From CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (AU)
7.1.24
Maigan Thompson
CSIRO’s specialized water quality sensor installed in the San Joaquin River Delta.
An important water body for agriculture and natural ecosystems of the San Francisco Bay, has become a test site for the AquaWatch Australia mission.
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, is working with partners in California to test and enhance AquaWatch Australia, a service to deliver national water quality updates and forecasts.
Adding to seven test sites around Australia, CSIRO is working with University of California Davis, University of California Merced and USGS Water Science Laboratory, to test AquaWatch at the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an important water body for agriculture and natural ecosystems of the San Francisco Bay.
CSIRO’s Dr Alex Held said testing AquaWatch in a variety of waterbodies and ecosystems helps to build and improve the system for use overseas and back home in Australia.
“It’s a chance to share experiences and knowledge as we test the system and collaborate with global experts facing similar water quality challenges,” Dr Held said.
“Australia and California share many of these challenges. The great relationship we have built with UC Merced and UC Davis is strengthening our mission to tackle this key global issue.
“AquaWatch will be a world-first system which combines data from water sensors and satellites, processing the information with advanced data analytics to provide near-real-time water quality monitoring and forecasts.
“It also contributes to our international commitments to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
UC Merced’s Dr Erin Hestir said one of CSIRO’s specialised water quality sensors has been installed near where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers merge to monitor water delivered for agriculture and protect the delta’s natural ecosystems.
“Using the sensor, we can estimate turbidity, an important water quality measurement for the critically endangered fish, the Delta smelt,” Dr Hestir said.
“It can also be used to give insight into where contaminants of concern, such as mercury, may travel.
“AquaWatch allows for a region-wide perspective on water quality in the Delta. Meanwhile, the water-based sensor provides a check to validate and calibrate the satellite information.”
The project contributes to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Australian Government and the Californian State Government last year.
Australian Consul-General in Los Angeles, Tanya Bennett, said it was fantastic to see the AquaWatch test site in Sacramento reach this significant milestone, as a key activity under the Australia-California agreement on climate action.
“This test site highlights the importance of global collaborations and technology advancements to monitor the impacts of water quality, improve our natural environments and safeguard our future water supply,” Ms Bennett said.
The Californian test site joins already established AquaWatch sites in Australia, Italy, Malaysia and the UK, with more global sites currently in development.
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CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (AU ), is Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.
CSIRO works with leading organizations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and in France, Chile and the United States, employing about 5,500 people.
Federally funded scientific research began in Australia over 100 years ago. The Advisory Council of Science and Industry was established in 1916 but was hampered by insufficient available finance. In 1926 the research effort was reinvigorated by establishment of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which strengthened national science leadership and increased research funding. CSIR grew rapidly and achieved significant early successes. In 1949 further legislated changes included renaming the organization as CSIRO.
Notable developments by CSIRO have included the invention of atomic absorption spectroscopy; essential components of Wi-Fi technology; development of the first commercially successful polymer banknote; the invention of the insect repellent in Aerogard and the introduction of a series of biological controls into Australia, such as the introduction of myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus for the control of rabbit populations.
Research and focus areas
Research Business Units
As of 2023, CSIRO’s research areas are identified as “Impact science” and organized into the following Business Units:
Agriculture and Food
Health and Biosecurity
Data61
Energy
Manufacturing
Mineral Resources and Environment (being the amalgamation of the former Land and Water and Oceans & Atmosphere BUs)
National Facilities
CSIRO manages national research facilities and scientific infrastructure on behalf of the nation to assist with the delivery of research. The national facilities and specialized laboratories are available to both international and Australian users from industry and research. As at 2019, the following National Facilities are listed:
Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL)
Australia Telescope National Facility – radio telescopes included in the Facility include the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Parkes Observatory, Mopra Radio Telescope Observatory and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder.
CSIRO Pawsey Supercomputing Centre AU)
Others not shown
Collections
CSIRO manages a number of collections of animal and plant specimens that contribute to national and international biological knowledge. The National Collections contribute to taxonomic, genetic, agricultural and ecological research. As at 2019, CSIRO’s Collections are listed as the following:
Australian National Algae Culture Collection
The Atlas of Living Australia
Australian Tree Seed Centre
Australian National Fish Collection
Australian National Insect Collection
Australian National Herbarium
Australian National Soil Archive (managed through A&F)
Australian National Wildlife Collection
Cape Grim Air Archive
Services
In 2019, CSIRO Services are itemized as follows:
Materials and infrastructure services
Agricultural and environmental analysis
Environmental services
Biological, food and medical science services
Australian Animal Health Laboratory services
Other services are noted as including education, publishing, infrastructure technologies, Small and Medium Enterprise engagement and CSIRO Futures.
Inventions
Notable inventions and breakthroughs by CSIRO include:
A4 DSP chip
Aerogard, insect repellent
Atomic absorption spectroscopy
Biological control of Salvinia
Development of Linola (a flax variety with low alpha-linolenic acid content) with a longer life used as a stockfeed
Distance measuring equipment (DME) used for aviation navigation
Gene shears
Interscan Microwave landing system, a microwave approach and landing system for aircraft
Use of myxomatosis and calicivirus to control rabbit numbers
Parkes Radio Telescope
The permanent pleat for fabrics
Plasma sintering
Polymer banknote
Production of metals from their halides
Relenza flu drug
Sirosmelt lance
“Softly” woollens detergent
Phase-contrast X-ray imaging
Method to use titanium in 3D printing
UltraBattery
Essential components of Wi-Fi technology
Zebedee – Mobile Handheld 3D Lidar Mapping technology
Historic research
CSIRO had a pioneering role in the scientific discovery of the universe through radio “eyes”. A team led by Paul Wild built and operated (from 1948) the world’s first solar radiospectrograph, and from 1967 the 3-kilometre-diameter (1.9 mi) radioheliograph at Culgoora in New South Wales. For three decades, the Division of Radiophysics had a world-leading role in solar research, attracting prominent solar physicists from around the world.
CSIRO owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947. The CSIR Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1,000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time. It was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964. The CSIRAC is the only surviving first-generation computer in the world.
Between 1965 and 1985, George Bornemissza of CSIRO’s Division of Entomology founded and led the Australian Dung Beetle Project. Bornemissza, upon settling in Australia from Hungary in 1951, noticed that the pastureland was covered in dry cattle dung pads which did not seem to be recycled into the soil and caused areas of rank pasture which were unpalatable to the cattle. He proposed that the reason for this was that native Australian dung beetles, which had co-evolved alongside the marsupials (which produce dung very different in its composition from cattle), were not adapted to utilise cattle dung for their nutrition and breeding since cattle had only relatively recently been introduced to the continent in the 1880s. The Australian Dung Beetle Project sought, therefore, to introduce species of dung beetle from South Africa and Europe (which had co-evolved alongside bovids) in order to improve the fertility and quality of cattle pastures. Twenty-three species were successfully introduced throughout the duration of the project and also had the effect of reducing the pestilent bush fly population by 90%.
