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10
Research
The multi-faceted nature of the rainforest is reflected in the multi-disciplinary
research of the Rainforest CRC, which brought together a range of experts
in an exciting research portfolio.
The research of the Rainforest CRC involved eight research programs,
each consisting of a number of independent projects or tasks. Associated
with each Program was a Support Group, consisting of the Program Leader,
a Group Coordinator, Project personnel and various research user representatives
with interests in particular research areas. Each Program also hosted
a number of postgraduate students undertaking PhD, Masters or Honours
studies in areas relevant to Rainforest CRC objectives within particular
projects.
See also Forest Matters Newsletters
for research highlights and updates.
Program
1 Regional Planning and Management
Led by Professor Geoff McDonald, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Tropical forests are restricted in extent and subject to expanding development
pressures from growing residential populations that place increasing
demands on natural ecosystems, including increased land and water demands
for recreational, agricultural, tourism and urban use. Managers and
planners have identified the need for tools and information for decision-making
at a variety of scales ranging from strategic planning for bio-regions
to design and monitoring at local and site scales. Their over-riding
need is to find ways to achieve ecologically sustainable development
that balances ecological, economic and social values of the rainforest
itself and surrounding lands. This program applies innovative research
to deliver the tools necessary for efficient planning and management
at a range of scales, and links with other programs to provide a vital
means of translating scientific research to assist the management and
planning tasks of land owners, government decision-makers and developers.
Program 1 involves four Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 1.1 Wet
Tropics Regional Natural Resource Management Plan (see also
Wet Tropics NRM Series)
Project 1.2 Regional
State of the Wet Tropics Satellite-based Monitoring Information System
(see also
Publication # 39)
Project 1.4 The
Bama Plan (see also Wet Tropics
Aboriginal Cultural and Natural Resource Management Plan)
Project 1.5 Appropriate
Economies Roundtable (see also Publication
# 35)
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Program 2 Functional
Ecology and Global Change
Led by Dr David Hilbert, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
There is increasing recognition of the need to more effectively communicate
and inform public and policy debate on natural resource management issues
in the Wet Tropics region. In particular, the problem of how to quantify
and more objectively value the 'services' that natural ecosystems provide
to society (e.g. clean water and air, carbon sequestration, habitat
for wildlife) is attracting considerable interest from sections of the
community. This program is identifying and quantifying (in biophysical
terms) some of the key ecosystem services provided to the community
by the north Queensland rainforest, and developing and applying economic
methodologies which can be used to value these services. The aim is
to produce a framework within which the impacts on key ecosystem services,
of changing land use and climate, can be evaluated and incorporated
into regional planning.
Program 2 involves three Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 2.2 Water
Regulation as an Ecosystem Service
Project 2.4 Ecological
Services and Dis-services Provided by Rainforest Arthropods
(see also Publication
# 20)
Project 2.5 Impacts
of Climate Change on Rainforest Ecosystems and Biodiversity
(see also Publication
# 46 / Publication
# 28)
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Program 3
Canopy Processes and Dynamics
Led by Professor Roger Kitching, Griffith University
Program 3 aims to study the response of pollination systems to fragmentation
within Wet Tropics rainforests, using the Australian
Canopy Crane Research Facility. The Facility will also be used to
study the steady state of carbon, heat and water fluxes of a pristine
rainforest using instrumental techniques, and evaluate the diurnal and
annual variations in response to changing climatic conditions.
Program 3 involves two Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 3.1 Floral
Biology and Canopy Pollination in Fragmented Forests (see also
Publication
# 47)
Project 3.2 Net
Ecosystem Exchange of Carbon, Heat and Water in a Tropical Rainforest
(see also Australian
Canopy Crane Research Facility)
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Program 4 Rainforest Access: Managing and Monitoring
Impacts
Led by Professor David Gillieson, James Cook University
This Program investigates the nature and consequences of visitation
and usage on Wet Tropics rainforests and adjacent forest communities
and examines their impacts on natural and cultural heritage values.
Standardised data collection methodologies and long-term monitoring
procedures will be established involving management agency staff, Aboriginal
communities and tourism operators. Outputs will be used to prepare best
practice guidelines for the design, construction and maintenance of
visitor infrastructure, experience, access and movements of roads, powerline
corridors and walking tracks. The program will provide land managers,
public utilities, the tourist industry and other stakeholders with the
information and tools to consider and manage potential consequences
relevant to sustainable rainforest visitation and usage.
Program 4 involves four Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 4.1 Strategies
for Sustainable Rainforest Visitation and Use (see also Publication
# 24)
Project 4.2 Sustainable
Roads, Powerlines and Walking Tracks (see also Publication
# 50)
Project 4.3 Improving
GIS Models of Ecological Impacts Using High Resolution Remote Sensing
(see also Publication
# 54)
Project 4.5 Main
Roads Strategic Alliance (see also Strategic
Alliance Reports)
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Program 5 Restoration
Ecology and Farm Forestry
Led by Associate Professor Carla Catterall, Griffith University
Rehabilitation and restoration of rainforest is a slow and costly process.
