Friday 24 December, 2010
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From the Director
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Dear Subscribers
Welcome to our second e-newsletter and the last for 2010.
Of major note for TERN this year was the preparation and successful submission of a project plan to the Commonwealth Government to secure $25.63M from the government under its Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative. Achieving the plan and all the related consultation consumed a significant amount of time and presented a major challenge for our slender resources as we continued to meet all our milestones under our NCRIS funded project.
However, the upside of the EIF process is that we have learnt a lot and are gaining recognition, momentum and support across a number of areas. In particular, TERN has made very significant progress in getting multiple ecosystem science communities to collaborate internally and also externally. Our participation in the recent Ecological Society of Australia Conference (see article in this newsletter) and a recent forum for integrating NCRIS environmental facilities (see article in this newsletter) have shown how TERN is earning respect as the voice of terrestrial ecosystem research.
Since the commencement of TERN we have worked hard to establish dialogue across the nation and with international colleagues on what have previously been seen as intractable issues surrounding ecosystem data collection and sharing within discipline areas and across state and national agencies. This has included instigating a shift in the ecosystem science community to see data sharing as a way of increasing the impact and use of their work, rather than as individual intellectual capital. Where there has never been widespread agreement in the past, there is now open discussion followed by action plans for moving forward. The large group of participants in AusCover, Ozflux and Multi-scale plot networks is particularly well positioned to capitalise on this improved collaboration to the benefit of long term ecosystem research and improved understanding of the extended time lines and
investment required before the critical value of such research can be realised for national benefit.
We look forward to keeping up our collaboration across all sectors of the terrestrial ecosystem research community in 2011 and reporting on the outcomes through future newsletters.
All the best for a relaxing holiday season!
Stuart Phinn
TERN Director
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Building a Long-term Source of Environmental Information
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On Monday 13 December 2010, the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) organised a workshop on data-intensive, environmentally-focused research infrastructure planning. TERN was represented in the workshop by Alex Held, Marco Fahmi and (by phone) Stuart Phinn.
The main objective of the workshop was to coordinate the management of environmental research data between the Australian Government’s various NCRIS capabilities (including TERN) and the National Plan for Environmental Information (NPEI).
NPEI arose from the acknowledgment by the federal government that Australia needs a long-term curator of its environmental information. However NPEI is not only a long-term initiative to curate and preserve data but will also be an authoritative source of environmental information to support cross-disciplinary research and to shape government policy.
While NPEI’s current focus is on government departments, its long-term view is to encompass all environmental information in Australia. NPEI will, consequently, draw heavily on TERN to build its repository of environmental information and draw on the expertise of TERN’s research networks. TERN will participate in shaping the specific role of NPEI in the collation of environmental information and will be party to the research infrastructure roadmap led by DIISR.
The workshop was an opportunity for TERN to establish links with NPEI and re-iterate its vision of the future of terrestrial ecosystem science in Australia. Namely, TERN emphasised its “Science first” approach and dedication to enhancing the research capacity of the terrestrial ecosystem science community.
TERN representatives described TERN as a network of established researchers and the technical and cyber infrastructure to support their research needs. As such, TERN is focussed on creating the necessary tools, and leveraging new and existing data sources to build a platform for scientific collaboration. A key plank in TERN’s platform is to capitalise on and preserve the community’s goodwill in collaboration and information exchange; this will be done by building publicly-accessible sustainable solutions that address the community’s current and anticipated needs.
TERN representatives advocated the complementary role that NPEI plays to TERN. Namely, TERN will push the cause of sharing research data in a manner that is not only conducive to science but also equitable and respectful to the scientists. Meanwhile, NPEI will provide assurance to the community that this effort will continue beyond TERN by ensuring that data and tools will be preserved indefinitely.
Equally important, TERN’s involvement will give terrestrial ecosystem scientists a valuable opportunity to contribute to policy. TERN will stress the crucial involvement of scientists in the process. In particular, it will push for a long-term vision of terrestrial ecosystem science that fosters a culture of openness and collaboration amongst scientists and policymakers.
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New Website Launched
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The TERN wesite has had a makeover. If you have visited it before, you will notice we are finally using TERN's current logo and design. Also, the content has been revised and updating will continue as TERN progresses towards its goals.
On the website you can read about TERN’s:
Please let us know what you think of our new look website and any suggestions on imporving the layout or content.
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Visiting Fellow - Richard Thackway
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Twice a year, ACEAS
puts out an open call, inviting people to apply for funding of Working Groups and Sabbatical Fellowships. These open calls are directed at researchers and managers with a major pressing terrestrial ecosystem question. Working Groups are for those who want some dedicated and supported time together whilst the Sabbatical Fellow category is for an individual who could contribute to several Working Groups and benefit from some dedicated time working in the stimulating environment of ACEAS for periods of 3-12 months.
The inaugural Sabbatical Fellow of ACEAS is Richard Thackway, Richard commenced with ACEAS in early November. His research topic is looking into the transformations of Australia’s vegetated landscapes. He has worked as a research scientist in landscape ecology with a career in CSIRO and the Australian Government, spanning almost 30 years.
Richard’s project is developing a method for linking spatial and temporal changes in land use and land management with transformations of Australia’s vegetated landscapes. Fundamental to the project is access to credible published sources of information describing where, when and what changes were observed. A key challenge for the project is that historic information is generally piecemeal, usually difficult to find and poorly organised. In addition, information about the historical drivers of transformations to Australia’s vegetated landscapes is held in disparate places, sources and forms.
