Resilience of eucalypts to future droughts. This project aims to examine how resilient Eucalyptus species are to future droughts by combining data synthesis, manipulative experiments and modelling. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, magnitude and duration of future droughts, with major environmental and socio-economic consequences for Australia. Current predictive capacity is extremely limited: experiments are limited in scale and cannot capture important global change interac ....Resilience of eucalypts to future droughts. This project aims to examine how resilient Eucalyptus species are to future droughts by combining data synthesis, manipulative experiments and modelling. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, magnitude and duration of future droughts, with major environmental and socio-economic consequences for Australia. Current predictive capacity is extremely limited: experiments are limited in scale and cannot capture important global change interactions, whilst models do not represent the functional characteristics and adaptions of eucalypts. This project will develop a strong evidence- and process-based understanding to quantify the functional behaviour of drought-adapted Eucalyptus species and leverage this insight to make future model projections.Read moreRead less
Leadership, social identity and the dynamics of influence in intergroup relations: A new understanding of social continuity and social change. Understanding how social change occurs (or continuity prevails) and the role of leadership in this process is paramount to any social system (e.g. nation, state, organization, team). This project provides a new social psychological understanding of leadership and social change dynamics, including when more radical leaders and social relations emerge, as w ....Leadership, social identity and the dynamics of influence in intergroup relations: A new understanding of social continuity and social change. Understanding how social change occurs (or continuity prevails) and the role of leadership in this process is paramount to any social system (e.g. nation, state, organization, team). This project provides a new social psychological understanding of leadership and social change dynamics, including when more radical leaders and social relations emerge, as well as how different groups become more united around a common cause. Given ethnic, religious, social and political diversity of Australian society, these questions are fundamental to strengthening Australia's social fabric. This research also has cross-disciplinary applications, builds international collaborations, and supports emerging Australian research talent.Read moreRead less
ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network. Complexity is the common frontier in the physical, biological and social sciences. This Network will link specialists in all three sciences through five generic conceptual and mathematical theme activities. It will promote research into how subsystems self-organise into new emergent structures when assembled into an open, non-equilibrium system. Outcomes will include new technologies and software tools and deeper understanding of fundamental questions i ....ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network. Complexity is the common frontier in the physical, biological and social sciences. This Network will link specialists in all three sciences through five generic conceptual and mathematical theme activities. It will promote research into how subsystems self-organise into new emergent structures when assembled into an open, non-equilibrium system. Outcomes will include new technologies and software tools and deeper understanding of fundamental questions in science. An essential function of the network will be introducing researchers end users to new tools and broadening the horizons of graduate students.Read moreRead less
Working longer, staying healthy and keeping productive. Working longer, staying healthy and keeping productive. This project aims to develop a policy suite to respond to an older workforce. By 2060, nearly half of Australians aged 64 or older will be employed. Failure to address their health problems could threaten Australia’s economy, tax base and provision of health and care services. This collaboration between national policy portfolios (employment, social services, workplace health and socia ....Working longer, staying healthy and keeping productive. Working longer, staying healthy and keeping productive. This project aims to develop a policy suite to respond to an older workforce. By 2060, nearly half of Australians aged 64 or older will be employed. Failure to address their health problems could threaten Australia’s economy, tax base and provision of health and care services. This collaboration between national policy portfolios (employment, social services, workplace health and social equity) and expert scientists in work, health, social equality and policy process intends to reveal the diversity of older workers’ work-health dilemmas and effective ways for national policies to solve them. The policy suite will promote financial independence and meet social goals of equity and healthy ageing.Read moreRead less
