Balancing Water Quality and Ecosystem Health with Water Yield -- Ecosystem Response to Thinning in Wungong Catchment. Reduced rainfall in past decades and future climate uncertainty have added a sense of urgency in Australia to search for new water resources to sustain a growing economy and population. A forest thinning trial is planned in the Wungong Catchment, Western Australia, to substantially increase water yield. Thinning is attractive as a low-cost option, and is potentially suitable for ....Balancing Water Quality and Ecosystem Health with Water Yield -- Ecosystem Response to Thinning in Wungong Catchment. Reduced rainfall in past decades and future climate uncertainty have added a sense of urgency in Australia to search for new water resources to sustain a growing economy and population. A forest thinning trial is planned in the Wungong Catchment, Western Australia, to substantially increase water yield. Thinning is attractive as a low-cost option, and is potentially suitable for other catchments. However the potential environmental and ecological impacts, which are major community concerns, must be investigated. This project will assess the levels of impact, associated ecosystem responses and the capacity of catchment ecosystems to sustain such management intervention.Read moreRead less
Sustainable futures of Australian temperate forests: An investigation of coupled carbon, water and energy exchanges from hourly to centennial timescales. Australia's forests are a critical natural resource that must be sustainably managed. We will determine the uptake/release of carbon from old growth and regrowth forests and assess the water budgets of the Melbourne water catchment. We aim to understand the current cycles of carbon, water and energy and how these may change over time (hours to ....Sustainable futures of Australian temperate forests: An investigation of coupled carbon, water and energy exchanges from hourly to centennial timescales. Australia's forests are a critical natural resource that must be sustainably managed. We will determine the uptake/release of carbon from old growth and regrowth forests and assess the water budgets of the Melbourne water catchment. We aim to understand the current cycles of carbon, water and energy and how these may change over time (hours to centuries). We will integrate our observations with state-of-the-art models to improve our predictions of how forests will respond to change. This will aid our management of forests and forested catchments to ensure sustainable and viable water resources and optimise carbon sequestration.Read moreRead less