Our Research: Research Program 1
Program Leaders:
Professor Tom Lyons and Assistant Professor Michael Saam-Renton
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Strategic Goal for the Program:
To develop ecosystem models which formally scale between the short-term leaf level responses of individual plants and the long-term large scale dynamics of heterogeneous and functionally diverse woodland and forest ecosystems.
Program Challenge:
Climate change and the inherent increased variability associated with it will have a serious impact on the health of our woodlands and forests and the biota they support. The atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems are fundamentally coupled on a variety of time scales. On short time scales, this interaction is dominated by the rapid exchange of CO2, water and energy between the atmosphere and the land surface; whereas on longer time scales, the interaction involves changes in ecosystem structure and composition in response to changes in climate that feedback through biophysical and biogeochemical mechanisms to influence climate over decades and centuries. The connection between the composition, structure and physiology of vegetation and the climate implies that ecosystems will respond to novel climatological regimes through a variety of mechanisms acting on different time scales. Our hypothesis is that analysis of ecosystem behaviour during past episodes of climatic fluctuations will allow us to develop models to forecast the response of ecosystems to future climate change. Within Western Australia, the remote sensing archive combined with meteorological models based on historical data will provide the tools to assess historical trends and changes. By combining these with the establishment of long term monitoring sites, extensive ground validation of the models will provide a robust basis for future assessments. Given our focus on the long-term dynamics of the system, the analysis will involve consideration of ecological processes such as succession, disturbance and changes in community composition in addition to the conventional emphasis on short-term biophysical and physiological processes.
Project 1.1. Determining the historical impact of climate change on iconic West Australian trees, woodlands and forests and their ecosystems.
Project Leader/s: Professor T. Lyons, Mr. G. Behn
Project Team: Professor T. Lyons, Assist. Prof. M. Renton, Dr N. Brouwers, Mr. G. Behn, Dr. C. Stone, A/Prof. Coops, Dr. U. Nair, Prof. R. Welch, Prof. R. Hobbs, Assoc. Prof. A. Gaynor
Objective: Use a combination of classified LandsatTM data, mesoscale meteorological models and field-acquired data to determine correlations between historical changes in vegetation health and climate variables.
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Project 1.2. Using multi-scale simulation modelling to understand and predict how tree-environment interactions contribute to declining woodland and forest health
Project Leader/s: Assist. Prof. Michael Renton
Project Team: Assist. Prof. Michael Renton, Assoc. Prof. E. Veneklaas, Dr J.Chopard, Dr M. Robertson, Prof. T. Lyons, A/Prof. N. Coops, Prof. R. Hobbs, Dr. C. Stone
Objective: Develop simulation models of the forest and woodlands systems at several scales; integrate these models across scales; use these models to explore hypotheses about the possible causes behind observed declines in forest and woodland health and extrapolate forward to predict how the systems will be affected by future changes in climate and environment; use the models to explore the potential benefit of possible strategies for mitigating forest and woodland decline.
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