Missing Pages: Filling the Gaps in Australia’s Ecological StoryTerrestrial Ecosystem Research Network – The University of Adelaide:Nikki ThurgateCo-Authors: Ben Sparrow, Eleanor Dormontt, Stuart Phinn and Andrew Lowe

•TERN – provides research infrastructure to Australia’s ecosystem science and management community•A range of facilities combining expertise– Remote Sensing, Soils, Biogeochemical flux, Ecological plots

•TERN is developing a framework to combine information to inform on the ecology of Australian environments•The “Field Ecology” components of TERN undertook to synthesise key findings from long term ecological research for Australia ( > 10 years of sampling)•Resulted in a book:

Context

Chapters investigate what is know about particular ecosystems based on long term ecological research

Chapter 3 looks at which ecosystems we have reasonable sampling density, and which communities are under-represented (i.e. gaps)

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Started by gathering information on long term studies covered in book

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NB. The book incorporates data from a great many, but not all, ecological studies, and is not intended to be representative – rather what was easily available and synthesisable

Includes location and type of ecological data

Coverage of ecological data assessed against

• Climate – Hutchinson’s Agroclimatic Zones

• Vegetation – National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) Major Vegetation Groups

• Biomes

• The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA)

• Natural Resource Management Regions

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LogoHutchinson’s Agro-climatic Zones

Alpine

Temperate

Mediteranean

Tropical

Semi- Arid – Summer rain

Semi-AridWinter Rain

Arid

MVG

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Hummock grasslands Acacia Systems

Chenopods

Animate Ecoregions/NRM/Ibra

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NRM Regions

The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia

GIS analysis

Assessed all ecological sites against these ecosystem classification layers and summarised results in terms of depth of coverage

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Results - Climate

Hut

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Red – Poorly SampledYellow – SampledGreen – Well Sampled

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Red – Poorly SampledYellow – SampledGreen – Well Sampled

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Summary

Environments closer to populated areas are better monitored

Arid and Semi Arid areas poorly monitored

Spinifex Hummock Grasslands, Acacia woodlands/Shrublands and Chenopod Shrublands are

all particularly poorly monitored.

Hummock Grasslands – 26% Aust

Acacia Systems ~18% Aust

Chenopods - ~9% Aust

-More info in the book

- More info in the book -New TERN infrastructure helping to fill these gaps over time.-Ausplots sampling in Rangelands – 500 plots

- More info in the book -New TERN infrastructure helping to fill these gaps over time.-Ausplots sampling in Rangelands – 500 plots-Standardised nationally consistent method

- More info in the book -New TERN infrastructure helping to fill these gaps over time.-Ausplots sampling in Rangelands – 500 plots-Standardised nationally consistent method-Electronic data collection

- More info in the book -New TERN infrastructure helping to fill these gaps over time.-Ausplots sampling in Rangelands – 500 plots-Standardised nationally consistent method-Electronic data collection so data automatically uploaded to AEKOS and S2S

- More info in the book -New TERN infrastructure helping to fill these gaps over time.-Ausplots sampling in Rangelands – 500 plots-Standardised nationally consistent method-Electronic data collection so data automatically uploaded to AEKOS-Development of new methods

- www.tern.org.au