Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and its components. This project aims to demonstrate how temperate evergreen forests could buffer against climate change. Soil respiration returns around half the carbon taken up by forests to the atmosphere. This project will characterise and quantify how microbes and roots in soils depend on temperature and substrate supply, and so predict how rising temperatures and drought will affect forests as natural carbon sequestration sinks. This project will ....Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and its components. This project aims to demonstrate how temperate evergreen forests could buffer against climate change. Soil respiration returns around half the carbon taken up by forests to the atmosphere. This project will characterise and quantify how microbes and roots in soils depend on temperature and substrate supply, and so predict how rising temperatures and drought will affect forests as natural carbon sequestration sinks. This project will resolve the roles of environmental drivers of soil respiration across forests; integrate mechanistic understanding of differing plant and microbial responses to temperature within a common modelling framework; and evaluate the implications of this knowledge in predictions of climatic impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling.Read moreRead less
Hydraulic control on water use, growth and survival in tropical rainforest. This project aims to measure drought-related limits to water transport in the woody xylem tissue of trees in Australian tropical rainforests, to understand how this influences tree water use, photosynthesis, health and mortality risk. Tropical rainforests are sensitive to climate variability, especially drought, but this sensitivity is poorly understood, despite large effects regionally and globally. This project will co ....Hydraulic control on water use, growth and survival in tropical rainforest. This project aims to measure drought-related limits to water transport in the woody xylem tissue of trees in Australian tropical rainforests, to understand how this influences tree water use, photosynthesis, health and mortality risk. Tropical rainforests are sensitive to climate variability, especially drought, but this sensitivity is poorly understood, despite large effects regionally and globally. This project will compare forests that contrast strongly in seasonal drought stress, and use the information to develop a model designed for species-diverse forest, with subsequent potential global application. The understanding gained will enable widely applicable advances designed to feed through rapidly to regional- and global-scale models that inform land use, economic and social policy-making.Read moreRead less
Modelling policy interventions to protect Australia's food security in the face of environmental sustainability challenges . This project will use an innovative scenario modelling approach to quantify the potential impacts of population growth and emerging climate and environmental challenges on Australia’s future food security. In collaboration with an advisory committee it will specify and prioritise policy solutions in terms of their social and economic credentials.
Bubble, Bubble CO2 is the trouble: A Natural Ocean Acidification Experiment in a coral reef setting. Carbon dioxide seep sites expose shallow coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to volcanic carbon dioxide resulting in gradients of seawater ranging from pH 8.0 (normal) to a more acidic pH of 7.5. Some areas of these reefs experience carbon dioxide exposure equivalent to IPCC predictions for 2050 and 2100. This project will reconstruct seawater pH using radiocarbon as a novel tracer of carbon dioxide ....Bubble, Bubble CO2 is the trouble: A Natural Ocean Acidification Experiment in a coral reef setting. Carbon dioxide seep sites expose shallow coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to volcanic carbon dioxide resulting in gradients of seawater ranging from pH 8.0 (normal) to a more acidic pH of 7.5. Some areas of these reefs experience carbon dioxide exposure equivalent to IPCC predictions for 2050 and 2100. This project will reconstruct seawater pH using radiocarbon as a novel tracer of carbon dioxide input at a coral reef site that has been exposed to high carbon dioxide due to volcanic seeps (seep carbon dioxide has no carbon-14) for an unknown period of time (at least many decades, but possibly centuries). These results will help to understand the time it takes to change calcifying organisms into “winners” or “losers” as an analog for Ocean Acidification due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide input.Read moreRead less
Shrinking the food-print by creating consumer demand for sustainable and healthy eating. The negative impacts from the food choices made by many Australians are posing challenges to individual wellbeing and to maintaining a viable natural world. Drawing on innovative public health and consumer research, this project will identify opportunities for encouraging consumers to move towards more environmentally sustainable and healthy diets.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101773
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,536.00
Summary
