TERN
The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, or TERN by its acronym, is a research network that enables coordinated work across private research centres and Australian government agencies.[1] TERN has also been described as "Australia’s terrestrial ecosystem observatory": it provides empirical data to Australian and foreign institutions.[2] As of 2021, TERN boasted that its infrastructure has been instrumental in the publication of over 1,000 academic articles.[3] NASA says it has used TERN data.[4]
At launch in 2009, its funding included $55 million from the Australian government and $4 million in Queensland government funding. The partners include the University of Queensland, the Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, CSIRO, the Queensland Department of Environment & Resource Management, and the University of Adelaide, all of which direct TERN.[1]
As of 2021, TERN was funded by NCRIS, an Australian government initiative.[5] TERN itself funds research infrastructure and data collection.[6]
Infrastructure
[edit]TERN operates over 700 sites across Australia.[7] As of 2013, TERN had installed 20 flux towers.[8] The Daintree Rainforest Observatory (DRO), in Cape Tribulation, is monitored by TERN.[9]
TERN provides three ranges of infrastructure: environmental monitoring at continental scale, a large collection of research plots, and a more limited collection of intensively monitored sites.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "UQ leads new era of ecosystem management". University of Queensland. 19 May 2009. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
- ^ Daniel Bishton (5 December 2018). "Completing the jigsaw". Spatial Source. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
(TERN), Australia's terrestrial ecosystem observatory, provides the Australian and international earth observation communities with the high quality, on-the-ground data
- ^ "Research Publications". TERN. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
Since its inception, TERN's infrastructure has enabled the publication of more than 1000 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles or books.
- ^ "Ecostress - News". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
NASA to use TERN data in ECOSTRESS mission
- ^ "About Australia's Land Ecosystem Observatory". TERN. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
TERN is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, NCRIS.
- ^ "About TERN" (PDF). NCRS. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
TERN is also funding new research infrastructure and collection systems
- ^ Dyani Lewis (17 January 2020). "Catastrophic Australian bushfires derail research". Nature. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
A handful of the 700 TERN sites without permanent infrastructure [...] have also been burnt.
- ^ Tom Arup (27 September 2013). "Carbon cycle tracked as Victoria's forests breathe". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
In Australia, about 20 flux towers have been installed as part of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network - a program trying to draw a baseline picture of how landscapes cycle CO2
- ^ Kimberley Vlasic (21 November 2014). "James Cook University opens multi-million dollar Daintree Rainforest Observatory at Cape Tribulation". Cairns Post. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
The DRO forms part of the Rainforest Supersite monitored by Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
- ^ James Cleverly; Derek Eamus; Will Edwards; Mark Grant; Michael J Grundy; Alex Held (23 August 2019). "TERN, Australia's land observatory: addressing the global challenge of forecasting ecosystem responses to climate variability and change". Environmental Research Letters. 14 (9): 095004. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab33cb. hdl:10453/134676. S2CID 200071009.
TERN provides environmental RI at three scales of observation: (i) environmental monitoring using remote sensing techniques at a landscape and continental scale; (ii) a spatially extensive network of ecosystem monitoring plots; and (iii) intensely measured sites collecting detailed data