Biodiversity and Ecosystem science

The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network – Rangelands Monitoring

The condition of ecosystems changes in response to changing environment, context and climate. Invasions and extinctions, and extensions and contractions of species ranges all give an insight into the changing condition of ecosystems. Yet here in Australia, we have only a very basic understanding of the base-line condition of most of our ecosystems, let alone how they are changing over time due to environmental degradation (habitat fragmentation, livestock and feral animal grazing, introduction of invasive species, salinity/nutrient/water changes due to agriculture/urbanisation/mining) and climatic change.

To monitor ecosystem changes over a broad range of systems, and with sufficient replication to establish baseline condition and change trajectories, will require the establishment of a national network of scientific reference sites. To reduce ecosystem variability factors this network targets the Australian rangelands and associated ecotones (including Mallee), which represents >81% of the surface area of the country. The focus of each reference site is to monitor the diversity and condition of perennial plant species, since these have the strongest influence on habitat structure for animal communities and on biogeochemical processes, and on trends in soil carbon, nutrients and surface erosion.

This rangelands monitoring facility is being developed in collaboration the Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System and the biodiversity discovery programmes of the Australian Biological Resources Study and EarthWatch.

The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network – Ecoinformatics

1. Negotiate data sharing and access for key synthesised National information systems relevant to ecosystem science, including, amongst others, soils, weather, climate, water and landuse/vegetation classifications.
2. Consolidate key biodiversity and environmental data sets from across Australia, including State and Territory survey and monitoring data systems. Integrate with other national and international programmes, e.g. Atlas of Living Australia, GBIF and GEO BON.
3. Develop future data input system and standards for wide range of Australian ecosystem science outputs, including; biodiversity data, landscape genetics, high resolution bio-geochemical data (e.g. flux tower or nutrient monitoring probes). Explore incentive methods to encourage uploading and housing of data by scientists actively researching the area (e.g. publications based on DNA sequence data now required lodgement of data in publically accessible databases before publication is approved for a range of journals).
4. Build a portal to access, analyze and visualize Australian ecosystem data within navigable GIS integrated web portal. Data should be accessible in range of formats from simple interpreted outputs useful for specialist decision makers to detailed downloads of long–term specific data types for use in customer built models.

Effective conservation is entirely dependent on robust and up to date taxonomy.  The Tropical Pacific Islands, all together, comprise the largest globally recognized biodiversity hotspot with some of the highest levels of species endemism on Earth. Endemic species restricted to tiny islands are highly vulnerable to extinction. Over half of the world’s recorded species extinctions since 1983 occurred on islands, most of which were from Hawaii and Guam. This renders the Pacific islands as one of the most threatened bioregions on planet Earth. Despite these statistics, up to date baseline biodiversity data for the Pacific Islands is considerably lacking. Checklists of the endemic taxa for specific islands are virtually non-existent and most of the checklists for all native taxa are out of date. In addition, very little work outside of Hawaii has been done to formally assess the level of threat posed to the endemic and native plants of the Pacific. This project is addressing these problems by:

1. Publishing checklists of the endemic plant species for specific island states of Micronesia
2. Assessing these endemic taxa against the IUCN red list criteria
3. Identify data gaps for poorly known endemic species to prioritize future collection efforts
4. Collaborating on the publication of updated checklists of all vascular plants in the region
5. Investigating the factors that drive and sustain plant endemism in the Western Pacific