Predicting adaptive responses to climate change in Australian native bees. This project aims to understand how insects will adapt to climate change by examining a largely overlooked but economically important group of species: Australian native bees. Native bees are important pollinators of both crops and native plants, but their sensitivity to changes in climate are unknown. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of the resilience of native bees to climate change, and new effective tools for p ....Predicting adaptive responses to climate change in Australian native bees. This project aims to understand how insects will adapt to climate change by examining a largely overlooked but economically important group of species: Australian native bees. Native bees are important pollinators of both crops and native plants, but their sensitivity to changes in climate are unknown. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of the resilience of native bees to climate change, and new effective tools for predicting climate change resilience that can be applied to many species. The intended benefits include increasing our understanding of the potential for native bees to act as future pollinators in Australia’s natural and agro-ecosystems, and guide policy and management decisions to better protect and conserve our bee fauna.Read moreRead less
Multi-trait plasticity in response to a changing climate. This project aims to understand the effect of climate change on natural populations. Phenotypic plasticity (the ability to change phenotype with environment) determines natural populations’ immediate response to environmental change. However, studies of plasticity frequently rely on simplifying assumptions, and understanding the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms underlying plasticity is only just emerging. This project will combine a fine ....Multi-trait plasticity in response to a changing climate. This project aims to understand the effect of climate change on natural populations. Phenotypic plasticity (the ability to change phenotype with environment) determines natural populations’ immediate response to environmental change. However, studies of plasticity frequently rely on simplifying assumptions, and understanding the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms underlying plasticity is only just emerging. This project will combine a fine-scale temperature-manipulation experiment with genomic and multivariate statistical analyses of a native Australian alpine plant. The intended outcome is a comprehensive analysis of whether multi-trait phenotypic plasticity is adaptive; whether it can evolve; and the epigenomic mechanisms that drive it. The project will predict the likely effect of temperature change on alpine plants, and so generate information internationally relevant to the management of populations adapting to climate change and locally relevant to the conservation of Australian montane flora.Read moreRead less
Are evolutionary refugia traps for endemic species? This project aims to determine whether species that have small geographic ranges and which live in historically stable refugia have evolved narrow climatic tolerances. The project will compare such species with more widespread, related species living in the same areas and combine field- and lab-based estimates of physiological tolerances with genomic estimates of population history and diversity. The expected outcome is to test the prediction f ....Are evolutionary refugia traps for endemic species? This project aims to determine whether species that have small geographic ranges and which live in historically stable refugia have evolved narrow climatic tolerances. The project will compare such species with more widespread, related species living in the same areas and combine field- and lab-based estimates of physiological tolerances with genomic estimates of population history and diversity. The expected outcome is to test the prediction from evolutionary theory that small-range, refugial species are intrinsically more sensitive to climatic change. The project expects to provide improved guidance for ecological management of biodiversity hotspots.Read moreRead less
Artificial light at night as a driver of evolutionary change. This project aims to investigate whether artificial light at night drives evolutionary change using a combination of field observations, laboratory experiments and advanced genetic techniques. This multi-disciplinary study expects to provide a significant advance in understanding of the impact of light at night for animals and will enhance our capacity to predict the outcome of future urban expansions for all species. The outcomes wil ....Artificial light at night as a driver of evolutionary change. This project aims to investigate whether artificial light at night drives evolutionary change using a combination of field observations, laboratory experiments and advanced genetic techniques. This multi-disciplinary study expects to provide a significant advance in understanding of the impact of light at night for animals and will enhance our capacity to predict the outcome of future urban expansions for all species. The outcomes will have broad implications for estimating the future biodiversity and health of our urban areas and will benefit both globally and within Australia by providing much needed data regarding the likely resilience of species currently residing in our major cities.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100115
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$180,000.00
Summary
Confocal microscope for high-resolution microtopographic analysis of surfaces in historical, forensic and polymer sciences. High-resolution analyses of microscopic patterns on surfaces using confocal microscopy can provide vital clues into the nature of ancient diets and environments, adaptive evolution, weapons used in crimes, and properties of polymers. This instrument will heighten Australia’s capacity for world-leading research in areas of major national importance.
