Tree–grass savannas are a widespread biome and are highly valued for their ecosystem services. There is a need to understand the long‐term dynamics and meteorological drivers of both tree and grass productivity separately in order to successfully manage savannas in the future. This study investigated the interannual variability ( IAV ) of tree and grass gross primary productivity ( GPP ) by combining a long‐term (15 year) eddy...

Savanna ecosystems comprise 22% of the global terrestrial surface and 25% of Australia (almost 1.9 million km 2 ) and provide significant ecosystem services through carbon and water cycles and the maintenance of biodiversity. The current structure, composition and distribution of Australian savannas have coevolved with fire, yet remain driven by the dynamic constraints of their bioclimatic niche. Fire in Australian savannas in...

A temporally high‐resolution palynological study of the uppermost section of core MD98‐2180 from Kau Bay, Halmahera, Indonesia, provides a vegetation and fire record covering the last 250 years. The record is compared with the Maluku Rainfall Index, Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and southern hemisphere winter sea surface temperatures (SST) for the central Pacific Ocean based on instrumental data, as well as reconstructions...

Urban planning is a useful method for improving local climate and human health in cities through purposefully modifying urban land surface characteristics. This can reduce the potential risks of elevated city temperatures due to the urban heat island (UHI). Unfortunately, simple tools are not readily available for urban planners to assess the climatological impacts of various urban development scenarios. Urban modelling could...

Savannas comprise a large area of the global land surface and are subject to frequent disturbance through fire. The role of fire as one of the primary natural carbon cycling mechanisms is a key issue in considering global change feedbacks. The savannas of Northern Australia burn regularly and we aimed to determine their annual net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and the impact of fire on productivity. We established a long‐term e...

The development of tropical island thunderstorms in the maritime continent were investigated over the Tiwi Islands to the north of the Australian continent. A satellite cloud climatology was developed to examine these island thunderstorms, locally known as Hectors. During the pre‐monsoon period of 1990 and 1991 Hectors were observed on 70% of days. These Hectors were observed to occur under two distinct environmental flow regi...