Understanding climate and harvest induced changes in fish life histories. This project aims to quantify the cumulative impacts of harvest and climate change across marine fishes and ecosystems. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area by coupling the rich biological information archived in fish ear bones, with targeted multi-generation experiments and predictive modelling. Expected outcomes include fundamental insights into how human-induced environmental change affects fish gr ....Understanding climate and harvest induced changes in fish life histories. This project aims to quantify the cumulative impacts of harvest and climate change across marine fishes and ecosystems. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area by coupling the rich biological information archived in fish ear bones, with targeted multi-generation experiments and predictive modelling. Expected outcomes include fundamental insights into how human-induced environmental change affects fish growth and maturation, and a subsequent critical evaluation of the sensitivity of fisheries models to trends in these life-history traits. This should provide significant benefits to fisheries and ecosystem management, ensuring they remain productive and resilient in a time of rapid environmental change.Read moreRead less
Unlocking telomere effects on life, death and fitness in a warming world. Few things in biology provoke such a strong desire for understanding as when adult death and fatal disease can be predicted early in life. A common factor linking early life stress, disease, ageing and time of death are telomeres, the protective regions at the end of each chromosome. This project aims to explicitly link telomere dynamics in free-living ectotherm populations with experimental approaches to advance our under ....Unlocking telomere effects on life, death and fitness in a warming world. Few things in biology provoke such a strong desire for understanding as when adult death and fatal disease can be predicted early in life. A common factor linking early life stress, disease, ageing and time of death are telomeres, the protective regions at the end of each chromosome. This project aims to explicitly link telomere dynamics in free-living ectotherm populations with experimental approaches to advance our understanding of parental and environmental effects on offspring telomeres and their effects later in life. This project will take advantage of one of the world’s longest datasets on ectotherm responses to climate to provide new knowledge of how telomeres affect fitness and the role that the environment plays.Read moreRead less
Working with wind energy and forestry for effective eagle conservation. This project aims to reduce the impacts of wind turbines and disturbance from forestry activity on the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. It will do this by understanding the flight behaviour, movements and mortality of eagles, and the behavioural responses of breeding birds to forestry-related disturbance. The project will build new knowledge and institutional partnerships that will be used to minimise impacts on the Tasmanian e ....Working with wind energy and forestry for effective eagle conservation. This project aims to reduce the impacts of wind turbines and disturbance from forestry activity on the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. It will do this by understanding the flight behaviour, movements and mortality of eagles, and the behavioural responses of breeding birds to forestry-related disturbance. The project will build new knowledge and institutional partnerships that will be used to minimise impacts on the Tasmanian eagle population, and develop models for use in planning. This will safeguard Australia's largest eagle and improve the sustainability of energy and forest industries. This research will also provide a model for the resolution of similar problems elsewhere in the world.Read moreRead less
Understanding marine migratory connectivity for more sustainable oceans. Ocean basin-scale migrations of iconic sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds, and fish expose them to multiple stressors and governance regimes, leading to gaps in management and population declines. The project aims to deliver the methods and evidence base of cross-taxa migratory connectivity that is essential to support the
conservation of these species. Expected outcomes include comprehensive and integrated models of mig ....Understanding marine migratory connectivity for more sustainable oceans. Ocean basin-scale migrations of iconic sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds, and fish expose them to multiple stressors and governance regimes, leading to gaps in management and population declines. The project aims to deliver the methods and evidence base of cross-taxa migratory connectivity that is essential to support the
conservation of these species. Expected outcomes include comprehensive and integrated models of migratory connectivity, conservation theory development, and new methods that allow incorporation of migratory connectivity in conservation planning. Benefits include: a cross-taxa baseline that will enable Australia to measure environmental change in marine migratory connectivity for the first time.Read moreRead less