Better understanding is needed of how to optimise and monitor the ecological
improvement for each unit of reforestation effort, and of the socio-economic
processes influencing reforestation decisions. Reforestation spans a
spectrum of activities ranging from intensive native ecosystem reinstatement
to farm forestry with an expected timber product. All types, however,
function in some way to sustain the biodiversity and key ecological
processes which are a motivational factor in a large proportion of reforestation
projects. This Program aims to develop techniques for optimising the
biodiversity values of reforestation areas, and to provide a sound scientific
basis for decisions concerning the achievement of sustainable forest
cover at catchment and regional levels through a balance of restoration
and conservation.
Program 5 involves three Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 5.1 Restoration
Techniques (see also RIRDC
Publication No. 05/087)
Project 5.2 Biodiversity
Values and Landscape Context in Reforestation (see also Publication
# 51 / Publication
# 53 / Publication
# 34 / Publication
# 29 / Issues in Tropical Forest
Landscapes Series)
Project 5.3 Social
and Economic Aspects of Reforestation (see also Publication
# 49 / Publication
# 32 /
Publication
# 22 / Other Resources)
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Program
6 Conservation Principles and Management
Led by Dr David Westcott, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
This Program will determine spatial patterns in biodiversity and discover
the processes that produce these patterns. The most vulnerable components
of biodiversity are rare species. The Program will therefore identify
geographical hotspots of rare species and classify those species either
resilient or sensitive to human-induced habitat change and use that
information to develop a classification of rarity appropriate to Queensland's
rainforests and to assist management in setting priorities. This will
improve our understanding of how rare species are affected by threatening
processes and how they respond to their management, and will include
an evaluation of options for the mitigation of threatening processes.
With the capacity to predict the geographic distribution of rare, endangered
and vulnerable species and their specific responses to management, Program
6 will design principles, appropriate data and transparent planning
tools for the determination of optimal locations and configurations
of biodiversity priority areas. This will form the biodiversity input
to the regional planning toolkit being developed in Program 1.
Program 6 involves six Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 6.1 Rainforest
Ecology and Evolution
Project 6.2.1
Ecology and Management of Wet Tropics Weeds (see also Publication
# 25)
Project 6.2.2
Diet and Trapping Strategies of Feral Pigs in the Wet Tropics World
Heritage Area (see also Issues
in Tropical Forest Landscapes Series / Publication
# 13)
Project 6.3.1
Spectacled Flying Foxes: Solutions for Management (see also
CSIRO
Project Webpages)
Project 6.3.2
Seed Dispersal: A Threatened Ecological Process (see also CSIRO
Project Webpage / 2005
International Symposium Website / Publication
# 29)
Project 6.4 Impacts
of Climate Change on Australia's Rainforest Marsupial Folivores
Project 6.5 Dynamic
Models for Management
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Program 7 Aboriginal
Collaboration and Capacity-building in Research
Led by Dr Sandra Pannell, James Cook University
The rainforest is a complex system of living Aboriginal cultures. Cultural
sustainability of the rainforest recognises and respects Indigenous
peoples prior ownership and knowledge of the rainforest incorporating
land management and environmental knowledge, language and social structures.
Culturally sustainable management of rainforest is a two-way street
with land management agencies having obligations to Aboriginal people
to protect cultural heritage and Aboriginal people having land management
responsibilities to their country. There exists a direct interrelationship
between the cultural sustainability of the rainforest and its ecological
and economic sustainability. Program 7 works to ensure information is
available to enable incorporation by agencies and industry of best management
practices that are appropriately cultural, collaborative and capacity
building for Aboriginal Traditional Owners in reciprocal relationships
with others within the Wet Tropics region.
Program 7 involves four Projects (click on links to download archived
PDF Project files):
Project 7.1 An
Environmental History of Ngadjon-Jii Country and Community (see
also Publication
# 43)
Project 7.2 Indigenous
Cultural Values of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (see
also Publication
# 48)
Project 7.3 Technical
Education and Training and Participatory Domestication of Native Food
Plants with the Ma:Mu Community (see also Forest
Matters Newsletter, April 2004, p. 10)
Project 7.4 Aboriginal
Training for Capacity-building (see also Publication
# 18)
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Program 10
Catchment to Reef Joint Research Program with CRC Reef Research Centre
Led by Professor Richard Pearson, James Cook University
The goal of this joint Program between the Rainforest CRC and CRC
Reef is to develop new protocols and tools to identify, monitor
and mitigate water quality problems and to assess the health of aquatic
ecosystems in the Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef World Heritage
Areas.
This integrated
Catchment to Reef Program approach aims to minimise the downstream effects
of agriculture and improve the ecosystem health of the Great Barrier
Reef lagoon and its feeder catchments. The Program will provide the
tools needed by landholders, industry and other stakeholders to monitor
the effects of land use changes and restoration on water quality.
Download Catchment
to Reef Brochure
Download Catchment
to Reef Newsletter (May 2006)
See also Publication
# 27 / Freshwater
Fishes of North Eastern Australia
Program 10 involves seven Tasks (Projects) (click on links to download
archived PDF Task files):
Task 1 Riparian Zone
Performance: Tools and Protocols for Quality Assessment and Monitoring
Task 2 Monitoring Tools
for Water Quality Assessment
Task 3 River Health Assessment
Tools
Task 4 Frameworks for
Integrated Catchment Management
Task 5 Advanced Technologies
for Monitoring Water Quality in the Great Barrier Reef
Task 6 Condition and Trend
Assessments for Coastal Marine Communities
Task 7 Achieving Outcomes:
Adoption of Tools Through Training of the Current and Next Generation
of Practitioners
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