The Hon Sussan Ley • November 27, 2024

The science of adaption in a changing environment

Only by following the science can Australia brace for, adapt, and mitigate the largest effects of climate change. We have always lived in a changing environment. But the rate of change we face today, and the role science will play in helping us adapt to that change, are unprecedented.

While science has long been at the forefront of addressing environmental challenges and predicting consequences, scientists will be among the first to concede what is often referred to as “the implementation gap”.


This is the difference between research and implementation, between publishing a scientific paper and investing the time to build trust and communication across different disciplines to be a part of the outcome. As we adapt to our changing climate, trying to narrow that implementation gap is at the heart of moves to combine the latest science with tangible outcomes, the ancient knowledge of Traditional Owners with the intergenerational experience of our rural communities.

 

This process will guide environmental management in the years ahead. As well as scientists, it involves land managers and policymakers committing to new ideas, and it needs research funders who accept that co-developing projects will require large teams, flexibility, time, and resources.


Through the National Environmental Science Program, we are already seeing some outstanding results from such an approach, and our new phase of research grants invests $149 million in attracting more scientists and more research across five dedicated research hubs.


The Great Barrier Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program is at the same time breaking new scientific ground in helping the reef adapt to warming ocean temperatures.


Back on land, and just as significantly, many people are getting on with the job of building levees to abate floods, clearing firebreaks and storing feed for lean times in the face of changing levels of water availability.


Rural communities impacted by bushfires are looking at new ways to rebuild and be more protected in the future. State governments, land managers, and wildlife volunteers are being guided by an expert panel of ecologists, conservation biologists, and other scientists towards revegetating bushfire-ravaged habitats and planning the recovery of threatened species in the face of changing climates.


Mitigation and adaptation are both critically important. As part of a coordinated international response, we need to reduce global emissions to mitigate the severity of climate change impacts. But even under the most optimistic scenarios for global action, further climate change is inevitable over the coming decades. We must adapt and become more resilient to the impacts we cannot avoid. The science of how we adapt to changes that are already taking place will play an important role in our future. The science of adaptation and resilience can help agriculture prepare for changes in water availability, for future floods and heatwaves. It can help communities and infrastructure managers in coastal areas prepare for sea-level rises and storms, assist communities in moderating the impacts of bushfires and help habitat specialists identify new areas for vulnerable species.


From an economic perspective, it will allow businesses to make investments in adaptation and infrastructure to manage climate risks on their terms. From a scientific perspective, this is all, of course, much easier said than done. But it is work that is gathering pace.


A consortium consisting of AIMS, CSIRO, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University, Southern Cross University and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been working closely with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to help preserve and restore the reef in the face of rising ocean temperatures.


The Morrison Government committed $100 million through the $443.3 million Great Barrier Reef Foundation Reef Trust Partnership, with a further $50 million in research and scientific contributions coming from the consortium partners. Ten per cent of the Reef Trust Partnership funding was allocated to Traditional Owner-led restoration and adaptation activities.


A two-year feasibility study identified 43 concepts suitable for further research and development, including:

• ways to collect and freeze coral larvae for use in year-round coral seeding

• seeding reefs with heat-resistant corals introduced to Australia from Africa in the 1880s.


It thrives in areas that harbour the richest biodiversity and provide the best bush tucker – areas of native grasses, sedges, and lilies that provide refuge for long-necked turtles and nesting sites for magpie geese. Left unchecked, para grass will spread and choke out most of Kakadu’s wetlands.


With the support of the National Environmental Science Program (NESP), Traditional Owners, park managers, and researchers drew on a diversity of knowledge to co-identify the key research questions central to tackling this problem. 


Traditional Owners brought Indigenous ecological knowledge of the seasonal changes in wetland conditions and appropriate targets for wetland monitoring; scientists brought knowledge of weed ecology, biodiversity surveys and cross-cultural monitoring; and park managers and Indigenous rangers brought expertise in practical weed control.


The collaboration was expanded to involve Microsoft, which brought technical capacity to use artificial intelligence to automate the analysis of survey imagery collected by drones and developed dashboard reporting for rangers using hand-held devices.


This diverse team co-designed a weed-removal and monitoring trial that dramatically reduced the abundance of para grass in sites of the greatest concern for Traditional Owners within just one year.


Areas that were once a dense monoculture of weed have since been observed teeming with Magpie geese that are feeding on a diversity of native plants – thus providing a stunning outlook for hundreds of thousands of tourists. Traditional Owners can now access bush food and medicine at these sites, and they are delighted that “the supermarket is open again”.


The project also put cutting-edge technology and skills in the hands of Traditional Owners and park managers, who used it to monitor the impacts of their weed-management actions on biodiversity, country and culture. Following its inspiring success, Traditional Owners shared the project around, leading to the removal of para grass from other parts of Kakadu.


Other NESP projects involved identifying habitat areas and tracking movements of the endangered Gouldian finch, as well as tracking the evolution and adaptation of the reef to increase the resilience and survival rate of coral larvae, ultimately physically stabilising damaged reefs after cyclones and bleaching events to facilitate faster recovery.


These are long-term research strategies rather than guaranteed cures, but the decision to invest in such practical research and its possible application is an important one. Kakadu National Park provides an example of a similar approach that is already demonstrating outcomes. It involves environmental scientists, the world’s largest technology company and the knowledge of Traditional Owners passed down through the millennia. 


Professor Michael Douglas, Hub Leader of NESP in Northern Australia, explains that the success of these projects is setting a future framework for the role of science in adaptation.


“NESP has reviewed successful transdisciplinary research projects and recommended that to really make [these] work, we need to focus on three principles: the right people, the right project and a clear pathway to action,” he says.


“The right people means including the users of science as integral parts of the research team. From the outset, not just at the end. Finding solutions to complex problems nearly always requires a range of scientific disciplines as well as experts in facilitation and communication. It needs people who are willing to try something different.


“The right project is one based on rigorous science, but which also has the right scale to be meaningful for users and whose results can be delivered in time to influence decisions.


“We are now seeing the benefits of these new approaches, but we have to recognise that to do it well requires more from everyone involved.


“Given the scale and urgency of the challenges now confronting our environment we can’t afford to do science that ends up sitting on a shelf, hoping that someone will discover and find a use for it.”


The importance of science and adaptation in the years ahead will affect many of the traditional ways we think about and apply science, the ways we interact with it and indeed the ways we teach it.


It will be more important than ever in the years ahead that we place a priority on STEM subjects and that we encourage more women into science as well as more people from a broad range of social demographics. 


The environment is the most precious thing we share. We need to understand the practical outcomes that will allow us to protect it while remaining a part of it.


The Hon Sussan Penelope Ley is an Australian Liberal Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for Farrer since 2001 and as Minister for the Environment since 2019.


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