Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200100005
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$36,000,000.00
Summary
Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future. This program aims to deliver unprecedented research capability for securing Antarctic environments in the face of uncertain change.
By integrating a highly skilled team with new approaches and breakthrough technologies, the program anticipates discovery science, enhanced environmental forecasting and optimised decision-making to advance Australia’s position as an influential Antarctic nation.
Expected outcomes include better environmental management ....Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future. This program aims to deliver unprecedented research capability for securing Antarctic environments in the face of uncertain change.
By integrating a highly skilled team with new approaches and breakthrough technologies, the program anticipates discovery science, enhanced environmental forecasting and optimised decision-making to advance Australia’s position as an influential Antarctic nation.
Expected outcomes include better environmental management, unparalleled strategic decision-support for an effective Antarctic Treaty, and new minds to address Antarctica’s new challenges.
Anticipated benefits are the means to transform environmental forecasting and management in the Antarctic, for Australia, and to the advantage of global security.Read moreRead less
Innovative tools needed for market-based nutrient offsetting . This project will apply innovative approaches to develop a functional equivalency of nutrients from catchment versus point sources. This is fundamental knowledge needed for the successful application of nutrient offsetting. This market-based mechanism involves point source polluters choosing to pay for catchment restoration, which is offset against their nutrient discharge. Currently, despite its potential, there is a lack of confide ....Innovative tools needed for market-based nutrient offsetting . This project will apply innovative approaches to develop a functional equivalency of nutrients from catchment versus point sources. This is fundamental knowledge needed for the successful application of nutrient offsetting. This market-based mechanism involves point source polluters choosing to pay for catchment restoration, which is offset against their nutrient discharge. Currently, despite its potential, there is a lack of confidence in the scientific robustness of nutrient offsetting. The proposed new indicators in nutrient equivalency would provide the foundation needed to ensure that governments and industry can have the confidence to engage in nutrient trading schemes, ultimately ensuring environmental and social benefits.Read moreRead less
Tackling pests using game theory to support cooperative management. This project aims to improve management of invasive species by assisting pest mitigation agencies to work together. This is expected to result in more efficient and effective strategies, with the potential to dramatically improve local and global agricultural and environmental outcomes. An interdisciplinary approach using game theory, spatial modelling, and ecology is expected to create a novel framework to identify how and when ....Tackling pests using game theory to support cooperative management. This project aims to improve management of invasive species by assisting pest mitigation agencies to work together. This is expected to result in more efficient and effective strategies, with the potential to dramatically improve local and global agricultural and environmental outcomes. An interdisciplinary approach using game theory, spatial modelling, and ecology is expected to create a novel framework to identify how and when agencies might collaborate, and how collaboration might impact on costs and benefits of pest control strategies. The project will provide significant benefits by improving management of invasive species across Queensland, one of Australia's largest agricultural producing states and home to a vast number of Australia's threatened species. Read moreRead less
Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods. This project aims to develop state-of-the-art conceptual and numerical models of river-soil-groundwater interactions to address complex and persistent questions on water sustainability in the Lower Burdekin Delta, Queensland, where groundwater pumping to irrigate sugarcane has been supplemented by artificial recharge for over 50 years. This project expects to deliver new knowledge of critical aquifer processes to inform the scheme ope ....Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods. This project aims to develop state-of-the-art conceptual and numerical models of river-soil-groundwater interactions to address complex and persistent questions on water sustainability in the Lower Burdekin Delta, Queensland, where groundwater pumping to irrigate sugarcane has been supplemented by artificial recharge for over 50 years. This project expects to deliver new knowledge of critical aquifer processes to inform the scheme operation, the largest in the country. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking management plans for the aquifer-replenishment scheme. Anticipated benefits involve balancing the needs of agriculture and the protection of pristine environments, including groundwater discharge to the Great Barrier Reef.
