Temperate trophic cascades: impacts of seal foraging on benthic community dynamics. Effective Marine Protected Area management across Australia requires guidance from rigorous strategic research. The project will investigate opposing activities that provoke ecosystem collapse (overharvesting, grazing) or recovery (marine park protection) and provide advice to improve effectiveness of marine conservation strategies in New South Wales and South Australia.
Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native ....Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native lizards to recognise cats as predators and respond appropriately, and a determination of the magnitude of threat that cats pose to native lizards. Importantly, our study aims to trial management strategies to mitigate the impact of cat predation on native reptiles.Read moreRead less
Orientation in the pelagic environment: how do larval marine fish find their way home? This study will determine what senses tiny fish larvae use to orientate in the ocean and to influence where currents disperse them. Because larval dispersal determines the spatial extent of fish populations, this knowledge is important for management of marine fisheries and the design and operation of marine parks.
Ecologically responsible mining to fuel a green energy transition. An energy transition is key to tackling climate change. However, renewable energy is mineral intensive and boosting its supply may create new mining threats to biodiversity. This project aims to facilitate strategic development of ecologically responsible mining. It expects to reveal where new mines will be needed to meet future energy demand, and create innovative tools to predict and mitigate threats to plants and animals. Expe ....Ecologically responsible mining to fuel a green energy transition. An energy transition is key to tackling climate change. However, renewable energy is mineral intensive and boosting its supply may create new mining threats to biodiversity. This project aims to facilitate strategic development of ecologically responsible mining. It expects to reveal where new mines will be needed to meet future energy demand, and create innovative tools to predict and mitigate threats to plants and animals. Expected outcomes include an improved ability to inform sustainable climate and energy policies, leading to strategic investment decisions, cleaner mineral supply chains and conservation outcomes that capture valuable environmental and social benefits and create a competitive advantage for Australia’s mining sector.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101484
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$379,500.00
Summary
How will Australian rainforest species cope with climate warming? This project plans to investigate how, and how much, rainforest tree species will adjust to warmer temperatures. Understanding the temperature dependence of physiological processes of Australian rainforest trees and how they are related to climate variation is critical. This should enable prediction of how species will adjust to warmer temperatures, what their thermal tolerances are and how future species distribution ranges may c ....How will Australian rainforest species cope with climate warming? This project plans to investigate how, and how much, rainforest tree species will adjust to warmer temperatures. Understanding the temperature dependence of physiological processes of Australian rainforest trees and how they are related to climate variation is critical. This should enable prediction of how species will adjust to warmer temperatures, what their thermal tolerances are and how future species distribution ranges may change.Read moreRead less
Advanced cryobanking for recalcitrant-seeded Australian rainforest plants. This project aims to develop an interdisciplinary research alliance to enhance the efficiency of ecological restoration for recalcitrant Australian rainforest plant species. The project expects to provide fundamental knowledge to target two major impediments to cryostorage of recalcitrant-seeded native species: desiccation sensitivity with relatively large size, and active metabolism and precocious germination. These attr ....Advanced cryobanking for recalcitrant-seeded Australian rainforest plants. This project aims to develop an interdisciplinary research alliance to enhance the efficiency of ecological restoration for recalcitrant Australian rainforest plant species. The project expects to provide fundamental knowledge to target two major impediments to cryostorage of recalcitrant-seeded native species: desiccation sensitivity with relatively large size, and active metabolism and precocious germination. These attributes severely limit the time available for effective use of collected germplasm for long-term storage. A combination of biochemical, biophysical and molecular simulation approaches will be used to optimise cryopreservation of a wide range of endangered Australian rainforest species. This should provide significant benefits such as enabling conservation agencies to greatly enhance their ability to preserve the unique Australian rainforest flora, particularly given current threats due to habitat loss and global warming.Read moreRead less
