Southeast Asia's global economy, climate and the impact of natural hazards from the 10th to 21st centuries. This project's scope is uniquely broad and multidisciplinary, comprising collaborations between historians, archaeologists, seismologists and others. The aim is to analyse the development of south east Asia's vast and sophisticated economic system within the context of human-environment interactions, over a scale and time period which has been inadequately investigated.
Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significan ....Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significant rock art against environmental change and economic development.
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Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly ....Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly addresses the National Research Priority goal of responding to climate change and variability by advancing knowledge and understanding of past climates, and assisting in better modelling of future climate change in our region. The project will provide postgraduate training in fieldwork and analysis for four APAIs.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
Climate-related regime shifts in inland semi-arid ecosystems through ecohydrological proxies. This project will investigate the dynamics of climate, especially rainfall, of the northwest of Australia over the last few thousand years. Our findings will increase understanding of climate variability and contribute to sustainable management of water and biodiversity in semi-arid Australia.
Long-term changes in the phenology of Australia's temperate marine macroalgae: has climate change impacted the world's most diverse algal flora? Looking back at herbarium specimens collected over the past 100 years, this project will reconstruct a historical baseline of reproduction in Australian seaweeds. This unique opportunity to rigorously assess the extent of recent changes in response to ocean warming, will help secure the continued existence of the most species rich marine flora in the wo ....Long-term changes in the phenology of Australia's temperate marine macroalgae: has climate change impacted the world's most diverse algal flora? Looking back at herbarium specimens collected over the past 100 years, this project will reconstruct a historical baseline of reproduction in Australian seaweeds. This unique opportunity to rigorously assess the extent of recent changes in response to ocean warming, will help secure the continued existence of the most species rich marine flora in the world.Read moreRead less
Unravelling how aquatic coastal networks regulate nitrogen removal . The aim of this project is to determine the nitrogen removal pathways of the coastal zone using a number of innovative field and modelling approaches. Little is known about how the complex coastal landscape controls trade-offs that maximise nitrogen removal but minimise nitrous oxide (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions. The outcomes of this study will significantly advance our understanding of the coastal zone in regional and g ....Unravelling how aquatic coastal networks regulate nitrogen removal . The aim of this project is to determine the nitrogen removal pathways of the coastal zone using a number of innovative field and modelling approaches. Little is known about how the complex coastal landscape controls trade-offs that maximise nitrogen removal but minimise nitrous oxide (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions. The outcomes of this study will significantly advance our understanding of the coastal zone in regional and global nitrogen budgets. This will provide significant benefits such as a new science-based quantitative framework to facilitate best practice management to reduce terrestrial nitrogen loads and associated downstream impacts such as eutrophication, and reduce nitrous oxide emissions and associated global warming.
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Transitions to a Sustainable City, Geraldton WA: an applied study into co-creating sustainability though civic deliberation and social media. Creating sustainable cities and better linking citizens with government under a National Broadband Network future are national priorities. This project integrates these two priorities by pioneering and researching local cooperative governance through deliberative democracy as a means to create a sustainable city. The project (i) collaboratively designs, i ....Transitions to a Sustainable City, Geraldton WA: an applied study into co-creating sustainability though civic deliberation and social media. Creating sustainable cities and better linking citizens with government under a National Broadband Network future are national priorities. This project integrates these two priorities by pioneering and researching local cooperative governance through deliberative democracy as a means to create a sustainable city. The project (i) collaboratively designs, implements, and assesses inclusive deliberations; (ii) develops an innovative social media platform using supercomputer facilities that can assist informed public deliberation, translating scientific findings into easy to understand formats; (iii) researches the transformative effects of this deliberation on individual, community and Geraldton City carbon footprints.Read moreRead less
Geodetic determination of the amount and spatial-scale of land subsidence and/or uplift in Australia. Heights can change with time, although most users assume that they are static quantities. Geodetic techniques will be employed to produce a vertical velocity model to make time-varying heights consistent and also to correct sea level change estimates at tide-gauges installed on land, that is either sinking or rising.
Geodetic and hydrogeological investigations of groundwater abstraction from confined aquifers: elastic response, heights, and sea level change. Parts of Perth are subsiding by as much as 5 millimetres (mm) per year, thus accelerating sea level rise relative to the land from 3 mm per year to 8 mm per year. The subsidence is most likely due to increased groundwater abstraction. This project aims to extend subsidence mapping in time and space using satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar, calibrat ....Geodetic and hydrogeological investigations of groundwater abstraction from confined aquifers: elastic response, heights, and sea level change. Parts of Perth are subsiding by as much as 5 millimetres (mm) per year, thus accelerating sea level rise relative to the land from 3 mm per year to 8 mm per year. The subsidence is most likely due to increased groundwater abstraction. This project aims to extend subsidence mapping in time and space using satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar, calibrated by complementary geodetic techniques, and coupled with new hydrogeological inputs from the Western Australian Department of Water. The research aims to provide science-based information to planners and managers on coastal vulnerability and determine the land response to groundwater abstraction. This will also allow for the correction of sea level change measurements from tide gauges.Read moreRead less