Time：9:00 -11:30 am.  May 19, 2014

Venue：Room 411, Geographic Sciences Museum, IGSNRR

Brief introduction to the speakers

Prof. Jason Beringer

Professor Jason Beringer's research is on the multidisciplinary interactions between the land, ecosystems and the atmosphere. The focus is on the major ecosystem cycles (water, carbon, and nitrogen), biotic composition and ecological community structure for understanding changes in the provision of ecosystem services and the impacts of people and a changing climate. He graduated from Monash University in climate science investigating inputs of heat and moisture to thunderstorm development on the Tiwi Islands (Darwin).

His career has included postdoctoral work at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he examined the impact of Arctic climate change on ecosystem structure and function and the effect of ecosystem changes on regional climate change and variability. He has played a leading role in OzFlux, an Australian network of Flux Towers, including the establishment of many long term flux sites in key ecosystems (Savanna, Mountain Ash forest, Urban, Pasture, Woodland, etc.). He has been awarded numerous Australian Research Council (and other) grants for projects that inform national and international strategies for managing climate change. He currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship focusing on “Savannas: Past, Present and Future”.

Dr. Rhys Whitley

Dr Rhys Whitley is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Macquarie University and has dedicated his work to help build Ecosystem Modelling and Scaling Infrastructure (eMAST) as part of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). His background is in physics and ecohydrology, for which he received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. respectively. His past work includes modelling mass and energy exchange of Australian tropical savanna ecosystem in Northern Australia, developing empirical models for estimating site water balances and developing methods for estimating plant traits based of climate using data from TERN’s Multi Scale Plot Network and other sources. He is also the lead developer of the eMAST tools package for R Statistical Software that allows the generation of high-resolution (0.01°) bioclimatic products. Currently Rhys is working on a model intercomparison project that seeks to enhance the way ecosystem models simulate carbon and water exchange in Australian tropical savanna systems.

Dr. Caitlin Moore

Caitlin Moore is currently completing her PhD at Monash University, which is focused on understanding the role of C4 grasses in the overall productivity of tropical savanna in Australia. She also completed a Bachelor of Science, with Honours, at Monash Univeristy. Her honours thesis investigated the water balance of a temperate eucalyptus forest in southeast Australia. Her main research interests are in climate, ecology and the interaction of terrestrial ecosystems with the atmosphere.

Welcome to the Forum !

Hosted by Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, CAS