Quantifying the impact of phenotypic plasticity on population persistence. This project aims to understand how environmental sensitivity in growth, survival and reproduction of individuals in a population influence population dynamics using terrestrial ectotherms. It will provide significant new insights into whether phenotypic plasticity promotes population persistence in the face of environmental change. Expected outcomes include approaches for incorporating environmental effects in population ....Quantifying the impact of phenotypic plasticity on population persistence. This project aims to understand how environmental sensitivity in growth, survival and reproduction of individuals in a population influence population dynamics using terrestrial ectotherms. It will provide significant new insights into whether phenotypic plasticity promotes population persistence in the face of environmental change. Expected outcomes include approaches for incorporating environmental effects in population models for threatened species, open databases that can be used to estimate demographic information for species lacking data, and an assessment of what characteristics make some species more sensitive to the environment than others. Benefits include quantitative training and tools for managing Australia's rich biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Does dynamic ecological change cause rapid evolution? This project aims to increase understanding of how Australia’s native biota responds to rapid environmental changes. Abrupt environmental change has the potential to drive rapid evolution, which may facilitate species persistence in the face of novel challenges. This project will use long-term genomic data to quantify rates of evolutionary change in species living in arid environments, whose populations fluctuate markedly in response to rainf ....Does dynamic ecological change cause rapid evolution? This project aims to increase understanding of how Australia’s native biota responds to rapid environmental changes. Abrupt environmental change has the potential to drive rapid evolution, which may facilitate species persistence in the face of novel challenges. This project will use long-term genomic data to quantify rates of evolutionary change in species living in arid environments, whose populations fluctuate markedly in response to rainfall variation. By measuring the pace of genomic change in these species, and the evolutionary processes driving that change, this project will reveal species’ evolutionary responses to major environmental fluctuations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100003
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,373.00
Summary
The evolution of venom and its role in shaping biodiversity. This project aims to study how venom, nature's most powerful weapon, evolves and shapes biodiversity. Using the iconic Australian and New Guinean venomous snakes as a model, this project expects to develop a novel approach to profile venom composition from museum specimens, test competing hypotheses on the evolution of venoms, and test for the association between the evolution of venoms and the evolution of diversity in species richnes ....The evolution of venom and its role in shaping biodiversity. This project aims to study how venom, nature's most powerful weapon, evolves and shapes biodiversity. Using the iconic Australian and New Guinean venomous snakes as a model, this project expects to develop a novel approach to profile venom composition from museum specimens, test competing hypotheses on the evolution of venoms, and test for the association between the evolution of venoms and the evolution of diversity in species richness and morphology. Expected outcomes include the largest venom database for any animal group and a better understanding of how venoms evolve and what role they play in earth’s biodiversity. The generated venom data has potential to be used in future studies to aid in the development of anti-venoms and drugs.Read moreRead less
Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintena ....Vocal mimicry in songbirds. Many of the world’s largest clade of birds - the songbirds - incorporate vocal mimicry in their songs, but while scientific interest in vocal mimicry dates from Aristotle, limited progress has been made. With our unique research program we aim to provide an empirically based, theoretically informed understanding of avian vocal mimicry. In an important advance, we will examine both sexes to test long-held male-centric assumptions about evolutionary origins and maintenance of this trait. Crucially, we focus on lineages found only in Australia and PNG, where songbirds originated, to develop a robust scientific understanding of vocal mimicry across the entire songbird clade, and so provide an important new perspective on why and how song began.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture. The ARC CoE for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture will discover the adaptive strategies underpinning productivity and resilience in diverse plants and deepen knowledge of the genetic and physiological networks driving key traits. Using novel quantitative and computational approaches, the Centre will link gene networks with traits across biological levels, giving breeders an unparalleled predictive capacity. The Centre wi ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture. The ARC CoE for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture will discover the adaptive strategies underpinning productivity and resilience in diverse plants and deepen knowledge of the genetic and physiological networks driving key traits. Using novel quantitative and computational approaches, the Centre will link gene networks with traits across biological levels, giving breeders an unparalleled predictive capacity. The Centre will accelerate technologies to transfer successful networks into crops and build legal frameworks to secure this knowledge. With a uniquely multidisciplinary team, the Centre will deliver new strategies to address the problems of food security and climate change, establishing Australia as a global leader in these areas.Read moreRead less