The role of epigenetic modifications in bovid adaptation to environmental change. This project will explore the role of epigenetic change, where gene expression is regulated without changing the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence, in how animals adapt to rapid climate change. This project will trace epigenetic markers in ancient bison and cows through 30,000 years of climate change, and identify key adaptive genes for the cattle industry.
Evolution, adaptation and resilience of Australian freshwater fishes. This project will integrate comparative ecological genomics (in the wild and in the lab), phenotypic data and spatially-explicit modelling approaches to assess adaptation and vulnerability of aquatic biodiversity to environmental change. It focuses on a family of Australian freshwater fishes that evolved in response to hydrological disturbance and shows contemporary patterns of biodiversity shaped by hydroclimatic variation an ....Evolution, adaptation and resilience of Australian freshwater fishes. This project will integrate comparative ecological genomics (in the wild and in the lab), phenotypic data and spatially-explicit modelling approaches to assess adaptation and vulnerability of aquatic biodiversity to environmental change. It focuses on a family of Australian freshwater fishes that evolved in response to hydrological disturbance and shows contemporary patterns of biodiversity shaped by hydroclimatic variation and anthropogenic pressures. The project expects to disclose a positive correlation between family-wide adaptive capacity and variance in ecological disturbance. This work will address fundamental and novel questions about factors shaping adaptation and resilience along naturally and anthropogenically disturbed ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Resolving how five million years of dramatic climatic changes shaped Australia's unique fauna. Australia’s biota is a product of its unique heritage, tectonic history and most especially its climate. Over the past five million years it has been beset by a series of intense climatic shifts driven by a combination of global and regional factors. This project will be the first to track faunal responses to environmental changes across this critical interval. It will establish the dynamics of the ori ....Resolving how five million years of dramatic climatic changes shaped Australia's unique fauna. Australia’s biota is a product of its unique heritage, tectonic history and most especially its climate. Over the past five million years it has been beset by a series of intense climatic shifts driven by a combination of global and regional factors. This project will be the first to track faunal responses to environmental changes across this critical interval. It will establish the dynamics of the origin of the modern southern vertebrate fauna, analysing changes in diversity, diet and community structure. By exploring associations between phases of faunal turnover and key climatic transitions, it will bring a Southern Hemisphere perspective to evolutionary models of Cenozoic faunal change largely generated to date from Northern Hemisphere data.Read moreRead less
Illuminating the evolutionary history of Australia’s most iconic animals. This project aims to pinpoint the nature and timing of key steps in macropod history and to test how these link with major climatic and biotic changes. Macropods (kangaroos and relatives) are widely considered the marsupial equivalents to hoofed mammals on other continents, but we have a weaker understanding of how their evolution was shaped by environmental change. This project will combine palaeontology, anatomy and gene ....Illuminating the evolutionary history of Australia’s most iconic animals. This project aims to pinpoint the nature and timing of key steps in macropod history and to test how these link with major climatic and biotic changes. Macropods (kangaroos and relatives) are widely considered the marsupial equivalents to hoofed mammals on other continents, but we have a weaker understanding of how their evolution was shaped by environmental change. This project will combine palaeontology, anatomy and genetics to address questions such as how and why ancestral macropods descended from the trees and evolved bipedal hopping, and the upper size limits of the kangaroo “body plan”. This should improve our understanding of the long-term effects of climate change on marsupials, and provide a test of key placental-based evolutionary models.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL100100183
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,168,370.00
Summary
Biological adaptation under natural and anthropogenic conditions. This project covers all four national priority areas. Nature abounds with conflicts between what is good for the individual or a larger entity (a population, a society, or a species). Researching them will explain why populations adapt or fail to adapt to novel conditions (e.g., climate change) and predict when interventions are beneficial. Similar rules govern the spread of invasive species. Even health problems, e.g., new virule ....Biological adaptation under natural and anthropogenic conditions. This project covers all four national priority areas. Nature abounds with conflicts between what is good for the individual or a larger entity (a population, a society, or a species). Researching them will explain why populations adapt or fail to adapt to novel conditions (e.g., climate change) and predict when interventions are beneficial. Similar rules govern the spread of invasive species. Even health problems, e.g., new virulent strains of human, animal or plant diseases, require such evolutionary thinking. Cutting-edge mathematical tools also prepare Australians for an era in the near future where genomic data are so cheap to acquire that training in complex mathematical and logical analysis becomes a factor limiting scientific progress.Read moreRead less