Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101231
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$390,295.00
Summary
The effect of nutrition on male life history traits in humans. This project will provide answers to fundamental questions in evolutionary biology while identifying diet compositions that will benefit human health and well-being. Using a longitudinal public-health database, the Raine Study, and a theoretical framework from the field of Nutritional Ecology, the project will provide new knowledge on how nutrition affects key life-history traits in humans including immune function, reproductive heal ....The effect of nutrition on male life history traits in humans. This project will provide answers to fundamental questions in evolutionary biology while identifying diet compositions that will benefit human health and well-being. Using a longitudinal public-health database, the Raine Study, and a theoretical framework from the field of Nutritional Ecology, the project will provide new knowledge on how nutrition affects key life-history traits in humans including immune function, reproductive health, physical appearance, and healthy ageing. A systematic literature review on how diet impacts these life-history traits in animals generally, and an experimental study of the effect of diet on health and reproduction in the house mouse (a lab analog species for humans) will complement the Raine Study findings.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100841
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Movement patterns of marine megafauna at unprecedented global scales. This project aims to apply analyses from big data approaches to reveal movement patterns at unprecedented scales. Environmental legislation dictates that industries (e.g. oil and gas) reduce their effect on marine megafauna such as sharks, whales, or turtles. However, the extent of their effect is unknown, due to limited understanding of these animals’ movements. With large satellite tracking datasets now available, the challe ....Movement patterns of marine megafauna at unprecedented global scales. This project aims to apply analyses from big data approaches to reveal movement patterns at unprecedented scales. Environmental legislation dictates that industries (e.g. oil and gas) reduce their effect on marine megafauna such as sharks, whales, or turtles. However, the extent of their effect is unknown, due to limited understanding of these animals’ movements. With large satellite tracking datasets now available, the challenge is to develop a synthetic analytical approach to identify scaling laws and to understand global drivers of marine megafauna movement. Findings are expected to improve the ability to sustainably exploit marine resources while conserving biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101409
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$432,447.00
Summary
Quantifying trophic niches to measure the resilience of marine predators. This project aims to pair global movement with feeding ecology datasets to characterise relationships between space use and diet breadth, and tests the effects of marine industries on functional roles of marine predators. This expects to generate knowledge about population and individual specalisation using innovative biochemical approaches and shark’s unique dental anatomy. Expected outcomes include a biochemical database ....Quantifying trophic niches to measure the resilience of marine predators. This project aims to pair global movement with feeding ecology datasets to characterise relationships between space use and diet breadth, and tests the effects of marine industries on functional roles of marine predators. This expects to generate knowledge about population and individual specalisation using innovative biochemical approaches and shark’s unique dental anatomy. Expected outcomes include a biochemical database facilitating global collaborations, and a vulnerability scale to rank resilience to impacts based on relative specalisation. This should benefit managers by accounting for previously unknown effects of marine industries on specialists at elevated extinction risk, with limited resilience to local impacts and global change.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100144
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$446,548.00
Summary
Linking changes in plant-pollinator networks to plant reproduction. The project aims to investigate how human actions in agricultural landscapes affect the activity of pollinating insects and the consequence for the plants that rely on them for reproduction. The project seeks to reveal how the structure of plant-pollinator networks is related to the reproductive success of plants through the novel application of networks that describe patterns in species interactions. The knowledge gained from t ....Linking changes in plant-pollinator networks to plant reproduction. The project aims to investigate how human actions in agricultural landscapes affect the activity of pollinating insects and the consequence for the plants that rely on them for reproduction. The project seeks to reveal how the structure of plant-pollinator networks is related to the reproductive success of plants through the novel application of networks that describe patterns in species interactions. The knowledge gained from this study will enhance our ability to forecast the effects of insect declines for plant seed production in Australia and the world. The intended benefit is an improved capacity to identify vulnerable plant species and maintain pollination services in managed landscape for both wild and cultivated plant populations.Read moreRead less
The benefits of sociality: understanding the relationship between cooperation, cognition and fitness. Cooperation may present unique cognitive challenges. Individuals perform behaviours that provide fitness benefits to others, exposing themselves to risk. The need to monitor the behaviour of group members, recognise suitable cooperative partners, and make corresponding behavioural adjustments to maximize the benefits of cooperation, may therefore be an important driver of social evolution. The r ....The benefits of sociality: understanding the relationship between cooperation, cognition and fitness. Cooperation may present unique cognitive challenges. Individuals perform behaviours that provide fitness benefits to others, exposing themselves to risk. The need to monitor the behaviour of group members, recognise suitable cooperative partners, and make corresponding behavioural adjustments to maximize the benefits of cooperation, may therefore be an important driver of social evolution. The relevance of understanding the relationship between cognition and cooperation is in how it affects the fitness of individuals and the stability of cooperation. This project aims to unveil this relationship by conducting one of the first comprehensive studies of the selective benefits of cognitive ability in a wild, cooperative bird species.Read moreRead less