Towards 2050 - managing recovery of Australia's coral reefs. The coral reefs of Australia contribute over $6 bn each year to the economy. However, the reefs of Australia, in addition to those worldwide, are threatened by coral bleaching driven by anthropogenic climate change. If we are to preserve the economic, social and ecosystem value of these environments, it is essential that we are able to better manage the recovery of reefs from bleaching events. This project will utilise a variety of mul ....Towards 2050 - managing recovery of Australia's coral reefs. The coral reefs of Australia contribute over $6 bn each year to the economy. However, the reefs of Australia, in addition to those worldwide, are threatened by coral bleaching driven by anthropogenic climate change. If we are to preserve the economic, social and ecosystem value of these environments, it is essential that we are able to better manage the recovery of reefs from bleaching events. This project will utilise a variety of multi-disciplinary approaches, ranging from future climate models, historical satellite data to in-field experimentation to fill fundamental knowledge gaps in our understanding of coral bleaching recovery and delivery a variety of management and stakeholder relevant outputs.Read moreRead less
Machine education for trusted multi-skilled evolutionary learners . Transforming data assets into organisational knowledge assets sits in the hands of a few, highly specialised, data scientists. The aim of this research is to design educational instruments to support non-experts to teach artificial intelligence (AI) systems in a similar way to educating human teachers to teach human learners. The significance of the project lies in affording the wider smart, but not necessarily AI expert, commun ....Machine education for trusted multi-skilled evolutionary learners . Transforming data assets into organisational knowledge assets sits in the hands of a few, highly specialised, data scientists. The aim of this research is to design educational instruments to support non-experts to teach artificial intelligence (AI) systems in a similar way to educating human teachers to teach human learners. The significance of the project lies in affording the wider smart, but not necessarily AI expert, community the ability to contribute to growing our knowledge-based society in a safe, transparent and trustworthy manner. Outcomes will include innovative instruments to teach machines, novel knowledge creation, trusted and transparent AI systems, and a new generation of human teachers specialised in educating AI systems.Read moreRead less
Evolutionary computation for expensive bilevel multiobjective problems. This project aims to develop an evolutionary computation framework to solve computationally expensive bilevel multiobjective problems. The research is fundamental in nature and will address key open challenges in solving such problems, including hierarchical decision-making, multiple performance criteria, uncertainties and computational expense. The proposed research has applications in diverse domains such as environmental ....Evolutionary computation for expensive bilevel multiobjective problems. This project aims to develop an evolutionary computation framework to solve computationally expensive bilevel multiobjective problems. The research is fundamental in nature and will address key open challenges in solving such problems, including hierarchical decision-making, multiple performance criteria, uncertainties and computational expense. The proposed research has applications in diverse domains such as environmental policy formulation, network design, engineering, defence and cybersecurity; offering significant benefits to the researchers and practitioners in these fields. In addition to research outputs, it will strengthen international collaboration and build research capacity to put Australia at the forefront of this research.
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Remodelling encapsulin nanocages to help enhance plant carbon fixation. Nature has evolved mechanisms in microbial systems to improve photosynthetic efficiency by saturating the enzyme Rubisco with carbon dioxide. These carbon concentrating mechanisms are genetically complex, precluding successful introduction into crops. Our simpler approach is to use encapsulins, a new source of robust bacterial pore-containing nanocages made from a single gene. This project will optimise the development of sy ....Remodelling encapsulin nanocages to help enhance plant carbon fixation. Nature has evolved mechanisms in microbial systems to improve photosynthetic efficiency by saturating the enzyme Rubisco with carbon dioxide. These carbon concentrating mechanisms are genetically complex, precluding successful introduction into crops. Our simpler approach is to use encapsulins, a new source of robust bacterial pore-containing nanocages made from a single gene. This project will optimise the development of synthetic encapsulin-Rubisco carbon-fixing nanoreactors and transform them into leaf chloroplasts to test their impact on plant photosynthesis and growth. Our genetically simpler solution will aid ongoing global efforts to deliver overdue step change improvements in agricultural productivity.Read moreRead less