Targeting the host lipid environment to disrupt malaria transmission. This project aims to characterise host molecules (in particular lipids) that are crucial for the transition of malaria parasites from one host to another. Malaria parasites encounter different environments upon their transition from human to the mosquito host. This project expects to generate new knowledge on physiological changes that are triggered by particular differences in micronutrient abundance that allow the parasites ....Targeting the host lipid environment to disrupt malaria transmission. This project aims to characterise host molecules (in particular lipids) that are crucial for the transition of malaria parasites from one host to another. Malaria parasites encounter different environments upon their transition from human to the mosquito host. This project expects to generate new knowledge on physiological changes that are triggered by particular differences in micronutrient abundance that allow the parasites to survive in the new host. Anticipated outcomes include the identification of new intervention strategies and improved transmission model systems for vector-borne diseases. This gained knowledge could provide benefits to future biomedical applications by informing diagnostics or treatment of lipid associated diseases.Read moreRead less
Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. This project aims to assess the risk of low rates of mixing in sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs, using environmental monitoring and numerical modelling. Emerging evidence suggests sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs could transition to low mixing states with increasing age and projected changes in global climate. While th ....Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. This project aims to assess the risk of low rates of mixing in sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs, using environmental monitoring and numerical modelling. Emerging evidence suggests sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs could transition to low mixing states with increasing age and projected changes in global climate. While this risk is poorly understood, it could significantly affect the long-term reliability of water supply and potable water treatment costs. Addressing this knowledge gap is expected to develop effective management responses to ensure the long term sustainable use of these water resources.Read moreRead less
Building Australia's next-generation ocean-sea ice model. Ocean and sea ice models are used for predicting future ocean and climate states, and for climate process research. This project aims to bring the next generation of ocean-sea ice models to Australia and configure the models for our local priorities. The ultimate goal is to create a new coupled ocean-sea ice model for Australia that includes surface waves and biogeochemistry. The model will be optimised and evaluated on Australian facilit ....Building Australia's next-generation ocean-sea ice model. Ocean and sea ice models are used for predicting future ocean and climate states, and for climate process research. This project aims to bring the next generation of ocean-sea ice models to Australia and configure the models for our local priorities. The ultimate goal is to create a new coupled ocean-sea ice model for Australia that includes surface waves and biogeochemistry. The model will be optimised and evaluated on Australian facilities, and released for community use. These developments underpin future ocean state forecasts, sea ice forecasts, wave forecasts, decadal climate prediction and climate process studies. The project will benefit search and rescue, Defence and shipping operations, and will enhance future climate projections.Read moreRead less
Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely ....Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely collected in Australia's catchments and thereby better predict water quality behaviour. Proposed field studies aim to support this development. The outcomes sought are improved planning and management of water quality in our rivers, lakes and estuaries, improved health of these water bodies and improved water supplies.Read moreRead less
Deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric carbon dioxide changes. This project aims to fill in a critical knowledge gap in global carbon cycle research, by generating the first high-resolution deep Atlantic carbonate ion and nutrient records for the last 150,000 years. The project will derive air-sea carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange signals, which permit straightforward evaluation of the deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric CO2 changes under various climate conditions. The intended o ....Deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric carbon dioxide changes. This project aims to fill in a critical knowledge gap in global carbon cycle research, by generating the first high-resolution deep Atlantic carbonate ion and nutrient records for the last 150,000 years. The project will derive air-sea carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange signals, which permit straightforward evaluation of the deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric CO2 changes under various climate conditions. The intended outcome of this project is to substantially improve our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the global carbon cycle. This should provide significant benefits including the assessment of models used to predict future global warming due to anthropogenic CO2.Read moreRead less
