Q&As

MER Networks are a way to capture data about the effectiveness of NRM investments in a consistent, systematic way. The use of formal control sites will allow analysts to compare how treatments have improved relative to a comparable baseline and the consistent methods applied across the country will enable us to compare results across different ecosystems and also at a national scale.

The MER pilot network focuses on two research questions:

1. How ecosystems recover after bushfires and/or prescribed burning (including cultural burning), and
2. How weed management can assist in ecosystem recovery.

By being involved, the value of your monitoring data will be magnified and will contribute directly to a national-level understanding of the impacts of management on post-fire recovery. In return, network participants will benefit from learning what management activities work best—both at your own sites and across the country.

No. We are interested in knowing what data has been collected for each site as it may help us to better understand the site and its history, but we will not preclude sites without data from inclusion in the network.

Ideally, we are looking for locations that have the following combinations of sites:

A recently burnt site that has not been treated for weeds, and one or both of

1. An unburnt site that has not been treated for weeds;
2. A burnt site that has been treated for weeds since the fire.

Locations should ideally have these characteristics in close proximity so that we can treat them as treatment and controls.

We are also looking to capture a diversity of ecosystems and vegetation types across the country. Where possible, we will cluster locations to monitor multiple vegetation and ecosystem types at the same location to make monitoring more convenient and keep travel costs down. Reliable site tenure and good access are also factors to think about.

Service Providers who participate in the pilot network will be funded by DAWE to monitor their sites. The details are being finalised, but it’s likely that any services supporting the pilot will be administered as an Additional Services Work Order (ASWO). As the Service Provider you will be responsible for administering the funding, so you can choose to undertake the work in-house or subcontract, depending on your usual arrangements. Reporting requirements are not yet finalised, but at this early stage we are envisioning annual monitoring of plots. At present there will be a separate ASWO for participating in the network but if the pilot is successful, this could become part of standard work orders for on-ground work in the future.

The MER network learnings will be used to provide improved information for guiding decisions about management. The idea would be that investments in actions, ecosystems, and contexts that are working can continue, while decisions would seek to improve management interventions options where current approaches are proving less effective.

The MER pilot network project aims to produce:

1. A network of pilot MER sites around Australia that are monitoring some key variables in a consistent protocol allowing comparisons
2. A database showing how key ecological variables change over time in response to fire and weed management, compared with control plots that are not burnt, and not managed.
3. An analysis of this data by the project leaders and collaborators, to provide improved local and national-scale understandings of:
   1. where recovery after fire is on-track and where thresholds may have been crossed (including flags for further attention)
   2. whether/in what circumstances post-fire weed management enhances outcomes for measured ecosystem and biodiversity attributes
4. Scientific papers based on the above learnings and other media and communications products
5. Frameworks and learnings for how to expand MER networks to address additional questions and learnings

It is envisaged the network will provide many additional learnings, guided by the preferences of local managers and decision makers, and that this will be a dynamic process, changing as we learn and share ideas as a MER community.

Funding for the pilot network project is currently for 3 years. We intend to apply for additional funding for the networks, but nothing is guaranteed. Getting a good pilot up and running within three years will give us the best possible chance of ongoing funding.

The initial focus for the pilot network is to demonstrate that MER networks are feasible and useful. By focusing this pilot network on fires, we are capitalising on the unique learning situation created by the extreme 2019-20 bushfires. We also believe that a focus on fire and weeds will allow us to produce some initial data within our 3-year project window. If successful, this pilot will help to create more networks to support different questions.

The MER pilot network focuses on two research questions:

1. How ecosystems recover after bushfires and/or prescribed burning (including cultural burning), and
2. How weed management can assist in ecosystem recovery following fire.

The network is relevant outside the bushfire affected areas, including places where prescribed burning has occurred. We are compiling a list of potential sites for the network that are recently burned (i.e. within the last two years) from areas of the 2019-2020 bushfires or prescribed burns, as well as comparable unburnt for control plots.

Please stay connected with the project if you like, even if you do not have these kinds of sites. This will allow everyone an opportunity to shape future networks, the ways we can work together, and how information is disseminated even if your sites are not directly involved in the first iteration of the project.

The intent for this pilot network and subsequent networks is to be an Australia-wide program. The fire and weeds pilot network will not be restricted to SE Australia bushfire impact areas and we are actively seeking engagement from across the country.

