The CSIRO Darwin laboratory hosts research in environmental, agricultural and natural resource management research and is home to one of CSIRO Education's Science Education Centres.
CSIRO's Darwin laboratory in the suburb of Berrimah in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia, serves as a focus for research in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia.
Known originally as the Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre (TERC), for more than 30 years scientists from the laboratory have been researching issues such as:
Recently, research focus has invovled working in partnership with people who influence, use and manage Australia’s tropical savannas.
Research
Staff from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems undertake research at the site. The research has a focus on tropical savannas environmental and ecological research as part of the Division’s Rangelands and Savannas Program.
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), 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 such as with invertebrate bioindicators.
The laboratory has been a key centre for tropical environmental and agricultural research in the Top End for over 30 years.
CSIRO is also building our socio-economic capacity to address sustainability more broadly, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal livelihoods.
Additional facilities
The laboratory library is a branch of the CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Library, which is based in Canberra. It offers a range of services to staff, scientific researchers and the general public. The collection's subject emphasis is on plant and animal ecology of northern Australia.
The laboratory site is located on 30 hectares, of which ten hectares is savanna woodland. This remnant bush has many local savanna plant and animal species, including a healthy population of birds and some small mammal species.
The Darwin CSIRO Education Centre on site forms part of the national network of nine centres run by CSIRO Education.
Working together
CSIRO staff in Darwin contribute to and collaborate closely with the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and the Weeds Management CRC.
View Larger Map Find out how Ants give clues to ecosystem health.
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