How effective are environmental flows? Novel approaches for monitoring and assessing ecological responses to large-scale flow alteration. Australia has begun a multi-billion dollar program to return water to stressed rivers as environmental flows. However, during times of unprecedented water scarcity, such an investment in the environment can be controversial because the ecological benefits of released water are mostly poorly understood. This project will demonstrate the effectiveness of environ ....How effective are environmental flows? Novel approaches for monitoring and assessing ecological responses to large-scale flow alteration. Australia has begun a multi-billion dollar program to return water to stressed rivers as environmental flows. However, during times of unprecedented water scarcity, such an investment in the environment can be controversial because the ecological benefits of released water are mostly poorly understood. This project will demonstrate the effectiveness of environmental flows, and promote greater understanding of the links between flow patterns and river health. The project will build upon existing knowledge to create a sound framework for planning, monitoring, and evaluation of environmental watering decisions across regional Australia, greatly improving our ability to sustainably manage rivers into the future.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100904
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Connections between imperfect detection and ecological inference. This project is designed to resolve whether or when it is important to account for imperfect detection when modelling communities of species. Robust conservation and environmental decisions require reliable estimates of biodiversity, yet current modelling methods may be biased because they fail to account for the imperfect detection of species. Improving the models requires good understanding about levels and patterns of species d ....Connections between imperfect detection and ecological inference. This project is designed to resolve whether or when it is important to account for imperfect detection when modelling communities of species. Robust conservation and environmental decisions require reliable estimates of biodiversity, yet current modelling methods may be biased because they fail to account for the imperfect detection of species. Improving the models requires good understanding about levels and patterns of species detectability, which is currently lacking. The project intends to bridge this gap by producing a global synthesis of species detectability across taxa, geographical regions and survey methods. The project then aims to evaluate the performance and limitations of existing and emerging community modelling methods in ecology to enable better biodiversity conservation decisions.Read moreRead less
On the importance of sex in plants: determining which biotic and environmental factors favour sexual versus clonal reproduction. This project will use plants to provide novel tests of the idea that sex helps species escape from their parasites and pathogens, and that sexual species are faster to adapt to changed environmental conditions than are clonal species. The findings will help predict how plants will respond to future changes in climate and parasite pressure.
The origins of gender. This project intends to address how the evolutionary phenomena of intra-sexual competition and inter-sexual conflict interact with economic circumstances to shape gendered behaviour and attitudes. These phenomena are important in evolution, economics, psychology and sociology, with implications for the economy and for the welfare of women and men. The project predicts that gender-related culture arises, partially, out of mating market dynamics. The research crosses traditi ....The origins of gender. This project intends to address how the evolutionary phenomena of intra-sexual competition and inter-sexual conflict interact with economic circumstances to shape gendered behaviour and attitudes. These phenomena are important in evolution, economics, psychology and sociology, with implications for the economy and for the welfare of women and men. The project predicts that gender-related culture arises, partially, out of mating market dynamics. The research crosses traditional boundaries between biology and economics to investigate the forces giving rise to gendered behaviour and resulting patterns of marriages, violence, political preferences and occupational choices. The project may provide new insights into the links between gender and violence, within-family conflicts, and gender roles in the home and workplace.Read moreRead less
Factors controlling marine food webs: consumer vs. nutrient limitation of mobile invertebrates and algae. An understanding of the strength of interactions in marine food webs is crucial to predicting change in coastal habitats due to human activities. The outcomes of this research will indicate the relative importance of changes in nutrient inputs from terrestrial runoff (eutrophication) and predation pressures (via overfishing) - both of which may strongly affect the structure of marine habitat ....Factors controlling marine food webs: consumer vs. nutrient limitation of mobile invertebrates and algae. An understanding of the strength of interactions in marine food webs is crucial to predicting change in coastal habitats due to human activities. The outcomes of this research will indicate the relative importance of changes in nutrient inputs from terrestrial runoff (eutrophication) and predation pressures (via overfishing) - both of which may strongly affect the structure of marine habitats - on an extremely abundant and diverse component of coastal marine habitats.Read moreRead less