1. Australian Transect Network:
Space as a proxy for time
Andrew Lowe, Stefan Caddy-Retalic, Alan Anderson,
Maurizio Rossetto

2. Why transects?
• Scaling-up from local, plot-based studies
• Developing, calibrating and validating
ecological models and
remote sensing products
• Identifying sensitive zones
in relation to stress and
disturbance/environmental gradients

3. Why transects?
• Environmental gradients
• Climatic, fire, altitude, oceanic, disturbance
• Space as a proxy for time
• Observations
• Translocations
• Flexible methodology
• Core parameters (cf AusPlots)
• Citizen science
• Not GRADSECT

4. Examples
• RS validation
• Model validation

5. A Global Network of Transects

6. Tracking climate change
• Species turn-over
• Plant and animal communities (Williams/Hoffman)
• Adaptive trait turn-over
• Bird and wing size (Gardner et al PRSB 2009)
• Gene turn-over
• Heat resilience genes in fruit flies (Umina et a 2005)

7. TERN Science Questions
1. How do species abundances, species composition, species
richness and ecological function change along large-scale
environmental gradients?
2. Is there predictable variation in ecosystem resilience?
3. How might ecosystems respond to climate change?

8. LTERN Transects (environmental gradients)
Tropical Savanna
NATT
North Australian Tropical
Transect
SWATT
South West Australian
Transitional Transect
Acacia Shrubland
Spinifex Hummock Grassland
TREND
TRansect for
ENvironmental monitoring
and Decision making
BATS/BATN
Biodiversity and
Adaptation Transect
Sydney
Eucalypt Open Woodland
Eucalypt Forest

9. Northern Australian Tropical Transect (NATT)
Dr Alan Andersen, CSIRO
Subcontinental‐scale transects for assessing
and monitoring ecological change in Australia

10. South West Australian Transitional Transect (SWATT)
•10 sites along the
transect
Transect from Walpole to Credo Station to Lorna Glen

11. Biodiversity Adaptation Transect Sydney/NSW (BATS/BATN)

12. Biodiversity Adaptation Transect Sydney/NSW (BATS/BATN)
Dr Maurizio Rossetto, Herbarium of NSW
Floristic and functional turnover
across elevation gradients

13. Transect for Environmental Monitoring and Decision-making
Legend
Heysen Trail
Annual Rainfall Contours (100 mm) Vegetation turn-over quantified
!
( Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites
Guerin & Lowe EMAS 2012
Mean Annual Maximum Temperature
17 ˚C 23 ˚C
Guerin et al in prep
18 ˚C 24 ˚C
19 ˚C 25 ˚C
20 ˚C 26 ˚C
21 ˚C 27 ˚C
22 ˚C 28 ˚C

14. Species turn-over
1986-2010 shift P = 0.001
Shift consistent with models for individual species that shifted in frequency
Guerin & Lowe EMAS 2012

15. Species turn-over
decline in Climate
current 2050 suitability
suitability
Refugium
with
models
species
MaxEnt
turnover
Refugium with
low turnover
Fragmented vegetation over refugial area
2050: 1.5 degree T
increase, Guerin and Lowe AustEcol 2012
8% rainfall decrease Guerin et al Ecography 2013

16. Species turn-over
Regional species turnover
Raw data 86% deviance explained
Relative species composition
Model data
Guerin et al Ecography 2013

17. Adaptive trait turn-over
Leaf morphology shift
Narrow-leaf Hop Bush
Dodonaea viscosa
Flinders Ranges populations
Leaf width driven by Shift in leaf width over
latitude gradient time linked to increase
Guerin et al Biol Lett 2013 (summer maxima) in summer maxima
Guerin & Lowe Biol Lett 2013 (+1.2º since 1950)

18. Gene turn-over
Using new genomics
techniques
•DNA barcoding
•Biogeography
•Population Genetics/Genomics
•Meta Genomics
•Phenomics
McCallum et al AustEcol 2013

20. Policy outcome:
Weighted benefit maps for policy and
land management decision makers
Susan Sweeney
SA-DEWNR
Climate change
science into policy:
the TREND
experiment in
South Australia

21. Connecting the public to research is a TREND priority.
This needs to be a two-way dialogue.

22. User submitted images can be analysed to derive
landscape information and visualise change over time
Stefan Caddy‐Retalic, Australian Transect Network:
TREND Citizen Science: Using mobile apps to
improve and harness environmental awareness

23. Path forward
• New questions and interests
• Creating a cohesive network
• Demonstrating infrastructure value
• Identifying new opportunities
• Collaborations
• Funding
• Continental transects