The CSIRO and the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) have announced the co-development of a new research ‘Supersite’.

 

The Supersite will form part of an Australia-wide network of sites that monitor the country’s environment, supported by the Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN).

 

A focus of the Supersite will be a 36 metre tall 'OzFlux' climate station at the former Credo Station near Kalgoorlie, which is managed by DEC for conservation, to monitor the energy, water and carbon balance of mature eucalypt woodland that is representative of natural landscapes across these regions.

 

"The GWW region is extraordinary in that it has remained relatively intact since European settlement, owing to the variable rainfall and lack of readily accessible groundwater suitable for livestock," says Dr Suzanne Prober, CSIRO. 

 

"Research at the GWW supersite aims to improve our knowledge of ecological processes that underpin effective restoration, and guide climate resilient restoration of the WA wheatbelt," says Dr Craig Macfarlane, CSIRO.

 

The GWW Supersite is one of several across Australia being established to build a long-term ecological database for managing Australian ecosystems.

 

The GWW Supersite aims to increase the fundamental understanding of GWW ecology and inform contemporary management decisions in south-western Australian region. The Supersites are also part of TERN's Multi-Scale Plot Network facility, which will link long-term site, plot and transect studies across Australia.