We envisage networks to consist of several locations or sites across Australia where each location has a set of 8-12 plots reflecting the final experimental design (e.g. four replicates of 2-3 types of ‘treatment’), managed by a collaborator/RLP provider and providing data to the national network. Network participants can interact with the plots by monitoring, analysing and reporting data. This can either involve collecting/using the standardised data that forms the core of the MER network, or by undertaking additional studies or monitoring at the site that suits their interests or needs.

Monitoring will be the responsibility of pilot participants, in particular RLP Service Providers. Service Providers can use in house skills or contract out the on-ground work. Free training will be provided for those undertaking the monitoring. During the setup phase, network coordinators will visit sites with RLP Service Providers or their consultants, to guide initial plot layout.

Funding for additional monitoring by RLP service providers will be resourced by DAWE, but funding for this purpose is limited and will be strategically allocated. Further detail will be provided once we know the number of RLP service providers wanting to participate and the scope of their involvement.

The initial motivation for the project is to improve capability in evaluating the impact of Australian Government NRM investments, and hence resources are only available for existing RLP service providers to implement the core sites. However, the goal of evaluating impact is held by many organisations and the network has broader application and benefits beyond the RLP program. Within the scope of this project we are keen to build collaborations to streamline efforts, increase information flow and strengthen outcomes.

As such, anyone can use the MER fire and weeds monitoring protocols, contribute data, start their own set of plots, or add these protocols to their existing plots. This would be a great way to expand the network beyond the core sites implemented by the pilot network, increasing the data generated. We will make our experimental design and monitoring protocols and guidelines for their use available over the next few months. This includes site locations, plot size, treatments and controls, measurements taken, etc. in sufficient detail for others to apply them.

The site-based measures and specific monitoring protocols for this pilot network are currently being determined. Based on feedback through our workshops they are likely to include a consistent set of vegetation-based measurements around function, composition, and condition. Additional taxon groups, threatened species, soil, threat-based, social and cultural measures are still under consideration, and if not included as a core measure, could be optional additional measures that can be implemented at sites.

We encourage other researchers and collaborators to establish projects using the network of established plots, that would enable monitoring of more than we can directly fund in this project.

We are working with our advisory panel to consider how the network could best improve learnings regarding outcomes of fire and weed management for assets and values important to Indigenous people. We are very keen to include Indigenous perspectives in network design and implementation and will also discuss this with Indigenous partners involved with RLP Service Providers that contribute to the network. We will work with data custodians to make sure Indigenous IP is approached following culturally appropriate protocols. We envisage that cultural values will be locally specific optional measures at core network sites.

We have not ruled out monitoring impacts on freshwater/coastal ecosystems. We have included freshwater expertise on our scientific advisory panel that we can access if this develops as a priority for monitoring as the project progresses. We don’t envision that this pilot project (fire and weeds focus) will include marine impacts, but future MER networks may target marine systems.

Yes, we recognise the importance of social factors in driving effective management outcomes. We do envision the networks targeting ecological/MNES outcomes as their primary focus, but (for example), we may look at how social factors influence the success of these outcomes.

We agree that this trade-off will need to be considered in design of the monitoring. We aim to provide standardised methods, as well as data collection tools and training to improve the ease of application. TERN and CSIRO will lead this part of the project, building on their considerable expertise in developing standard methods and training.

We recognise that other programs and agencies are already collecting environmental data on ecosystems and biodiversity (and globally). We aim to interact with these programs through sharing our own methods/data/supporting others’ programs and learning from and/or using others’ data and methods to avoid duplication where we can. However, we will not be able to match our monitoring approach with all existing monitoring approaches, given their diversity.

All RLP service providers participating in the pilot will be required to use the MER network monitoring protocols. All RLP service providers who are not involved in the pilot can choose to adopt the protocols if they like, however this is not mandatory. Whether uptake of the protocols will be encouraged for future NRM investment programs will be determined at a later date and be influenced by the findings/success of the pilot.

We are aware of other types of conservation and monitoring networks and local-scale experiments evaluating ecological management interventions. There are also other global research networks (such as the Nutrient Network), but to our knowledge this is the first large scale network to involve experimental contrasts embedded in real-world management scenarios, with practitioner-policy maker-researcher engagement at a national level.

The data capture and storage systems have not yet been decided. DAWE’s online reporting tool (MERIT) is useful for capturing a range of project information including field survey metadata but it is not designed to store large volumes of raw data; so it is likely that we will need something additional. We will work with TERN to develop an appropriate platform as the project progresses. People will be able to register to use the data generated by the network and we will provide a code of practice for this.

If you have further questions and/or see opportunities to work with us at any time throughout the project, either as a user or as a contributor, please email us at MERPilot@csiro.au to discuss how we might work together.