Print PageUntil now Australia has lacked an integrated program to collect, store, and share ecosystem data sets, measurement protocols, models and knowledge. Answering the fundamental question of how our ecosystems are changing over time, has not been possible. In this presentation we demonstrate how the newly-established TERN will address this gap, and provide examples of its operation [in science and management situations]. TERN was established from federal and state government research infrastructure funds for the period 2009 -2014 to enable the scientific interactions necessary to establish a national terrestrial ecosystem site and observational network to meet terrestrial ecosystem and natural resource management research needs in the longer term. TERN is directed by a Board of national ecosystem science and management leaders, and operates through a central office at the University of Queensland, supporting 10 facilities located at research institutions and government agencies across the country. The facilities cover central ecosystem data collection (flux data, satellite/airborne image based data, ecological field survey data , soils data), data storage, indexing and integration, and integration of science to management (the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis).
Results/Conclusions
We present outcomes from two of our facilities, demonstrating how data collection, processing and validation was/were resolved across the normally intractable state–national jurisdictional boundaries. We conclude with a reflection on the changes in long-term ecosystem science principles that will be required in the Australian ecosystem science community if TERN is to be sustainable and we move to rewarding long-term, collaborative science and data sharing.
