Research

Research activity

Since its inception in 1995, over 220 projects have been conducted at Warra. Over 80 of these projects have been done by students at universities as undergraduate and graduate studies. These projects have generated over 300 reports and publications including over 100 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. Warra also hosted the international conference “Old Forests – New Management” held at Hobart in 2008.

Warra has been very successful in attracting Australia Research Council grants. Six Linkage grants have been awarded to projects done at Warra, and Warra has been included in several other multi-site Australia Research Council projects.

Key research objectives

  • to understand fundamental ecological processes in E. obliqua wet forests
  • to assess and monitor biodiversity and geodiversity
  • to determine the long term effects of different forest management regimes on natural diversity and ecological processes and thus assess their sustainability
  • where necessary, to develop alternative management regimes
  • to provide an integrated multi-disciplinary focus which complements research programs elsewhere in Tasmania
  • to link Tasmanian forest research with national and international programs having a long-term ecological focus

 

Research Opportunities

Warra hosts and contributes to scientific research, and you are invited to contact the LTER with your own proposals and ideas:

  • Field research
  • Specialist data analysis
  • Taxonomic science
  • Internship projects
  • University and Secondary projects
  • Collaborative institutional-level initiatives
  • Media and outreach projects

Sample Post-Grad/Post-Doc Projects

Since 1995 over 80 graduate and undergraduate students have undertaken projects at Warra, including:

  • 2013, Benedickt Fest, Phd project, Melbourne University, Soil atmospheric CH4 exchange.
  • 2014, Jessie Buettel, PhD project, Spatial patterning in tall eucalypt forests.
  • 2014, Scott Whitemore, UTas Dean’s Summer Scholarship, Evaluating filtering algorithms and acoustic indices for processing acoustic data.
  • 2014, Simon Marshall, UTas Dean’s Summer Scholarship study, Comparing the effect of preservatives on ground-active beetles caught in pitfall traps.
  • 2015, Scott Whitemore, UTas Honours project, Acoustic data processing.
  • 2016, Jennifer Peters, PhD project, Vulnerability of Australian ecosystems to water stress.
  • 2017, Scott Whitemore (PhD candidate, UTas) Bird call-classification algorithms from bioacoustics data, component of ARC Linkage (New approaches for sustainable forest management).
  • 2017, Liu Minxing (PhD candidate, UTas) Insect metagenomics component of ARC Linkage (New approaches for sustainable forest management).

Continuously operating sensor network

  • Warra Climate Station
    • Bureau of Meteorology
    • (site ID 97024)
    • September 2004 to present
    • Temperature, relative humidity, wind-speed and direction, rainfall
  • Warra Hydrology
    • Bureau of Meteorology
    • September 1998 to 2018
    • Stream height, temperature, conductivity, pH
  • Warra Flux Tower
    • TERN OzFlux
    • March 2013 to present
    • Fluxes (CO2, H2O, energy), profiles (CO2, H2O), air temperature (2, 4, 8, 16, 40, 55, 70 and 80 m), relative humidity, radiation, wind-speed and direction, rainfall, soil moisture 20, 40, 80 and 120 cm depths), soil heat flux (4 cm), soil temperature (4 cm)
  • Warra Supersite
    • TERN Supersite
    • September 2012 to present (Suite 1); September 2015 to present (Suite 2)
    • Suite 1. Acoustic recording (3 x 4 hrs per day)
    • Suite 2. phenocams (0.5 hourly for 2½ hrs in the morning and afternoon)
  • Picton River (Riveaux)
    • Bureau of Meteorology (Site ID 1318)
    • River height 

Publications Index

A listing of research output in the scientific literature

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Link : "warra" + "tasmania"