A survey of long‐term terrestrial ecology studies in Australia

Abstract

Long-term ecological studies (LTES) are critical for understanding and managing landscapes. To identify important research gaps, facilitate collaborations and communicate results, several countries have established long-term ecological research networks. A few initiatives to create such a network in Australia have been undertaken, but relatively few published data exist on the current state of LTES in Australia. In this paper, we present the results of an online survey of terrestrial LTES projects sent to academic, government and nongovernmental organization-based researchers across Australia. We asked questions pertaining to the focus, scope, support and outcomes of LTES spanning 7 years or longer. Based on the information reported from 85 Australian LTES, we: (i) identify the biomes, processes and species that are under-represented in the current body of research; (ii) discuss important contributing factors to the successful development and survival of these projects; and (iii) make recommendations to help increase the productivity and influence of LTES across research, management and policy sectors.

Contemplating the future: Acting now on long‐term monitoring to answer 2050's questions

“…Youngentob et al . ). This is critical for taking ecological, financial and policy advantage of pre‐existing long‐term work with an already documented time series of information.…”

“…Ideally, in 2050, we should have a readily accessible archive that is founded on, and extends, work that has documented what studies have previously been done, what studies are still current, what was measured, and what is still being measured and how (see Youngentob et al . ). Recognize that curating critically important environmental datasets comes at a non‐trivial cost (Berman & Cerf ).…”

“…However, there is a very patchy and disjunct history of long‐term environmental research and monitoring in Australia (Youngentob et al . ). For example, because of a paucity of credible long‐term ecological monitoring, it has been virtually impossible to tell how effective actions associated with billions of dollars of annual expenditure have been on environmental management outcomes in Australia (Hajkowicz ; Pannell & Roberts ).…”

The Mulloon Rehydration Initiative: The project’s establishment and monitoring framework

“…There is a growing literature establishing LTERM as a research methodology that includes identifying critical success factors and providing guidance on design (e.g. Lindenmayer & Likens 2009, Lindenmayer et al 2012, 2014Youngentob et al 2013;Burns et al 2018). This literature provided the basis for establishing the research and monitoring associated with the MRI.…”

Book reviews

“…Australia itself has few studies exceeding 10 or 20 years in duration. In a survey of Australian terrestrial ecology studies using seven years duration as the criterion for long-term, Youngentob et al (2013) identified 85 long-term study sites with a median age of 23 years. Some significant long-term studies were excluded from their survey, but it is unlikely that the number of long-term ecological studies in Australia exceeding 20 years duration is much greater than 50 or 60.…”