Australian savannah landscapes: past, present and future. Australian savannahs are productive and culturally and biologically significant landscapes but are vulnerable to climate change. The project will determine savannah function (carbon and water balance) for the present and assess how sensitive they have been to past climate variability. The project will then address how they may respond to future climate change.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. This Centre aims to transform understanding of past and present climate extremes and revolutionise Australia’s capability to predict them into the future. Climate extremes cost Australia up to $4 billion a year and will intensify over coming decades. This Centre’s blue-sky research will discover processes that explain the behaviour of present and future climate extremes. It will use its researchers, data, modelling, collaboration, graduate programme ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. This Centre aims to transform understanding of past and present climate extremes and revolutionise Australia’s capability to predict them into the future. Climate extremes cost Australia up to $4 billion a year and will intensify over coming decades. This Centre’s blue-sky research will discover processes that explain the behaviour of present and future climate extremes. It will use its researchers, data, modelling, collaboration, graduate programme and early career researcher mentoring to transform Australia’s capacity to predict climate extremes. This research is expected to make Australia more resilient to climate extremes and minimise risks from climate extremes to the Australian environment, society and economy.Read moreRead less
Ecosystem resilience of Shark Bay under changing ocean climate. This project aims to investigate the resilience of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site to projected climate change. This project will generate new knowledge for marine conservation through analyses of habitat loss on nutrient budgets and productivity in seagrass and microbialite ecosystems. Expected outcomes are an improved understanding of climate-driven shifts on ecosystem processes in Shark Bay, incorporating science-based evidence ....Ecosystem resilience of Shark Bay under changing ocean climate. This project aims to investigate the resilience of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site to projected climate change. This project will generate new knowledge for marine conservation through analyses of habitat loss on nutrient budgets and productivity in seagrass and microbialite ecosystems. Expected outcomes are an improved understanding of climate-driven shifts on ecosystem processes in Shark Bay, incorporating science-based evidence for better conservation and management. This will provide significant benefits by contributing to the future-proofing of Shark Bay’s World Heritage values to climate change, and more broadly by demonstrating the consequences of the continued tropicalisation of Australia’s coastline.Read moreRead less
ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other cou ....ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other countries to develop new technologies for the detection and eradication of parasites. This emphasis will not only protect Australia's borders but will assist our near neighbours and lead to the development of technologies with an economic benefit to Australia.
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Unravelling soil carbon response to warming in fire-affected ecosystems. This project aims to reveal the continental pattern of soil carbon (C) response to warming in fire-affected ecosystems across Australia and to unravel the biogeochemical mechanisms underlying fire’s role in shaping the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Fire has modified over 40% of the Earth’s land surface and wildfire frequency is predicted to increase under global warming. This project expects to generate new k ....Unravelling soil carbon response to warming in fire-affected ecosystems. This project aims to reveal the continental pattern of soil carbon (C) response to warming in fire-affected ecosystems across Australia and to unravel the biogeochemical mechanisms underlying fire’s role in shaping the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Fire has modified over 40% of the Earth’s land surface and wildfire frequency is predicted to increase under global warming. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how fire influences soil-to-atmosphere C fluxes in a warmer climate using a multi-disciplinary approach. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capacity to predict the terrestrial ecosystem-to-atmosphere C fluxes and their feedbacks to climate under increasing frequency of fire using Earth-system models. Read moreRead less
Future fisheries under climate change: the missing role of zooplankton. This project aims to develop the first global ecosystem model with a more realistic representation of zooplankton. Fish are the main source of protein for 3 billion people, yet fish catches are declining. Current models of future fish biomass under climate change do not consider the complex role that zooplankton play in transferring energy from phytoplankton to fish. By resolving the link between phytoplankton and fish, this ....Future fisheries under climate change: the missing role of zooplankton. This project aims to develop the first global ecosystem model with a more realistic representation of zooplankton. Fish are the main source of protein for 3 billion people, yet fish catches are declining. Current models of future fish biomass under climate change do not consider the complex role that zooplankton play in transferring energy from phytoplankton to fish. By resolving the link between phytoplankton and fish, this project will vastly improve estimates of future global fisheries production and regional variation. Such knowledge is vital for future food security in Australia and globally, and also to understand the role of zooplankton in carbon export in the ocean.Read moreRead less