Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100202
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Interplay between plasticity and senescence. This project aims at bridging two fundamental human stressors together in a quantitative genetic framework. The environment changes globally on a huge scale coupled with effect on the age-structures and genetic composition of countless populations by over-harvesting and exploitation. This project will provide significant benefits, such as potential strategies of dealing with future human-induced changes more effectively.
Fiddling while home burns: climate change and fiddler crabs. Climate change is already affecting many Australian animals, including fiddler crabs. This project will use extensive knowledge of fiddler crab biology to determine whether they can behaviourally compensate for the rapid changes that are occurring by using experiments and observations conducted under natural conditions in the mangroves of Darwin harbour.
Tracking warning signals across a variable landscape. This project aims to investigate how local environmental factors and predator communities affect warning colour expression across the Australian landscape. Warning colours protect toxic prey from predators who learn to associate the colours with an unpleasant taste. Theoretically, warning colours should not vary, but in nature we find appreciable and unexplained variation. This project will utilise Australia's excellent environmental and biod ....Tracking warning signals across a variable landscape. This project aims to investigate how local environmental factors and predator communities affect warning colour expression across the Australian landscape. Warning colours protect toxic prey from predators who learn to associate the colours with an unpleasant taste. Theoretically, warning colours should not vary, but in nature we find appreciable and unexplained variation. This project will utilise Australia's excellent environmental and biodiversity informatics infrastructure to inform the public and decision makers about the adaptability of animals to environmental change such as predator loss.Read moreRead less
Understanding the impact of heat stress on cognition in a changing world. Our research will determine how anthropogenic climate change effects the ability of animals to process information in their environment. This research is significant because it directly addresses the growing issue of wildlife adaptation to climate change. If heat stress, reported widely in wildlife both in Australia and globally, impairs an animal's ability to respond to stimuli in its surrounding environment, then this ma ....Understanding the impact of heat stress on cognition in a changing world. Our research will determine how anthropogenic climate change effects the ability of animals to process information in their environment. This research is significant because it directly addresses the growing issue of wildlife adaptation to climate change. If heat stress, reported widely in wildlife both in Australia and globally, impairs an animal's ability to respond to stimuli in its surrounding environment, then this may cause lower reproductive success (eg lower predator detection rates) and population declines. We aim to identify critical temperature points beyond which the cognitive responses of animals decline rapidly - a significant finding for effective wildlife management priorities in the face of rapid climate change. Read moreRead less
Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth unde ....Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth understanding of how changes in maternal investment and hormones impact offspring developing in different thermal environments and how such changes are mediated by compromised physiological function – providing significant benefits in understanding population persistence in Australia's rapidly changing climate.Read moreRead less
Learning in a changing world: Maternal effects on offspring development and behaviour. The impact of anthropogenic change on Australia's biodiversity is of grave concern. It is therefore vital to understand the capacity of Australian fauna to adapt and change, despite environmental challenges. This project aims to quantify the potential for birds to respond to environmental challenges, by programming offspring with adaptive developmental profiles. By quantifying the effects of maternal stress ov ....Learning in a changing world: Maternal effects on offspring development and behaviour. The impact of anthropogenic change on Australia's biodiversity is of grave concern. It is therefore vital to understand the capacity of Australian fauna to adapt and change, despite environmental challenges. This project aims to quantify the potential for birds to respond to environmental challenges, by programming offspring with adaptive developmental profiles. By quantifying the effects of maternal stress over two generations, this project aims to determine whether mothers have the ability to alter rates of evolutionary change by employing epigenetic mechanisms. Combining lab trials with field data it will determine the biological relevance of these effects to a common, but declining bird, with relevance across Australian avifauna.Read moreRead less
Growing up with global change. This project aims to quantify how native bird populations will respond to global warming. The project will investigate how vulnerable nestling birds are to high temperatures, and the impact of early-life heat stress on adult performance and fitness in the wild. Although growing animals are most sensitive to heat, and stress during early-life often has irreversible negative effects, we know very little about long-term consequences of early-life heat stress. The inte ....Growing up with global change. This project aims to quantify how native bird populations will respond to global warming. The project will investigate how vulnerable nestling birds are to high temperatures, and the impact of early-life heat stress on adult performance and fitness in the wild. Although growing animals are most sensitive to heat, and stress during early-life often has irreversible negative effects, we know very little about long-term consequences of early-life heat stress. The intended outcomes will increase our capacity to predict impacts of climate warming before population declines become evident. Improved predictions are beneficial to identify urgent threats and optimise conservation efforts.Read moreRead less
Getting smaller as temperatures rise? Body size responses of Australian birds to climate change. Many animals appear to be declining in size as climate change occurs, but why this is so is unclear. Using historical records and museum specimens we will determine the factors underlying body size reductions in Australian birds, and especially the role of changing temperature and ecosystem productivity.
How does climate change affect arid zone birds? This project aims to address how climate affects avian behaviour and the consequences for survival and reproduction. The project will apply a suite of methods to explore fundamental questions within behavioural ecology that also have applied relevance. The data will be used for building individual-based models that predict population dynamics in response to climate change, and biophysical models that can provide insights into species sensitivities. ....How does climate change affect arid zone birds? This project aims to address how climate affects avian behaviour and the consequences for survival and reproduction. The project will apply a suite of methods to explore fundamental questions within behavioural ecology that also have applied relevance. The data will be used for building individual-based models that predict population dynamics in response to climate change, and biophysical models that can provide insights into species sensitivities. The intended outcome is to improve understanding of the mechanistic links between climate and population processes.Read moreRead less
Behavioural resilience to climatic variability. Despite Australian biota being adapted to high natural climate variability, modern climate change is leading to population collapses and shifts into novel ecosystems. This Project, which studies a unique native mammal in the Pilbara, aims to uncover whether changes in behaviour are effective for dealing with environmental extremes and unpredictable climatic conditions. It will integrate laboratory- and field-based investigations to examine behaviou ....Behavioural resilience to climatic variability. Despite Australian biota being adapted to high natural climate variability, modern climate change is leading to population collapses and shifts into novel ecosystems. This Project, which studies a unique native mammal in the Pilbara, aims to uncover whether changes in behaviour are effective for dealing with environmental extremes and unpredictable climatic conditions. It will integrate laboratory- and field-based investigations to examine behavioural responses to climatic variability and establish how these responses influence individual fitness and future population resilience. This research will advance knowledge on climate-driven behavioural adaptation and improve understanding of how species will cope with Australia’s changing climate.Read moreRead less