Earth sciences and cultural heritage research

We research and monitor the effectiveness of the Forest Practices Code and specialist prescriptions. We keep ahead of current issues, such as advances in machine design. We also document erosion events within forest estates, investigate why sinkholes form rapidly in some areas, measure the carbon pools in soils under different forest ecosystems, assess the risk of landslide on different rock types, and seek to understand the influence of Aboriginal land management on the Tasmanian landscape from the vegetation record revealed by pollen trapped in deep peat deposits.

You can see papers and publications resulting from research from our publications library

Our priority research areas

• Determining the timing and extent of Aboriginal effects on the ecology of northern Tasmania from fine-resolution analysis of peaty deposits
• Conducting risk assessments in landslide-prone terrain
• Using geophysical methods for assessing subsurface topography in karst terrain
• Investigating glacial and periglacial landforms and deposits in the Picton and Huon forests
• Undertaking hydrological modelling of stream response to heavy rainfall in plantation forest of northern Tasmania
• Researching the risk of deep chemical weathering and erosion in dolerite terrain
• Dating aeolian deposits
• Monitoring the effectiveness of riparian restoration in plantations
• Updating the karst map of the Blackwater and Sumac karst systems in north-western Tasmania, and investigations into subsurface stream flows in this region.