Healthy Terrestrial Ecosystems
 CSE
researchers undertake to conserve landscapes to sustain biodiversity
and maintain ecosystem benefits that support rural and urban
communities.
We investigate the value and types of benefits, as well as analysing potential methods that encourage and enable landholders and urban areas
to provide ecosystem services - such as pest control or waste
reduction - that benefit the wider community.
Current activities
Research effort is focused on:
- Ecosystem process and function
- Conservation planning and management
- Incentives and investment strategies
Research examples:
  'BioAssess' project - A long-term monitoring project concerned with the colonisation and persistence of birds in revegetated patches in the Upper Billabong Creek Catchment, near the town of Holbrook, 50 km north of Albury, NSW.
The broad aims of the project are to examine the effectiveness of existing revegetation plantings designed specifically to benefit regional biodiversity (in particular woodland bird species dependant on vegetation), and to develop a monitoring and assessment toolbox that can be used by local land managers to assess the impact of current revegetation practices.
 Tropical biodiversity - Understanding,
conserving and providing information for management of biodiversity and ecosystems in tropical
rainforests. A focus of the research undertaken at the CSIRO Tropical Forest Research Centre.
 Tropical
savanna ecology and resource management (Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre Web site) - To gain and communicate a predictive
understanding of Australia's tropical savannas and their responses
to management, as a basis for their wise use.
Research in action:
past projects, achievements and articles
Ecosystem Services Project - A collaborative natural resource management project studying the services people obtain from their environments, the economic and social values inherent in these services and the opportunities that can arise from considering these services more fully in land management policies and decisions.
Ecosystem Function Analysis - This methodology has the capacity to give reliable information on the effects of stress/disturbance on any landscape from arid to tropical rainforests.
Focal Species Approach - Identifies a suite of sensitive fauna species, each of which is used to define the configuration and composition of habitats that must be present in the landscape for that species to thrive.
 Threatened
Mammals - CSIRO's research into threatened mammal species
examined diagnoses of their decline and techniques for their
re-establishment.
Facing extinction pdf
file (228 kb)
The birds of southern Australia's agricultural zone are running
out of places to live and breed. By Steve Davidson, ECOS 113,
October-December 2002
Rainforest - more or less? pdf
file (572 kb)
Steve Davidson considers how tropical forests might shape
up in a warmer world. ECOS 111, April-June 2002
Peddling the new commodities pdf file (102 Kb)
Good land management is worth paying for: it just need the markets and the buyers. Find out about markets for ecosystem services. ECOS 115, April - June 2003
Cattle and conservation can be a costly mix pdf
file (136 kb)
What is the true cost of on-farm conservation and who pays?
By Wendy Pyper, ECOS 113, October-December 2002
New grazing approach is vital for sustainability pdf
file (359 kb)
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems scientists explain the role of
property management planning and how producers can manage
soils and pastures to prevent erosion and maintain production
and biodiversity. Farming Ahead 120, December 2000
Savernake and Native Dog (SAND) Project - This project is enabling the local community to gain awareness of the diverse wildlife in their region, and to develop ways to conserve this wildlife within a sustainable farming system.
>> Resilient Regions and Communities
>> Agricultural
Landscapes Program
>> Rangelands and Savannas
>> Tropical Landscapes
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Research 
