Improved management of marine habitats by learning from historical change. This project aims to greatly improve the cost-effectiveness of actions to protect and restore shallow subtidal marine habitats by quantifying the severity and distribution of recent human impacts. Environmental change will be quantified as the difference between contemporary and historical assemblages encompassing thousands of invertebrate species, and by reading historical chronicles coded by mollusc shells layered in se ....Improved management of marine habitats by learning from historical change. This project aims to greatly improve the cost-effectiveness of actions to protect and restore shallow subtidal marine habitats by quantifying the severity and distribution of recent human impacts. Environmental change will be quantified as the difference between contemporary and historical assemblages encompassing thousands of invertebrate species, and by reading historical chronicles coded by mollusc shells layered in sediments. The roles of different stressors (warming, dredging, eutrophication, introduced species, sediment runoff) will be distinguished. Expected outcomes include continental-scale understanding of factors that facilitate ecosystem decline and recovery, and of sites and species traits most affected by ongoing threats.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100992
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,216.00
Summary
A novel epigenetic clock tool to conserve Australia’s threatened seabirds. The aim is to develop a novel epigenetic technique for the demographic assessment of long-lived seabirds, including albatrosses and petrels, for application to the conservation of 11 threatened species breeding across Australia. A major innovation will be an affordable and fieldwork-friendly technique to demographically fingerprint any population, ending the large amount of guesswork currently necessary in management. The ....A novel epigenetic clock tool to conserve Australia’s threatened seabirds. The aim is to develop a novel epigenetic technique for the demographic assessment of long-lived seabirds, including albatrosses and petrels, for application to the conservation of 11 threatened species breeding across Australia. A major innovation will be an affordable and fieldwork-friendly technique to demographically fingerprint any population, ending the large amount of guesswork currently necessary in management. The outcome is expected to enable (i) scientists and wildlife managers to impute the impact of threats and management activities on seabird populations, allowing quantitative scenario modelling, and (ii) stakeholders to analyse numerous threats and optimise management responses to these through research-based decision-making.Read moreRead less