Plasticity and the origins of family. This project aims to answer the question of how family life evolved. Humans and many animals live in stable family groups because of the benefits of cooperation. Surprisingly, we have a very poor understanding of how family living initially evolved. This project will experimentally determine how simple responses to environmental change have driven the evolution of family living and thereby refine theories for understanding social evolution more generally. ....Plasticity and the origins of family. This project aims to answer the question of how family life evolved. Humans and many animals live in stable family groups because of the benefits of cooperation. Surprisingly, we have a very poor understanding of how family living initially evolved. This project will experimentally determine how simple responses to environmental change have driven the evolution of family living and thereby refine theories for understanding social evolution more generally. This information will be useful to environmental policy makers that need to consider the role of environmental change in managing and conserving viable populations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100828
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Mathematical models for Antarctic animal migrations in a changing climate. This project aims to build state-of-the-art mathematical models for movement processes of high conservation-value Antarctic penguins, seals, and whales. This will generate new capacity to predict the likelihood of changes in sea ice and ocean dynamics impacting important forage migration pathways. These outcomes address knowledge gaps highlighted in climate reporting on Polar Regions and will strategically position Austra ....Mathematical models for Antarctic animal migrations in a changing climate. This project aims to build state-of-the-art mathematical models for movement processes of high conservation-value Antarctic penguins, seals, and whales. This will generate new capacity to predict the likelihood of changes in sea ice and ocean dynamics impacting important forage migration pathways. These outcomes address knowledge gaps highlighted in climate reporting on Polar Regions and will strategically position Australia to create a forward-looking context for conservation management efforts under international treaty commitments.Read moreRead less
Species redundancy in response to multiple disturbances. This project aims to elucidate how the context within which disturbances occur affects food web linkages and how these map to responses in ecosystem function. There is a critical need to test the common assumption in environmental management that high biodiversity makes ecosystems resilient to disturbances. Studies that merely observe biodiversity change after disturbance cannot identify ecological processes connecting high diversity and e ....Species redundancy in response to multiple disturbances. This project aims to elucidate how the context within which disturbances occur affects food web linkages and how these map to responses in ecosystem function. There is a critical need to test the common assumption in environmental management that high biodiversity makes ecosystems resilient to disturbances. Studies that merely observe biodiversity change after disturbance cannot identify ecological processes connecting high diversity and ecosystem function, making experiments that manipulate identical disturbances in ecosystems with different biodiversity essential. This project will use field experiments that manipulate disturbances in streams replicated in low and high biodiversity regions and across gradients of chronic background stress to show how biodiversity sustains functional ecosystems, and how much diversity can be lost before ecosystems collapse.Read moreRead less
The genomics of climate adaptation in eucalypts. This project aims to investigate validated, rapid and pragmatic solutions to managing plant and animal maladaptation caused by global environmental change. Using Australia’s iconic blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), this project will test strategies for identifying the major climatic predictors of, and key genomic regions that underlie, adaptation to climate change. By integrating climate variables and genome sequences with field trial-derived trait ....The genomics of climate adaptation in eucalypts. This project aims to investigate validated, rapid and pragmatic solutions to managing plant and animal maladaptation caused by global environmental change. Using Australia’s iconic blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), this project will test strategies for identifying the major climatic predictors of, and key genomic regions that underlie, adaptation to climate change. By integrating climate variables and genome sequences with field trial-derived trait and performance data from decades of research and thousands of trees, we will develop validated DNA-based tools for monitoring the rate of adaptation in our native forests and identifying climate-ready seed sources for environmental and industrial plantings.Read moreRead less
Tackling marine conservation issues at national and global scales. This project aims to collect and apply standardised underwater data on fishes, invertebrates and plants in an unprecedented global analysis of decadal change in rocky and coral reef ecosystems. Outcomes will include validation of global models of ocean warming and understanding of poorly known ecological impacts of recreational fisheries. A suite of data-informed recommendations developed through engagement across management, sci ....Tackling marine conservation issues at national and global scales. This project aims to collect and apply standardised underwater data on fishes, invertebrates and plants in an unprecedented global analysis of decadal change in rocky and coral reef ecosystems. Outcomes will include validation of global models of ocean warming and understanding of poorly known ecological impacts of recreational fisheries. A suite of data-informed recommendations developed through engagement across management, science and public sectors will benefit Australians by enabling improved sustainability of resource use. International benefits will propagate through increased data access, improvements in predictive models and the evidence base required for large-scale biodiversity-related policy reform.Read moreRead less