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Co-designing a resilient water-energy toolbox with Indigenous communities. The aim is to collaboratively create a toolbox of innovative, community-based approaches for water and energy management in remote Australia. This project will combine digital and cultural approaches to create a novel set of tested and evaluated tools for engaging both community and service providers in transforming water and energy use practises in remote Indigenous communities. The key output will be an empirically-test ....Co-designing a resilient water-energy toolbox with Indigenous communities. The aim is to collaboratively create a toolbox of innovative, community-based approaches for water and energy management in remote Australia. This project will combine digital and cultural approaches to create a novel set of tested and evaluated tools for engaging both community and service providers in transforming water and energy use practises in remote Indigenous communities. The key output will be an empirically-tested and user friendly water-energy toolbox tailored to reduce the currently extreme cost of supplying essential services to remote communities. Application of these outputs will significantly reduce demand on local water sources and diesel-generated energy use while creating a skill base for local employment opportunities.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101385
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$417,966.00
Summary
How social and trade networks influence adoption of sustainable practices. Adoption of agricultural practices to reduce the impacts of land-based run-off on water quality is necessary to ensure that ecosystems that deliver substantial economic and social benefits, such as the Great Barrier Reef, are preserved. But up-take is currently limited by lack of behaviour change. Using novel network modelling and mixed methods, this interdisciplinary project will measure the importance of international t ....How social and trade networks influence adoption of sustainable practices. Adoption of agricultural practices to reduce the impacts of land-based run-off on water quality is necessary to ensure that ecosystems that deliver substantial economic and social benefits, such as the Great Barrier Reef, are preserved. But up-take is currently limited by lack of behaviour change. Using novel network modelling and mixed methods, this interdisciplinary project will measure the importance of international trade and peer influence on the adoption of sustainable practices. Outcomes are expected to drive cost-effective stakeholder engagement solutions that will increase uptake of sustainable practices. At stake are natural ecosystems whose health is critical for delivering economic value, and social and ecological benefits.Read moreRead less
The ecological impact of large carnivore restoration. This project aims to assess the ecological changes that have arisen due to the repatriation of estuarine crocodiles to Australian ecosystems. It is significant because the restoration provides a rare opportunity to empirically test changes in ecosystem processes under varying degrees of large carnivore predation pressure. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of the processes that govern the strength of predator-ecosystem interacti ....The ecological impact of large carnivore restoration. This project aims to assess the ecological changes that have arisen due to the repatriation of estuarine crocodiles to Australian ecosystems. It is significant because the restoration provides a rare opportunity to empirically test changes in ecosystem processes under varying degrees of large carnivore predation pressure. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of the processes that govern the strength of predator-ecosystem interactions and an ability to quantify the biomass, social structure, and behaviours of predators required to influence these processes. Benefits should include improvements in how the ecological role of large carnivores is measured, and when and where carnivore populations should be culled or conserved.Read moreRead less
Saving Nemo: Reducing animal use in toxicity assessments of wastewater. Every day, Australians produce ~5 billion litres of wastewater, which contains a cocktail of chemicals. Industries that discharge wastewater are required to assess chemical risks to the receiving environments by conducting whole animal direct toxicity assessments (DTA), which are expensive and pose an ethical dilemma. Our preliminary research shows that new in vitro bioassays provide an ethical and cost effective alternative ....Saving Nemo: Reducing animal use in toxicity assessments of wastewater. Every day, Australians produce ~5 billion litres of wastewater, which contains a cocktail of chemicals. Industries that discharge wastewater are required to assess chemical risks to the receiving environments by conducting whole animal direct toxicity assessments (DTA), which are expensive and pose an ethical dilemma. Our preliminary research shows that new in vitro bioassays provide an ethical and cost effective alternative that could be incorporated into DTA programs if their ecological relevance can be demonstrated. This project will develop and validate a new and internationally significant suite of in vitro bioassays for incorporation into DTA programs, leading to more ethical, cost effective and improved environmental protection.Read moreRead less
A global standard for the status of Wetlands of International Importance. The project will develop and test a new global standard for the assessment and reporting on ecological condition of internationally important wetlands, listed under the Ramsar Convention. It has four aims: establishment of a strategic adaptive management and governance framework, a meta-analysis of the 2,303 internationally listed wetlands, development of a protocol for assessment and prediction and delivering a digital re ....A global standard for the status of Wetlands of International Importance. The project will develop and test a new global standard for the assessment and reporting on ecological condition of internationally important wetlands, listed under the Ramsar Convention. It has four aims: establishment of a strategic adaptive management and governance framework, a meta-analysis of the 2,303 internationally listed wetlands, development of a protocol for assessment and prediction and delivering a digital reporting platform for effective management. The project is significant because it tackles the decline of freshwater ecosystems, by targeting the most prominent wetlands. It also assists state and national governments to meet their obligations under the Ramsar Convention and most importantly guides more effective management.Read moreRead less
Ecologically responsible mining to fuel a green energy transition. An energy transition is key to tackling climate change. However, renewable energy is mineral intensive and boosting its supply may create new mining threats to biodiversity. This project aims to facilitate strategic development of ecologically responsible mining. It expects to reveal where new mines will be needed to meet future energy demand, and create innovative tools to predict and mitigate threats to plants and animals. Expe ....Ecologically responsible mining to fuel a green energy transition. An energy transition is key to tackling climate change. However, renewable energy is mineral intensive and boosting its supply may create new mining threats to biodiversity. This project aims to facilitate strategic development of ecologically responsible mining. It expects to reveal where new mines will be needed to meet future energy demand, and create innovative tools to predict and mitigate threats to plants and animals. Expected outcomes include an improved ability to inform sustainable climate and energy policies, leading to strategic investment decisions, cleaner mineral supply chains and conservation outcomes that capture valuable environmental and social benefits and create a competitive advantage for Australia’s mining sector.Read moreRead less