The five Earth systems – geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere – complexly interact to create a planet on which life evolves and has thrived. All aspects of our human existence depend on these enigmatic interrelationships.
We got a grant to hold an Australian Academy of Science Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Conference over two days on 12 & 13 September!
With the generous support of the late Lady White MBBS and the late Sir Frederick White FAA FRS, the Australian Academy of Science has established a series of research conferences in the physical and mathematical sciences related to the solid Earth, the terrestrial oceans, Earth’s atmosphere, solar-terrestrial science, space sciences and astronomy.
The purpose of the conferences is to advance, at the most fundamental level, an understanding of the subject, to introduce to Australian research new aspects or directions, and to encourage participation of overseas scientists.
Integrated Earth 2023:
linking our planet’s processes from the core to the atmosphere
A recent announcement from the Australian Academy of Science said: the 2022–23 conference has been awarded to Dr Tim Rawling from AuScope and Dr Beryl Morris from TERN, for a proposal titled ‘Integrated Earth: linking our planet’s processes from the core to the atmosphere’
As background, Earth’s processes can be grouped into five systems: geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. These systems interact to create and sustain life on Earth, but data on them is often collected in isolation, or to address a specific research problem.
The (environmental) problems we are facing are increasingly complex and cannot be addressed or solved in a single domain. Integration of domain sciences is urgently needed to understand and consider solutions to these issues.
We believe this conference is timely in providing a forum for Earth and environmental system scientists, who embrace diverse disciplines which include chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and applied sciences, to transcend disciplinary boundaries to not only look at the Earth and environment as an integrated system but importantly, to look at ways in which data collected by each system can be used in a more integrated, interoperable fashion through synthesis, analysis and integrated modelling. This will lead to a deeper understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and human interactions that determine the past, current and future states of the Earth and the resilience of the biosphere – the zone in which almost all life is found, where humankind seeks to achieve sustainability.
This conference, to be held 12-13 September 2023 at the Canberra Shine Dome on Ngunnawal Country, intends to bring together participants working across the five Earth systems to identify opportunities for data integration and scientific collaboration and create a cross-disciplinary community of practice for Australian Earth and environmental science data.
The NCRIS-funded projects that relate to Earth and Environment Systems will be organising the conference. These are principally TERN, AuScope, IMOS, ACCESS-NRI, NCI, and ARDC (through its new Planet Research Data Commons) but the list may increase in the coming months.
‘Core to Atmosphere’ image credit: Lesley Wyborn
