OzFlux – AsiaFlux Joint Conference : Ecosystems, climate & land-use change across Asia & Australasia
More than 200 researchers and post-graduate students from 130 sites across 9 countries spanning the Asia-Pacific region from 45S to 70N latitude will get together for one week, in Australia’s northern capital, to collaborate and share scientific knowledge of ecosystem function, at the OzFlux – AsiaFlux joint conference. Expertise of the delegates is broad and ranges from microclimatologists, ecosystem physiologists, climate modellers, remote sensors, ecohydrologists, carbon and climate change analysts, data managers, instrument manufacturers.
OzFlux and AsiaFlux are nationally and internationally focused ecosystem research networks that provide the Asian, Australasian and global ecosystem modelling communities with consistent observations of energy, carbon and water exchange between the atmosphere and key terrestrial ecosystems. OzFlux and AsiaFlux are part of an international network (FLUXNET) of over 500 flux stations that is designed to provide continuous, long-term micrometeorological measurements to monitor the state of ecosystems globally.
The conference will include a three-day technical workshop, a three-day scientific meeting and a field day that will highlight local ecosystems and the ecosystem flux monitoring program that is part of TERN OzFlux and Australian Supersite Network’s NT based sites. The TERN OzFlux 2018 meeting will bring together the Flux communities of Australia and South East Asia, in Australia’s most unique and exciting environmental research destination. The technical workshop will be held at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina Campus. The meeting will be held at the Double-Tree Hilton Hotel, The Esplanade, Darwin. The event will be hosted by CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL). The field trip will be to nearby TERN Australian SuperSite Network NT based site in Litchfield National Park.
The main focus of the conference is on conference ecosystems, climate and land use change by incorporating the following themes: Ecosystems dynamics, Environmental change and variability, Land use change, and Emerging topics.
It is expected that the conference will fulfill the following objectives and outcomes:
- To investigate impacts of climate and land use change on ecosystems across the Asia-Pacific region;
- To bring together micrometeorologists, ecologists, modellers and remote sensors from the region and foster closer collaboration between TERN OzFlux and AsiaFlux;
- To promote the importance of understanding ecosystem processes and future impacts to policy and decision makers;
- To publish a special issue arising from the meeting
The detailed results of this conference will be summarized in a future blog, but for now it is clear that the conference promises to provide delegates with a wealth of information sharing, networking and a true Darwin experience.
Text by OAFlux18 Steering Committee, edited by Nadir Loonat (OzEWEX)
