TERN Ecosystem Surveillance Plots Kakadu National Park
Mike Liddell_A new approach to intensive ecosystem research: introducing the Australian Supersite Network
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
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
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”
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
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.
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
Hinweis der Redaktion
Warra, SEQ, Alice, FNQ.Central RHS The vast expanse of Mulga north of Alice does have a wetland (fed by very shallow groundwater) which greens up when it rains and collects surface water. This represents a very small fraction of the landscape (< 1 %)
Calperum flux tower
DEEDI and TERN-EIF funded.Cape Tribulation node running for 12 years as an intensive LTER
Precipitation, ground water and evaporation/transpiration water balances are known to be significant drivers of vegetation structure and complexity. High spatial and temporal resolution monitoring in upland and lowland sites, in conjunction with high resolution mapping and identification of species, their growth and phenology, will provide important baseline data from which to observe and understand responses as climate changes in short and medium-long termMapping relationships between plant and animal communities in space and time will develop greater understanding of dependencies between plants and their consumers, pollinators and dispersers, again setting up the baseline from which change can be documented and understood.
Peter Grace, Andy Lowe, Jean-Marc HeroDEEDIand TERN-EIF fundedFragmented woodland / Riparian vegetation
DEEDI and TERN-EIF fundedFragmented woodland / Riparian vegetation
Suzanne ProberTERN-EIF and DEC funded.Linked into the SWATT transect.
TERN-EIF and DEC funded.Linked into the SWATT transect.
Tim WardlawTERN-EIF and Forestry Tas funded.Forestry Tas, Utas. Longest running intensive LTER site in Australia – 19 years
TERN-EIF and Forestry Tas funded. 80m tower. 14 pages of publications coming out of the site since it commenced.Forestry Tas, Utas. Longest running intensive LTER site in Australia – 19 years
Wayne MeyerTERN-EIF funded Transect across three ecosystems all undergoing restoration 1. Mallee woodlands at the flux tower 2. Calliatris woodland fringing the floodplain 3. Murray River floodplain
TERN-EIF funded Transect across three ecosystems all undergoing restoration 1. Mallee woodlands at the flux tower 2. Calliatris woodland fringing the floodplain 3. Murray River floodplain
David Ellsworth“Does CO2 enrichment stimulate ecosystem C storage?”“Are species diversity and bio-structure altered by CO2 fertilisation?”NotTERN funded – a voluntary Supersite that meets the measurement/data collection protocols of the Supersite network6 Tower cranes – EIF funded investment in tall forest FACE experimentProf. David Ellsworth UWS Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.remnant Eucalyptus woodland critically endangered ecological community full meteorological stationeddy flux co-variance system for water vapour fluxes in FACE eddy flux co-variance system for CO2 and water vapour in woodland spatially explicit CO2 concentration and windspeed profiles coupled sap flow and dendrometer systems for trees automated soil CO2 flux monitoring chambers soil water content and neutron probe sensors
Jason Beringer, Stefan ArndtNot TERN funded – a voluntary Supersite that meets the measurement/data collection protocols of the Supersite network
Derek Eamus“Is arid-zone Mulga a net C sink or C source?““Is groundwater recharge a frequent or infrequent or rare event in arid-zone Mulga?”NotTERN funded – a voluntary Supersite that meets the measurement/data collection protocols of the Supersite networkNational Centre for Groundwater Research and Training = Superscience funded.Ozflux tower part of the hydrological monitoring along with NCGRT funded monitoringbores and soil moisture pits. 2 Flux towers in different vegetation types, 2nd in eucalypt.
Eva van Gorsel“How do logging practices affect carbon and water stocks and the ecosystem”Not TERN funded – a voluntary Supersite that meets the measurement/data collection protocols of the Supersite network
LinsdayHutley / JeremyRussel-SmithNot TERN funded – a voluntary Supersite that meets the measurement/data collection protocols of the Supersite network
NEON uses around 3 full time people per Supersite – just in data collection.