1. A new approach to intensive ecosystem research:
introducing the
Australian Supersite Network
Presentation by: Mike Liddell
Information provided by : the 10 Supersite Principal Investigators

2. Supersite : a definition
1) An intensive field station in a typical and
important biome
2) Physical instrumentation
3) Scientists and technical support staff
4) Transect or Contrasts (10- 400km)
Core activities
Vegetation plot 1 Ha – field monitoring
Plant physiological and soil/water measurements
Faunal monitoring – field and sensor monitoring
Data / Web portal - linked to TERN portal and ANDS
Ozflux system – biogeochemical fluxes, microclimate

3. Supersite Network 2013
TERN Supersites
FNQ Rainforest
SEQ Peri-urban
Warra Tall Eucalypt
Calperum Mallee
Great Western Woodlands
Non-TERN Supersites
Cumberland Plain EucFACE
Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt
Victorian Dry Eucalypt
Alice Mulga
Litchfield Savanna

4. Objectives
1) Establish a national network of Supersites
2) Provide data with high temporal/spatial resolution
3) Carry out comprehensive measurements
(biological, biophysical, biogeochemical) of
ecosystem function using a standard approach
4) Provide key information to serve land managers,
scientists and to inform the public

5. Supersite Questions
How do key ecosystems respond to environmental change?
Science questions to inform large scale environmental
management / policy :
Some questions are best answered by using the network
• Do contrasting ecosystems differ in their vulnerability to
extreme weather events such as droughts and heat-waves?
• Can ‘tipping points’ be identified and do those tipping
points differ among contrasting environments?
Science questions to inform local environmental management:
Some questions have specific importance to the stakeholders
involved in the Supersite
• Forestry management approaches in Tasmania
• Carbon farming strategies in the Northern Territory
• Climate resilient restoration of Western Australian wheat belt

6. A collaborative Network approach
Consistent monitoring protocols - Auscover, AusPlots, Soils, Coastal
Each Supersite hosts a flux tower – OzFlux
Data collated across spatial & temporal scales - modelling eMAST

7. TERN consistent data delivery
• Data discoverable through the TERN Data Portal and ASN website
• Data stored on the ASN Database, Bush.fm and others

8. FNQ Rainforest Supersite
Daintree
Rainforest
Observatory
1) Robson Creek node
Upland tropical rainforest
2) Cape Tribulation node
Lowland tropical rainforest
Major clines in
• Altitude
• Rainfall
• Temperature
“How does seasonal water availability relate to
species distribution, growth and phenology?”
“How does plant distribution and diversity affect
animal community structure and dynamics?”
Robson Creek

9. FNQ Rainforest Supersite
Robson Creek node
• 25 ha vegetation plot completed
• AusCover campaign completed
• Acoustic monitoring installed
• Plant physiology measures completed
• Faunal transect studies on-going. (CTBCC)
• Invertebrate studies on-going.
• Seedling transects completed
• Aquatic sampling on-going.

10. SEQ Peri-urban Supersite
1) Samford node
2) Logan/Albert Rivers SEQ Peri-urban Supersite
3) Karawatha node
“What are the impacts of urbanization on key
ecological processes within coastal catchments” Samford
Karawatha

11. SEQ Peri-urban Supersite
• Vegetation survey completed
• AusCover campaign completed
• Ecological monitoring established
• Soil monitoring established
• Acoustic monitoring installed
• Real time water monitoring
 Flood events
 Collaboration with eReefs

12. Great Western Woodlands Supersite
Credo site - mosaic woodland, heath, mallee
“Where do woodland trees source their water from?” low acacia woodland
(mulga)
“What does this imply for mining impacts?” Menzies line
intact eucalypt
woodland,
shrubland
fragmented
wheatbelt woodland,
shrubland

13. Great Western Woodlands Supersite
• OzFlux tower operational
• AusPlots Training workshop
• Field Studies Centre completed
• AusCover campaign completed
• Vegetation survey completed
• Ecological monitoring established
• Ngadju people fire knowledge project commenced

14. Warra Tall Eucalypt Supersite
Managed/unmanaged Wet
Eucalyptus obliqua forest
Long-term ecological research site since 1998
“Understand fundamental ecological processes in
E. obliqua wet forests”
“Determine long-term effects of different forest
management regimes on natural diversity and
ecological processes”

15. Warra Tall Eucalypt Supersite
1400
• OzFlux tower installed 1200
1000
1135 1159
Number of species
• Vegetation survey completed 800
600
• Acoustic monitors installed 400
200 126
211 227
•
59
Ecological monitoring on-going 0
21
Mammals Birds Lichens Vascular
plants
Bryophytes Fungi Beetles
• Report - functioning of Regional Forestry Agreement

16. Calperum Mallee Supersite
1) Calperum node
• mallee flux tower
• AusPlot
2) Calliatris woodland
• AusPlot
3) Chowilla flood plain
• AusPlot
Chowilla
floodplain
Mallee
“Characterize the driving processes woodland
and establish the connections and
Murray
inter-dependencies of hydrology River
and biota between the
three ecosystems.”
Renmark
SA Vic

17. Calperum Mallee Supersite
• Soil surveys completed
• Acoustic monitors installed
• AusCover campaign completed
• Vegetation survey commenced
• OzFlux tower operational
• AusPlots workshop completed

18. Cumberland Plain EucFACE Supersite
Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment since Sept 2012
Critically endangered ecological community found only in the Sydney Basin
• OzFlux towers operational
(1 in FACE, 1 control)
• Plant physiology measures
completed
• At target concentration
540ppm – 11 days ago.

19. Victorian Dry Eucalypt Supersite
1) Whroo node - Monash University
2) Wombat node - Melbourne University
• OzFlux towers operational
• Vegetation surveys completed
• Ecological monitoring established
• Auscover campaign completed.

20. Alice Mulga Supersite
1) Alice Mulga node
2) Tea-Tree node
• OzFlux towers (2) operational
• AusCover campaign completed
• Biodiversity/hydrology in 2013

21. Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt Supersite
• 12 years of weather, climate, CO2, evapotranspiration data
• Acoustic monitors installed
• AusCover campaign completed
• Major archive of detailed atmospheric and ground based
measurements.

22. Litchfield Savanna
• Site selected for OzFlux tower
• Vegetation monitoring LTERN
since mid-1990.
• Acoustic monitors installed

23. Current network activities
Refining protocols
• Review of monitoring protocols, quality assurance and data handling
International connections
• Maximise interoperability and data integration with comparable
international long-term ecosystem monitoring networks
• National Ecosystem Observatory Net- work Inc. (NEON; USA)
• Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems (AnaEE; EU)
• Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN)

24. Key to the future of the ASN
The mission of the Supersite network is to do environmental
monitoring in key ecosystems with high intensity and to do it well.
To enable this appropriate funding is the key.
All TERN funded Supersites have had both State and Federal funding.
The Supersite model has been supported and as a result the network
has expanded into something that is now functionally useful.
At the moment the network is being run by fractional staff.
All Supersites are substantively short of the resources needed to deliver
what the network aims to deliver.
A large cross-investment into the Supersites is being used just to keep
the network running.
A reliance on cross-subsidized funding to run a long term network as
LTERN knows only too well is a difficult and risky business.

25. Future directions for the ASN
Expanding the Supersite network to other significant biomes
• Managed landscapes
• Coastal ecosystems