The aims of the project are to provide researchers with a framework for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s vegetated landscapes due to impacts of land use and management practices. In addition, the project will also provide several local and regional scale worked examples as part of a national repository of spatial and temporal data and information products.
Over the next five months, Richard will spend half his time with ACEAS-TERN and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences in Canberra. In April 2011 he will return to his research position with ABARE-BRS. A final report on the project will be submitted to TERN-ACEAS in October 2011.
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Inaugural Working Group - Understanding Mammal Species Decline
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The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) actively facilitates the networking of groups of people to share data and ideas to address fundamental issues in ecology and allied fields, and apply the results to management and policy.
Supported by ACEAS, the Vast Lands and Variable Data working group met at the TERN headquarters in Brisbane for the first time from 30 November to 4 December to tackle the vexing issue of Australia’s on-going decline of mammal species. The causes usually suggested are feral predation, fire, grazing, clearing, disease and global change but each seems highly variable across the landscape. Despite the urgency of this conservation issue, there has been no thorough testing of each of these factors and their interactions on a continental scale.
The opportunity to spend several days in a room of experts representing research agencies, universities, government agencies and private conservation groups in the field of ecology and conservation is a unique opportunity that can only be provided by funding agencies with a national remit such as ACEAS. Participants judged the meeting a resounding success, providing new insights and impetus to tackle mammal conservation.
The report on this first meeting can be found on the ACEAS web page.
If you think you have an important question that needs attention, some data and people that could be put together to find a solution, think about applying for the next round of ACEAS funding which opens in May 2011.
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Ecological Society of Australia 2010 Annual Conference
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The theme of the 2010 ESA’s 50th anniversary annual conference in Canberra in December was ‘Sustaining biodiversity–the next 50 years’.
The members of ESA include many of the professionals who originally identified the need for TERN and who we intend will become part of the TERN philosophy of sharing information, knowledge and experience. It was therefore appropriate for us to be a major sponsor of this significant event, and through it increase awareness of TERN to the ecosystem science research community.
The ‘Terrestrial Environmental Observer’ cartoon animation was launched at the TERN booth to help explain the concept of TERN and its Data Portal. The cartoon animation will be added to the TERN website in early 2011. TERN overview brochures were available for conference delegates to take away to read and digest how TERN fits into the ecosystem science research community, and how they might be able to benefit from and add value to TERN.
Alison Specht made a significant contribution, promoting ACEAS and TERN the booth, and Alison, Andrew Lowe, Alex Held and Stuart Phinn also convened a full symposium on long-term, trans-scale, integrated monitoring of Australian landscapes. A report on the symposium , including photos of the display booth, is available on the ACEAS website.
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University of Adelaide Program Manager Appointed
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Jim Deed has recently come on board in TERN’s Adelaide node as the University of Adelaide Program Manager. Jim is primarily the ‘Operations Officer’ for the TERN Facilities hosted through the University of Adelaide , being the Eco-Informatics Facility
and the AusPlots-Rangelands under NCRIS, with expansion to the Long-term Australian Multi-scale Plot System (LAMPS) under EIF.
Jim has recently moved across to TERN from his role as Manager, Major Programs at the University of Adelaide’s Research Branch, where he built significant experience in managing multi-party collaborative ventures such as NCRIS and CRC initiatives. His will be a key role in coordinating the successful development and implementation of the Adelaide TERN Facilities. Jim has qualifications in biological sciences and environmental studies, together with experience in natural resource and major collaborative program management.
“TERN is a critical initiative to combat the ‘tyranny of distance’ for Australian ecological research, by integrating key data and disciplines to enable cohesive long-term ecosystem management.
“The Facilities based in Adelaide will play a key role in enabling access to key plot-based ecological data sets by Australian researchers to leverage historical data when analysing current critical ecosystem trends and impacts (Eco-Informatics Facility). The TERN Ausplots/LAMPS Facility will establish the essential long-term plot infrastructure across Australian ecosystems to collect, collate and establish an ecological baseline and enable analysis of future trends and impacts.”
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New Eco-Informatics Coordinator
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Eco-Informatics also has a new Coordinator, Craig Walker
. Craig will provide overall management and coordination of the Eco-Informatics Facility. Craig has recently started with the TERN Eco-Informatics project after leaving the South Australian Government, where he was most recently employed as a Geospatial Business Strategist in the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. Craig has significant experience in information management in the water and natural resource management arena, with a key focus in Geospatial Information Systems. Craig has qualifications in mathematics, geography, and computing, with a higher degree in Financial Planning (just for something different and for personal interest!).
Craig said that this position was attractive because it offered the opportunity to develop a leading (”bleeding”) edge capability with significant information management challenges, the chance to work in an academic environment, and the potential to contribute important outcomes in the national ecosystem data management space.
“TERN is a critical initiative to facilitate better understanding and management of biodiversity and natural resources in Australia, while Eco-Informatics will enable integration of key ecosystem data resources and make these available to the researcher community in a common harmonised format to assist understanding of critical processes of terrestrial environmental change.
“The Eco-Informatics Facilities based in Adelaide will play a key role in enabling access to broad-scale ecological data sets by Australian researchers to leverage historical data when analysing current critical ecosystem trends and impacts. Eco-Informatics will also work closely with other TERN facilities to assist with analysis and synthesis of ecological information.”
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