Tropical Research
Return to Themed Collections
Australia is unique amongst developed countries in having a significant landmass in the tropics. Tropical Australia accounts for 46% of the nation's landmass and despite its low and dispersed population base, is the source of more than 30% of the nation's exports, particularly from mining, oil and gas. Six per cent of Australians live in the tropics, including close to one-third of indigenous Australians. In an era of climate change, tropical issues are of growing global significance. Approximately one-half of the world's population lives in the tropics. With population growth double the world average, the tropics are under severe and growing pressure.
eResearch Support Showcase
To meet the needs of researchers, James Cook University has developed a Tropical Data Hub as an 'open' portal, with contributors from a variety of state, commonwealth and university research programs submitting data sets and other content in an open and collaborative way. As well as hosting and exposing data, a key functionality of the portal is data searching (including via GIS methods) across disparate data sets.