Queensland Permanent Rainforest Plots

QPRP Coordinator Dr Hannah Carle will join @TERN_Aus alongside Mark Westoby and Ben Sparrow this week to discuss what we stand to gain from combining long-term ecosystem monitoring with site experiments. Register at the link below! uqz.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

Sunrise snapshot at Mount Fisher on a recent recensus of the plot—the first since 2015. It took 5 days to recut an access trail to this plot... nothing but gritted teeth and straight up dedication from our field botanist. Cheers to a new dawn for the CSIRO plots 🌦 #LTER #qprp

👁 Seeing the forest in a different light 👀 @kimcalders team just spent 6 wks running TLS to create detailed point clouds of the veg across a diverse set of QPRP sites in Aus moist tropical forest. Great project with a lovely team. We look forward to the science that follows!

Fascinating paper proving the power of long-term partnerships in nature 🐜🌳! This 12-year study reveals how Myrmelachista schumanni ants boost the growth and survival of their host tree, Duroia hirsuta in #yasuní @ForestGEO plot #tropical #treemortality nature.com/articles/s4159…

A challenging river crossing with heavy #TLS kit strapped on, but nonetheless a stunning moment during recent work in one of our #LTER plots near Russell River. QPRP sites never fail to provide adventure...

Team from Ghent, Belgium lugging terrestrial laser scanning kit into the tangled Australian rainforest. A series of QPRP plots are now being #TLS scanned to create highly accurate 3D models of the aboveground vegetation in these #LTER #tropicalforest plots🌱

The first month of our field campaign in the Queensland Permanent Rainforest Plots (@QPRPaus - qprp-aus.com) has been a success with 6 plots already completed and 10 more to go in the coming weeks! [1/5]

More than 10,000 leaves from 60 plant species found between Far North Queensland and southern NSW are being propagated in a bid to increase the genetic diversity of rainforests. ab.co/3VINesV

This is a wrap on 2023. We had a great year getting back to #QPRP forest plots, many of which were likely thrashed by Cyclone Jasper… time will tell, when we’re able to head back out and check on them. Best wishes to all in #FNQ who we hope can still enjoy the hols ✌️🌳🌿🍃🍄

🌎"The biosphere cannot save us on its own"🌎 Read the @BritishEcolSoc response to #COP28 outcomes from our outgoing President @ymalhi ⬇️ britishecologicalsociety.org/the-biosphere-…

Our thoughts and well wishes to all our colleagues and the communities hit by Tropical Cyclone Jasper in the top end. Stay safe everyone…

🔍#DataDiscovery | Aboveground Biomass Density - International Space Station LIDAR, Australia Coverage The data allows scientists to prepare aggregated & harmonised habitats & biomass data on a national scale. 📊: portal.tern.org.au/metadata/TERN/…

With the world's attention on the Amazon, the last forests of the Andes harbour the greatest concentration of endemic, endangered and vulnerable species on Earth. Here is one more - Caryodaphnopsis carmensis. Newly discovered by science, long known to loggers, in Colombia.

For now, we prefer to haul tape measure through the dense brush over #LIDAR kit. Tracking individual trees is vital for ground truthing space-based and aerial remote sensing, can identify species for forest biomass + more. 50+ years of data and counting 🤯 #LTER #austropics

Working in tropical forest can be wild, beautiful, and extremely challenging . Photo courtesy of Peter Green @Latrobe, taken in O'Reilly's #LTER plot, Lamington NP. Tree and seedling data from this plot stretch back to 1963. A truly phenomenal research effort #austropics #Ozflora

📢 Are you working in or with Australian tropical forest? 🌱 🦎 🪺 We want to follow you!! Please comment below or follow @QPRPaus to get our attention. And, of course, please feel welcome to introduce yourself.

Some good news: Area under deforestation alerts in the Amazon has dropped by 66% since July 2022. This shows the impact of recent measures like remote embargoes and credit restrictions in curbing deforestation.

“A tree is more likely to survive when surrounded by different tree species with different resource needs, diseases, and herbivores,” the authors of the study wrote. ecowatch.com/tropical-trees…

From very little things... Some QPRP plots have seedling + sapling transects that allow scientists to track the long term dynamics of these little fellas. Turnover in tropical forests occurs via understory ''seedling banks', as opposed to soil 'seed banks' #austropics #LTER

Agathis australis 🤩 a constant favourite in the Aus wet tropics. This beauty's flaking bark, colour and straight shooting trunk stands out from a mile away. Our plots track a number of these star individuals over the course of many decades. #botany #Ozflora #TwitterNatureLovers