Biolinks, land use, fires and restoration at final Euroa event

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Prof Michael
Clarke.

iolinks, land use change, fire and landscape restoration will be discussed at the final event on Saturday of the 2015 Environmental Seminar Series at Euroa.

Strathbogie Voices has staged a year-long of a near monthly series of events aimed at helping people better understand climate change and associated environmental matters.

The group has brought together a trio of speakers for Saturday’s event at the Old Flour Mill, 17 Kirkland Ave, Euroa, starting at 11:00am

Included are Professor Michael Clarke, Professor Ian Lunt and ecologist, Ian Mansergh.

Prof Clarke is the Head of the School of Life Sciences, Professor of Zoology at La Trobe University who, along with his colleague Prof Andrew Bennett, has lead research into the impact of fire on landscapes and fauna.

In 2010 Prof Clarke appeared as an expert witness in fire ecology at the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and continues to conduct ecological research that informs public policy.

Prof Lunt lectures in vegetation ecology and ecosystem management at Charles Sturt University, and has worked as a field botanist and conservation planner for government agencies in Victoria.

Mr Mansergh’s career spans detailed field flora and fauna research, through to biodiversity policy, land-use and climate change within the Victorian Government.

He is currently involved in land and water use change and biodiversity in the context of adaptation to climate change with some recent work on biolinks. 

Bookings for this invigorating day of discussion can be secured from Strathbogie Voices.

Climate change adaptation needs a rich social and practical infrastructure

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eadership manifesting a rich social and practical infrastructure was among messages at Wednesday night’s Slap Adaptation forum organized by the Shepparton-based Slap Tomorrow.

Among the trio of speakers was the Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCARF), Professor Jean Palutikof, from Griffith University on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Prof Palutikof explained the facts of climate change and how what the world was experiencing was underpinned by science, and then discussed how people in the Goulburn Valley should respond.

She began her presentation with a wonderful picture of her maternal family on a farm illustrating that she had a long connection to the land.



Prof Jean Palutikof with a picture
of her maternal farming family.

The University of Melbourne’s Professor Snow Barlow, who has rich and broad experience in understanding how agricultural industries should respond to the quickly unfolding disruption, said any successful response may require a change in farming practices, and maybe even a change in what it was that people farmed.

A research officer with the Department of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Melbourne, who is based at the agriculture research station near Tatura, Rebecca Darbyshire, who completed her PhD under the guidance of Professor Barlow, also addressed the 30 or so people at Wednesday night’s forum.

Rebecca has a special interest in how climate change is altering the occurrence of frosts, the subsequent changes to bud-burst, what impact those slight, but important differences have on fruit quality, timing and general production.



Rebecca Darbyshire discusses the importance of
social infrastructure to climate change adaptation.

She told about how Queensland peanut growers eager to ensure they had both the needed warmth and water, invested heavily in a Northern Territory project that ultimately failed, not because of the science, but because of an inadequate social and practical and skills based infrastructure.



The event was staged with the cooperation and help of staff at the Shepparton campus of La Trobe University and it was the campus director, Sue Nalder, who welcomed those at the forum and provided the acknowledgement of country.

Fewer people than hoped for attended Wednesday’s forum, but despite that Slap Tomorrow officials were delighted with the outcome.

David Karoly brings his caring, sharing climate change knowledge to Bendigo

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avid Karoly cares about helping people understand the complications and implications of climate change.

The Professor of Atmospheric Science, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, willingly always shares his knowledge and understanding of climate change with people throughout Victoria.

Professor David Karoly - always
 ready to share his knowledge.

And later this year he will again share his knowledge at this year’s annual G S Watson Annual Lecture at Bendigo’s La Trobe University.

The free lecture, entitled, “Signal and noise, evidence and misinformation about climate change”, is on Wednesday, September 23, at 4:30 pm. It’s planned to end an hour later.

Promoting the lecture, or “talk” as Prof Karoly prefers to describe it, the university says:

“Despite consensus support from more than 120 national governments for the conclusions about climate change in the latest international assessment, the science of climate change appears to be hotly debated in the Australian media and even by some politicians.

“This talk will assess evidence and misinformation on observed climate change in the context of separating a climate change signal from the noise of natural climate variability. It will consider a range of space and time scales and several different variables. It will also consider common approaches for maximising any climate change signal, as well as alternative approaches for enhancing natural variability.

“Understanding signal and noise helps to explain some of the different perspectives on climate change science, including much of the misinformation,” it says on its website.

Professor Karoly is Professor of Atmospheric Science in the School of Earth Sciences and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate SystemScience at the University of Melbourne.

He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability, including greenhouse climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and interannual climate variations due to El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

Professor Karoly is a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

He was a Review Editor for the chapter "Australasia" in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability". He is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.

Professor Karoly joined the School of Earth Sciences in May 2007 as an ARC Federation Fellow funded by the Australian government. From 2003, he held the Williams Chair in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. During 2001-2002, he was Professor of Meteorology and Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University.

The free event, to be held in Circular Lecture Theatre, La Trobe University, Bendigo campus is organized by the University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Deputy Head is Dr Simon Smith.