Planning for climate change

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) aims to advance Australian climate, marine, and earth systems science. Our research focusses on issues affecting Australia and the world, and we provide a range of scientific and consulting services that are underpinned by this research.

Enabling Australia to adapt more effectively to the impacts of climate change and variability and informing national planning, regulation and investment decisions.

Traditional Owners, indigenous academics, land council representatives, indigenous agency management staff, Natural Resource Management board members, and scientists from across Australia will meet today in Mildura for a CSIRO National Indigenous Science and Research Roundtable (NISRR).

Scientists and water managers from around the Murray-Darling Basin will meet in Sydney this week to discuss how the health of ecosystems across the Basin will respond to future water availability in the context of a changing climate.

The general public are invited to this lecture to learn about climate change and the impact for Tasmania.

Rising ocean temperatures pose a threat to fisheries and marine biodiversity. CSIRO scientists are studying how climate change will affect Australia’s oceans, and developing adaptation options to respond to these challenges.

The Climate Adaptation Flagship is developing adaptation options for Australia’s primary industry and resource sectors to reduce the vulnerabilities and enhance opportunities created by climate change.

CSIRO’s understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on natural and planted forests is helping forestry and natural resource managers prepare for the future.

CSIRO’s expertise in carbon accounting is assisting plantation managers and informing policy development and implementation to support emerging carbon markets.

New plastics developed by CSIRO, Hanyang University Korea and the University of Texas have the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help purify water and CSIRO research leader Dr Anita Hill discusses this research in this vodcast. (2:20)

This video features Dr John Church, winner of a 2006 CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement for his work in studying the effects of global warming. (2:00)

Dr Andrew Ash leads CSIRO's research on adapting to life in a changing climate. As the Director of the Climate Adaptation Flagship, he oversees a large and diverse portfolio of research activities across Australia.

Mr Guy Barnett's research is helping urban planning and design professionals integrate ecological knowledge into everyday practice.

This article from Farming Ahead describes how scientists have identified potential adaptation strategies that will help reduce the effects of climate change on the agricultural sector. (3 pages)

The suggestion that new forests might increase global warming through methane emissions is tested in this paper. (5 pages)

The oceans are the largest repository of heat on Earth, with a capacity 1 000 times greater than the atmosphere. This heat is distributed around the globe by ocean currents referred to as the ‘conveyor belt’. This circulation influences, and is influenced by, the climate.

Although we are aware of the ways our climate is shaping changes on the land, we are less familiar with change beneath the waves of the worlds’ oceans and coastal waterways, and the influences that our oceans and our changing climate have on each other.