Bayesian Hierarchical Model for Biogeography. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are crucial tools for conservation and planning, but they assume that environmental variables (e.g. temperature) are the only controls on distributions, when historical factors, like dispersal limitation and phylogenetic niche conservatism, are also important. A Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) will be constructed to jointly estimate dispersal history, niche evolution, and present-day SDMs for each species in a cla ....Bayesian Hierarchical Model for Biogeography. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are crucial tools for conservation and planning, but they assume that environmental variables (e.g. temperature) are the only controls on distributions, when historical factors, like dispersal limitation and phylogenetic niche conservatism, are also important. A Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) will be constructed to jointly estimate dispersal history, niche evolution, and present-day SDMs for each species in a clade. BHMs will be tested against traditional SDMs using Australian clades (e.g. frogs) and simulations. BHMs will advance scientific understanding of how species and biogeography coevolve and provide practical improvements in predictions for species that are rare, data-poor, or in changed climates.Read moreRead less
Ancient Ecology: Changes in penguin diet over ~30,000 years in Antarctica. This project proposes the first direct study of ancient ecology using a combination of second-generation DNA sequencing and targeted gene recovery. The food web of the Antarctic Ocean is a classic textbook example of energy and nutrient cycling in the marine environment. Although a great deal is known about the current status of this food web, understanding how this complex set of predator / prey relationships have change ....Ancient Ecology: Changes in penguin diet over ~30,000 years in Antarctica. This project proposes the first direct study of ancient ecology using a combination of second-generation DNA sequencing and targeted gene recovery. The food web of the Antarctic Ocean is a classic textbook example of energy and nutrient cycling in the marine environment. Although a great deal is known about the current status of this food web, understanding how this complex set of predator / prey relationships have changed over long periods of time is vital to understanding the nature of the system itself. The project intends to track changes in the diet of Adélie penguins from serially preserved ancient fecal (guano) remains dating back approximately 30,000 years. These remains are known to contain microscopic remnants of penguin prey.Read moreRead less
HARMONIC ANALYSIS AND BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS FOR ELLIPTIC SYSTEMS. It is of the utmost necessity for Australia to develop the theoretical
expertise needed in the current era. The type of mathematics under
investigation here is closely allied to that needed in much of the
current boom in communication technology and medical research. The
training which would be provided to the research associates is
considerable, and would flow on to produce the expertise needed to
keep the coming gen ....HARMONIC ANALYSIS AND BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS FOR ELLIPTIC SYSTEMS. It is of the utmost necessity for Australia to develop the theoretical
expertise needed in the current era. The type of mathematics under
investigation here is closely allied to that needed in much of the
current boom in communication technology and medical research. The
training which would be provided to the research associates is
considerable, and would flow on to produce the expertise needed to
keep the coming generation involved in modern technological development. I will maintain my large collaborative effort with
leading mathematicians from the US, France and other countries, thus
helping to keep Australia at the forefront of a significant field of
research.Read moreRead less
HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF ELLIPTIC SYSTEMS ON RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLDS. It is of the utmost necessity for Australia to develop the theoretical expertise needed in the current era. The type of mathematics under investigation here is closely allied to that needed in much of the current boom in communication technology and medical research. The training which would be provided to the research associates is considerable, and would flow on to produce the expertise needed to keep the coming generation invol ....HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF ELLIPTIC SYSTEMS ON RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLDS. It is of the utmost necessity for Australia to develop the theoretical expertise needed in the current era. The type of mathematics under investigation here is closely allied to that needed in much of the current boom in communication technology and medical research. The training which would be provided to the research associates is considerable, and would flow on to produce the expertise needed to keep the coming generation involved in modern technological development. I will maintain my active collaborative effort with leading mathematicians from the US, France and other countries, thus helping to keep Australia at the forefront of a significant field of research.Read moreRead less
Propagation of singularities for the Schrodinger equation. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation governs the evolution of quantum particles. In this project we aim to use new techniques from mathematical scattering theory to analyse solutions of the Schrodinger equation and obtain sharp bounds on their singularities. Controlling such singularities will allow us to deduce quantitative bounds on the number of eigenvalues in certain situations, and provide new techniques for studying nonlinear Sc ....Propagation of singularities for the Schrodinger equation. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation governs the evolution of quantum particles. In this project we aim to use new techniques from mathematical scattering theory to analyse solutions of the Schrodinger equation and obtain sharp bounds on their singularities. Controlling such singularities will allow us to deduce quantitative bounds on the number of eigenvalues in certain situations, and provide new techniques for studying nonlinear Schrodinger equations. Read moreRead less