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Research
The Tropical Savannas research team in Darwin is part of CSIRO’s Rangelands and Savannas Program, which also has laboratories in Townsville, Brisbane and Alice Springs. The Program belongs to the Division of Sustainable Ecosystems, which has its headquarters in Canberra
and Brisbane. We are core participants in the Tropical Savannas Management CRC, and more recently the Bushfire CRC, with most of our work being done in collaboration with other government agencies and research institutions. Our ecological research aims to predict how savanna ecosystems vary in relation to rainfall and soils, and how they respond to land management, especially fire and grazing, but also mining, tree clearing and habitat fragmentation. We are particularly interested in defining ecological health (from a range of perspectives) at local and landscape scales, and in developing appropriate assessment and monitoring methodologies. We are building our socio-economic capacity to address sustainability more broadly, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal livelihoods.
Research Programs
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Fire ecology and management
The vast majority of bushfires in Australia occur in the savanna landscapes of the tropical north, where bushfire issues relate primarily to landscape management rather than protection of life and pro...
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Landscape ecology and management
There is a pressing need for enhancing our understanding of the ecological impacts of land management options in the face of increasing pressure for economic development in northern Australia.
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Ecological modelling
Simulation models allow us to integrate our scientific understanding about how a savanna system works so that the behaviour of this system can be predicted.
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Invertebrate biodiversity and bioindicators
The great majority of the world’s species are invertebrates, and invertebrates play key roles in maintaining ecosystem health.
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Sustainable grazing management
Extensive pastoralism is a major land use in the tropical savannas.
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Incorporating social values into environment management
Northern Australian landscapes provide a wide range of uses and benefits that are valued by people, and this full set of values needs to be incorporated into natural resource management.
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Natural resource governance
There is now broad consensus that local participation is a necessary prerequisite to the sustainable management of natural resources.
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International Collaboration
Our research benefits from collaboration with a wide range of overseas scientists and land managers, and such collaboration helps our work have an impact internationally.
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