The role of mycorrhizal fungi in the nutrition of temperate terrestrial orchids. This project addresses the role of external mycelial systems in the carbon and mineral nutrition of temperate terrestrial orchids. The project will determine the processes of nutrient transfer in the protocorm and adult phases of development across a range of terrestrial temperate orchids to inform conservation and restoration efforts.
Towards a trait-based plant ecology: new directions in leaf economics research. This work will establish powerful and general global patterns concerning plant functional traits and trait-environment correlations. This knowledge will be useful to researchers across a wide range of disciplines, from plant ecology and physiology to modelling how the world's vegetation will be affected by climate change in coming decades.
Integrating ecoimmunology and population ecology to understand how tropical reptiles deal with novel challenges. Using tropical reptiles as a study system, the project will investigate the extent to which human-induced stressors, such as climate change and invasive species, affect stress levels and immunocompetence of wild animals.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101654
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$335,528.00
Summary
Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimil ....Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimilation and ecosystem modelling, this project will provide critically needed evidence to disentangle the multifaceted impacts of climate change to Eucalyptus trees. This will help reduce the predictive uncertainty in assessing the vulnerability and resilience of Eucalyptus forests in the changing Australian landscape. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100041
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$100,000.00
Summary
A high-resolution isotope facility for low cost analysis of water, plant, and soil/sediment samples to understand environmental change. The most significant environmental challenges facing Australia include ensuring sustainable management of our water resources and conservation of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, particularly in the face of our changing climate and land-use. The new instruments will accelerate progress across a number of projects aimed at understanding the developme ....A high-resolution isotope facility for low cost analysis of water, plant, and soil/sediment samples to understand environmental change. The most significant environmental challenges facing Australia include ensuring sustainable management of our water resources and conservation of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, particularly in the face of our changing climate and land-use. The new instruments will accelerate progress across a number of projects aimed at understanding the development of groundwater resources, the relative dependency of ecosystems on groundwater versus soil and surface water, and an assessment of the likely impacts of altered hydrology, especially dewatering and salinisation, on ecosystems. In addition, they will also be used to extend our knowledge of climate variability in the recent past and increase understanding of critical marine resources.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100352
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Understanding the origin and maintenance of megadiverse plant communities. South-western Australia hosts some of the most biologically diverse plant communities on Earth, and these occur on the most ancient, nutrient-impoverished soils. By studying coastal dunes of increasing age, this project will determine how megadiverse plant communities originate during long-term ecosystem development, and how they are maintained.
Hydroregulation – a missing piece of the climate change puzzle. There is a great need for process-explicit approaches to the puzzle of how organisms will respond to changes in temperature and rainfall. To achieve this for animals, behavioural buffering of both body temperature and water balance must be accounted for. Much is known about thermoregulation, but 'hydroregulation' stands out as a major missing piece of the climate change forecasting puzzle. This project will integrate new modelling m ....Hydroregulation – a missing piece of the climate change puzzle. There is a great need for process-explicit approaches to the puzzle of how organisms will respond to changes in temperature and rainfall. To achieve this for animals, behavioural buffering of both body temperature and water balance must be accounted for. Much is known about thermoregulation, but 'hydroregulation' stands out as a major missing piece of the climate change forecasting puzzle. This project will integrate new modelling methods and empirical approaches to understand the connections between thermoregulation, hydroregulation, activity and, ultimately, distribution and abundance. It will test the predictions against long-term activity observations of reptiles and invertebrates from the Australian arid zone.Read moreRead less
The role of plant-soil feedback in biodiversity maintenance along fertility gradients: from patterns to mechanisms. Plants strongly modify soils and their associated biota, which in turn has important consequences for plant growth. This is known as 'plant-soil feedback'. This project will determine whether such feedback plays a role in maintaining the exceptionally high levels of plant biodiversity found in the kwongan shrublands of south-western Australia.
Does calcium toxicity explain the absence of most Proteaceae from calcareous habitats? Native Proteaceae plants inhabit sandy environments across Australia, but are invariably limited in their distribution by soil conditions. This project will determine elemental and genetic factors that determine Proteaceae distribution and survival, in order to improve ecosystem conservation and restoration strategies and preserve biodiversity.