Groundwater-dependent ecosystems: key
questions, new methods and a response curve

Wednesday 30 April 2014

5:00 socialising, 5:45 pm program start

The Melbourne Hotel, corner of Hay and Milligan Streets

The Western Australian Chapter is proud to announce the 2014 NCGRT Distinguished Lecturer Series, by Professor Derek Eamus.

ABSTRACT

 

Groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are a valuable resource, having economic, biological, conservation, ecosystem services and aesthetic values. However, global-change type droughts and associated woodland and forest mortality represents a new threat to both groundwater resources and GDEs. Three challenges are faced by resource managers tasked with protecting both groundwater supplies and the ecosystems that rely on groundwater. These challenges are: where are GDEs located in a landscape? How much water does a GDEs use? What is the response function of GDEs to groundwater extraction?
This talk will examine trends in global drought and forest mortality and the application of remote sensing techniques to address the first two questions. It will also summarise the results of a recent comparative study of leaf, whole tree and canopy woodland ecophysiology along a pronounced depth-to-groundwater gradient that has generated an ecosystem-scale response function to differences in depth-to-groundwater.

 

Brief Biography

 

Professor Derek Eamus was appointed to the Chair of Environmental Sciences in 2000 at the University of Technology, Sydney, aged 40. He has spent more than 22 years studying the ecophysiology of savannas, arid-zone woodlands and temperate woodlands in Australia, including work in the NT, NSW and SA, and has significantly advanced knowledge in plant physiology and ecophysiology. In 2010, he won both the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for Research Excellence and the Chancellor’s Medal for Research Leadership – the first year that these awards were offered. He was awarded a prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by the Australian Land and Water Authority in 2009. He currently leads the Terrestrial Ecohydrology Research Group at UTS.
Derek previously worked at the Northern Territory University, 1990 – 1999 (now Charles Darwin University). He has published 174 journal papers and 10 book chapters with more than 5,200 citations.
Prof. Eamus was the lead-author of the textbook Ecohydrology: vegetation function, water and resource management, published in 2006 by CSIRO Press. He is currently co-writing a textbook that integrates plant ecophysiology, remote  sensing and modelling of terrestrial landscapes, to be published in late 2014 by Cambridge University Press.