What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This ....What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This project will advance fundamental understanding of how thermal tolerance varies across species and over the plant life cycle and how it scales demographically to lifetime vulnerability. The work will yield a significant advance in our capacity to predict impacts of extreme heat events on plant performance and distribution.
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Improving long term forecasts of tree growth in carbon farming projects. Australia is taking action to limit global warming, including use of "carbon farming" to capture CO2 using trees as natural carbon sinks. Limited knowledge on the growth rate of Mulga trees, a primary carbon sink, hampers our partner organisation’s ability to maximise carbon stores. The aim of this proposal is to use dendrochronology to inform novel predictive models for growth of mulga trees that will reduce uncertainty in ....Improving long term forecasts of tree growth in carbon farming projects. Australia is taking action to limit global warming, including use of "carbon farming" to capture CO2 using trees as natural carbon sinks. Limited knowledge on the growth rate of Mulga trees, a primary carbon sink, hampers our partner organisation’s ability to maximise carbon stores. The aim of this proposal is to use dendrochronology to inform novel predictive models for growth of mulga trees that will reduce uncertainty in carbon removal forecasts. The expected outcome will be significant and benefit our partner organisation and other agencies by providing improved forecasting of tree growth that will inform their decisions for investment in carbon farming and nature repair markets.Read moreRead less
Silicon: a novel solution to reduce water use and pest damage in wheat. The project aims to improve Australian wheat production by increasing drought resilience and reducing reliance on pesticides. This is achieved by incorporating amorphous silicon (Si), an abundant national resource. Si uptake by wheat has been proven to alleviate stress from drought and pests, but mechanisms and agronomic feasibility remain to be fully assessed. The project will deliver a mechanistic understanding of how Si a ....Silicon: a novel solution to reduce water use and pest damage in wheat. The project aims to improve Australian wheat production by increasing drought resilience and reducing reliance on pesticides. This is achieved by incorporating amorphous silicon (Si), an abundant national resource. Si uptake by wheat has been proven to alleviate stress from drought and pests, but mechanisms and agronomic feasibility remain to be fully assessed. The project will deliver a mechanistic understanding of how Si alleviates stress in wheat, from gene to farm scale, providing cost-benefit analysis and a best–practice toolbox for implementation by farmers. Outcomes are anticipated to provide a cheaper and more environmentally sustainable solution to issues of water scarcity and yield losses to pests in Australia’s leading crop.Read moreRead less
Resolving the threat of ocean deoxygenation to coral resilience. This project aims to uncover the role low oxygen plays in shaping healthy corals over space and time. Climate change and land use development are rapidly deoxygenating shallow water coral reefs, yet we have no knowledge of how less oxygen availability affects critical life history factors that govern coral resilience: growth, reproduction, and stress tolerance. This project unites a multidisciplinary team of experts to, for the fir ....Resolving the threat of ocean deoxygenation to coral resilience. This project aims to uncover the role low oxygen plays in shaping healthy corals over space and time. Climate change and land use development are rapidly deoxygenating shallow water coral reefs, yet we have no knowledge of how less oxygen availability affects critical life history factors that govern coral resilience: growth, reproduction, and stress tolerance. This project unites a multidisciplinary team of experts to, for the first time, couple advanced oxygen sensing, metabolic physiology, coral reproductive and stress biology to transform our understanding of oxygen thresholds that are diagnostic of reduced coral competitive fitness across life stages (adults, juveniles, larvae), needed to improve coral reef ecosystem management.Read moreRead less
Towards 2050 - managing recovery of Australia's coral reefs. The coral reefs of Australia contribute over $6 bn each year to the economy. However, the reefs of Australia, in addition to those worldwide, are threatened by coral bleaching driven by anthropogenic climate change. If we are to preserve the economic, social and ecosystem value of these environments, it is essential that we are able to better manage the recovery of reefs from bleaching events. This project will utilise a variety of mul ....Towards 2050 - managing recovery of Australia's coral reefs. The coral reefs of Australia contribute over $6 bn each year to the economy. However, the reefs of Australia, in addition to those worldwide, are threatened by coral bleaching driven by anthropogenic climate change. If we are to preserve the economic, social and ecosystem value of these environments, it is essential that we are able to better manage the recovery of reefs from bleaching events. This project will utilise a variety of multi-disciplinary approaches, ranging from future climate models, historical satellite data to in-field experimentation to fill fundamental knowledge gaps in our understanding of coral bleaching recovery and delivery a variety of management and stakeholder relevant outputs.Read moreRead less
Do root microbiomes control seagrass response to environmental stress? The project aims to determine the role root microbes play in controlling seagrass responses to environmental stress. By integrating marine and microbial ecology, environmental genomics and ecosystem function (e.g., biogeochemical cycling), this project is significant as it will create new knowledge of the processes that confer seagrass resilience to global environmental issues. An expected outcome is an increased understandin ....Do root microbiomes control seagrass response to environmental stress? The project aims to determine the role root microbes play in controlling seagrass responses to environmental stress. By integrating marine and microbial ecology, environmental genomics and ecosystem function (e.g., biogeochemical cycling), this project is significant as it will create new knowledge of the processes that confer seagrass resilience to global environmental issues. An expected outcome is an increased understanding of how microbes control seagrass health and an enhanced capacity to develop effective restoration strategies for Australia's valuable seagrass ecosystems. Benefits include improving the extensive environmental, economic, social/cultural services Australian communities derive from seagrass ecosystems.Read moreRead less
How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries s ....How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries species to evaluate their climate resilience. An advanced food web model will be developed to forecast changes to fisheries production in a future world. This provides a much-improved forecast of climate adaptation and managing future biodiversity and fisheries species through resilient genes and populations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100272
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$475,234.00
Summary
Protecting oyster aquaculture from heatwaves and flooding rains . This project aims to grow our understanding of disease in oysters following extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods. Working with industry partners, I will use field and lab-based experiments to determine the underlying causes of oyster mortality following extreme weather. Critically, this project will trial real solutions to reduce disease including selective breeding and co-culture of seaweeds. Expected outcomes incl ....Protecting oyster aquaculture from heatwaves and flooding rains . This project aims to grow our understanding of disease in oysters following extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods. Working with industry partners, I will use field and lab-based experiments to determine the underlying causes of oyster mortality following extreme weather. Critically, this project will trial real solutions to reduce disease including selective breeding and co-culture of seaweeds. Expected outcomes include new knowledge on the causes of bacterial disease in aquaculture and real progress towards solutions to mitigate oyster disease following extreme weather events. This project expects to enable the iconic Australian oyster aquaculture industry to grow despite the extreme weather brought by climate change. Read moreRead less
Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project
include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on co ....Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project
include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on coastal infrastructure, and improved tools for predicting the response of intertidal seaweeds and animals to environmental change. The results of this project will benefit coastal management by identifying conservation and rehabilitation strategies that maximise the
resilience of coastal ecosystems to environmental change.Read moreRead less