. 5.Technical and technological advances
that are helping our fields to progress.
 ‘Rapid advances in technical capability and data streams.’
 ‘The rapid improvements in technology for collecting, storing
and communicating data.’
6. Australia’s strong economic base
(resources boom).
 ‘Tapping into the relatively strong economic base we enjoy, in part
because of the resource-extraction driven economy, could be used to
secure a sustainable future for the benefit of all Australians.’
 ‘The wealth provided by ongoing mineral and energy development.’

25. 7. Concept of sustainability is now more widely
understood in community – gives leverage.
 ‘Well-functioning ecosystems as the basis for well-functioning societies
and economics (a nested hierarchy instead of a triple bottom line).’
 ‘Concept of sustainability provides an opportunity to promote ecosystem
science.’
8. Improving general awareness about
importance of ecosystem science.
 ‘High level of general awareness from key decision makers in
government and private industry of their reliance on ecosystem services
and the development of a knowledge retention and growth strategy.’
 ‘Training and jobs for ecological communicators.’

26. 9. Leveraging/building upon our existing
success and excellence in our science.
 ‘Excellence of science being done already within the relevant
disciplines.’
 ‘Embracing the success of the NCRIS facilities can be used to
transform the support for this vital infrastructure into the
future.’

27. Opportunities - themes
1. Improving coordination, cooperation and collaboration.
2. Influencing funding system to get greater funds specifically for ecosystem science, and to simplify
processes for accessing funding.
3. Establishing a cohesive long-term view/approach to ecosystem science.
4. Environmental changes / natural disasters / big challenges / big issues (e.g. GBR) as leverage to: (1)
improve community awareness; (2) ‘galvanise’ ecosystem science community; (3) demonstrate
importance of multidisciplinary ecosystem science.
5. Technical and technological advances that are helping our fields to progress.
6. Australia’s strong economic base (resources boom).
7. Concept of sustainability is now more widely understood in community – gives leveraging for arguing
in support of ecosystem science.
8. Improving general awareness in wider community and political leaders about importance of
ecosystem science.
9. Leveraging/building upon our existing success and excellence in our science.