Do marine reserve networks work? Larval connectivity, sustainable harvesting and ecological resilience. The Great Barrier Reef is a globally iconic marine ecosystem and benefits from the world's largest network of no-take reserves. While we know reserves contain more and bigger fish, several key questions about how reserves contribute to sustainable harvesting, protecting biodiversity and resisting climate change remain unanswered. Answers depend on a new understanding of the degree to which fis ....Do marine reserve networks work? Larval connectivity, sustainable harvesting and ecological resilience. The Great Barrier Reef is a globally iconic marine ecosystem and benefits from the world's largest network of no-take reserves. While we know reserves contain more and bigger fish, several key questions about how reserves contribute to sustainable harvesting, protecting biodiversity and resisting climate change remain unanswered. Answers depend on a new understanding of the degree to which fish population on different reefs are connected, and whether or not reserve networks help sustain these linkages. This project will use new technologies to measure the transport of fish larvae between reefs, to assess strengths and weaknesses of the reserve network, and examine ways to improve species protection and sustainable harvesting in a changing climate.Read moreRead less
An elemental hypothesis for sub-tropical refugia in reef corals. This project aims to discover the underlying traits that permit Australian reef corals to live near the edges of their ranges in relatively cool water. As ocean temperatures warm, novel communities are expected to develop in high latitude ecosystems, which might become important as thermal refugia for low latitude coral reefs. The project aims to test the role of elemental composition (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) in coral host ....An elemental hypothesis for sub-tropical refugia in reef corals. This project aims to discover the underlying traits that permit Australian reef corals to live near the edges of their ranges in relatively cool water. As ocean temperatures warm, novel communities are expected to develop in high latitude ecosystems, which might become important as thermal refugia for low latitude coral reefs. The project aims to test the role of elemental composition (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) in coral host and symbiont response to changing water temperature along a latitudinal gradient. The intended outcome of the project is to provide knowledge to support predictions of likely species migrations from tropical to subtropical waters, enabling managers to anticipate the future response of coral communities to seawater warming.Read moreRead less
Surviving the inferno: how threatened macropods survive catastrophic fire. This project aims to determine the impact of the catastrophic black summer fires of 2019/20 on threatened wallabies, including the parma wallaby (that had 70% of its entire distribution burnt) and the red-legged pademelon. Following these fires, wildlife across Australia has been decimated. This project expects to generate new knowledge by comparing burnt and unburnt areas before and after the fires to determine their imp ....Surviving the inferno: how threatened macropods survive catastrophic fire. This project aims to determine the impact of the catastrophic black summer fires of 2019/20 on threatened wallabies, including the parma wallaby (that had 70% of its entire distribution burnt) and the red-legged pademelon. Following these fires, wildlife across Australia has been decimated. This project expects to generate new knowledge by comparing burnt and unburnt areas before and after the fires to determine their impact on threatened wallaby conservation ecology. The expected outcomes of this project include improved understanding of the impact of fires on Australia's iconic wildlife. This should significantly improve our ability to reduce the risk on these species in future megafires. Read moreRead less
Novel experimental and longitudinal analyses to promote woodland biota. Novel experimental and longitudinal analyses to promote woodland biota. This project aims to close important scientific and practical application gaps around the most effective ways to restore and manage vegetation on farms. Although restoration programs to increase native vegetation cover are essential for integrating agricultural production with biodiversity conservation, critical scientific questions remain about how biot ....Novel experimental and longitudinal analyses to promote woodland biota. Novel experimental and longitudinal analyses to promote woodland biota. This project aims to close important scientific and practical application gaps around the most effective ways to restore and manage vegetation on farms. Although restoration programs to increase native vegetation cover are essential for integrating agricultural production with biodiversity conservation, critical scientific questions remain about how biota responds to temporal increases in vegetation cover. This project will combine novel spatiotemporal analyses of long-term datasets and a blocked and replicated experiment comparing planting strategies that connect woodland patches vs augmentation strategies that increase individual patch size. Anticipated outcomes are better designed and implemented restorations to maximise benefits for biota.Read moreRead less