Personalised Learning for Per-pixel Prediction Tasks in Image Analysis. AI-assisted image segmentation & synthesis are very challenging and usually require pixel-level labelling (per-pixel prediction) that is costly to obtain. The small amount of labels makes it difficult to train an “optimal” unified model for varied data as conventional methods did. This project aims to develop a new paradigm “personalised learning” to tackle this problem, where each image could be dealt with a model tailored ....Personalised Learning for Per-pixel Prediction Tasks in Image Analysis. AI-assisted image segmentation & synthesis are very challenging and usually require pixel-level labelling (per-pixel prediction) that is costly to obtain. The small amount of labels makes it difficult to train an “optimal” unified model for varied data as conventional methods did. This project aims to develop a new paradigm “personalised learning” to tackle this problem, where each image could be dealt with a model tailored to individual characteristics. The success of this project could significantly advance the fundamental research in image analysis. Expected outcomes include new knowledge and algorithms for image analysis, which could benefit fields like biology and archaeology, where labeled images are hard to attain and scarce.Read moreRead less
Reef Breath Testing (RBT): exhaled volatile-gas biomarkers of coral health. This Project aims to uncover volatile gas "fingerprints" of coral reef taxa and how they are diagnostic of healthy reef functioning over space and time. All organisms emit distinct volatile gases via physiological fine-tuning and signalling as their environments change. Whilst coral reef taxa and coral reefs are hotspots for volatile gas emissions, which gases are produced, when and why, is entirely unexplored. This proj ....Reef Breath Testing (RBT): exhaled volatile-gas biomarkers of coral health. This Project aims to uncover volatile gas "fingerprints" of coral reef taxa and how they are diagnostic of healthy reef functioning over space and time. All organisms emit distinct volatile gases via physiological fine-tuning and signalling as their environments change. Whilst coral reef taxa and coral reefs are hotspots for volatile gas emissions, which gases are produced, when and why, is entirely unexplored. This project unites a multidisciplinary team of experts to, for the first time, couple volatile gas assessment, metabolic physiology and functional genomics techniques to transform understanding of how key volatile gases underpin coral resilience to stress and disease, which is essential to improve coral reef ecosystem management.Read moreRead less
Bulk nanobubbles: from fundamentals to biomedical applications. This project aims to extend optical and acoustic tools to detect bulk nanobubbles, control their size-distributions, and understand how they interact with biomolecules. Liquids containing nanobubbles have numerous applications particularly in biomedicine. Using interdisciplinary approaches, this project expects to gain convincing evidence of the existence of bulk nanobubbles. This is expected to advance existing fundamental knowle ....Bulk nanobubbles: from fundamentals to biomedical applications. This project aims to extend optical and acoustic tools to detect bulk nanobubbles, control their size-distributions, and understand how they interact with biomolecules. Liquids containing nanobubbles have numerous applications particularly in biomedicine. Using interdisciplinary approaches, this project expects to gain convincing evidence of the existence of bulk nanobubbles. This is expected to advance existing fundamental knowledge at the forefront of soft matter research, and give Australia a decisive technological head start in a competitive and lucrative industry through patentable technology.Read moreRead less
Linking terrestrial–aquatic fluxes to rectify the Australian carbon balance. This project aims to rectify the Australian carbon balance by determining the amount of terrestrial carbon that is lost to streams and rivers across the country. Through a novel integration of high-resolution hydrochemical and gas measurements, remote sensing and machine learning algorithms, the project intends to generate new knowledge about the links between terrestrial carbon sequestration and aquatic carbon export. ....Linking terrestrial–aquatic fluxes to rectify the Australian carbon balance. This project aims to rectify the Australian carbon balance by determining the amount of terrestrial carbon that is lost to streams and rivers across the country. Through a novel integration of high-resolution hydrochemical and gas measurements, remote sensing and machine learning algorithms, the project intends to generate new knowledge about the links between terrestrial carbon sequestration and aquatic carbon export. Expected outcomes include a refined estimate of the net carbon sequestration potential across Australian biomes and seasons. This should provide significant benefits such as avoiding misalignment of greenhouse gas abatement policies and advancing carbon cycling models and predictions.Read moreRead less