Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101266
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,536.00
Summary
Evolutionary and environmental basis of CO2 tolerance in coral reef fishes. This project aims to examine the effects of ocean acidification on coral reef fishes due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Physiological performance of fish vary under elevated CO2, but behaviour is consistently, negatively impacted. This project aims to investigate evolutionary trade-offs between behaviour and performance, physiological mechanisms key to compromising, maintaining, or enhancing metabolic pe ....Evolutionary and environmental basis of CO2 tolerance in coral reef fishes. This project aims to examine the effects of ocean acidification on coral reef fishes due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Physiological performance of fish vary under elevated CO2, but behaviour is consistently, negatively impacted. This project aims to investigate evolutionary trade-offs between behaviour and performance, physiological mechanisms key to compromising, maintaining, or enhancing metabolic performance under elevated CO2, and the importance of habitat in how fish respond to elevated CO2. As fish play critical roles in marine ecosystems by structuring food webs and driving ecological processes, this information will be critical for predicting the effects of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Drivers of phenotypic evolution in a vulnerable alpine ecosystem. This project aims to deliver a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the capacity for resilience and drivers of response of highly vulnerable alpine species and communities to climate change. The project aims to determine how communities of interacting alpine plants, soil invertebrates and microbes can cope with or evolve to novel climatic conditions. The mountains are water towers critical to power supply and Australia's agr ....Drivers of phenotypic evolution in a vulnerable alpine ecosystem. This project aims to deliver a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the capacity for resilience and drivers of response of highly vulnerable alpine species and communities to climate change. The project aims to determine how communities of interacting alpine plants, soil invertebrates and microbes can cope with or evolve to novel climatic conditions. The mountains are water towers critical to power supply and Australia's agricultural productivity. Understanding physiological tolerance and the potential for rapid evolutionary responses of plants, animals and communities is necessary to predict impacts of climate change on the future productivity of the vulnerable Australian Alps and to provide novel options for climate adaptation. Read moreRead less
Environmental stress profiling (ESP): Molecular profiling of sediment microbial communities for improved biological monitoring in aquatic ecosystems. Water resource management is a key issue for environmental sustainability in Australia and strategies that include ecological principles are important to improve present conditions and reduce further degradation. Current biomonitoring methods suffer from a low degree of sensitivity that can seriously impact their effectiveness as early warning sign ....Environmental stress profiling (ESP): Molecular profiling of sediment microbial communities for improved biological monitoring in aquatic ecosystems. Water resource management is a key issue for environmental sustainability in Australia and strategies that include ecological principles are important to improve present conditions and reduce further degradation. Current biomonitoring methods suffer from a low degree of sensitivity that can seriously impact their effectiveness as early warning signals of ecological disturbance. We propose to combine molecular and ecotoxicological assessment of the effect of zinc toxicity on microbial communities to provide rapid pollution sensitive bioassessment. Our research will lead to a better understanding of the cause and effect of heavy metal pollution within aquatic ecosystems and greater insight on how to reduce and repair the negative effects.Read moreRead less
Dimensions of ecological strategy for plants. A more fundamental understanding will be sought about the architecture and ecology of vegetation and why it varies around the world. Under a high- CO2 future, models will be needed that operate through fundamental mechanisms of evolution, competition and physiology, rather than through extrapolation from present-day plants.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101954
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Discovering Trans-New Guinea: revealing the prehistory of New Guinea. The third largest language family in the world is Trans-New Guinea spoken throughout New Guinea. The origins of this family are unknown. This project will uncover the history of these peoples by applying computational phylogenetic methods to data from these languages, leading to a deeper understanding of human prehistory in the Pacific.
Evolution, adaptation and resilience of Australian freshwater fishes. This project will integrate comparative ecological genomics (in the wild and in the lab), phenotypic data and spatially-explicit modelling approaches to assess adaptation and vulnerability of aquatic biodiversity to environmental change. It focuses on a family of Australian freshwater fishes that evolved in response to hydrological disturbance and shows contemporary patterns of biodiversity shaped by hydroclimatic variation an ....Evolution, adaptation and resilience of Australian freshwater fishes. This project will integrate comparative ecological genomics (in the wild and in the lab), phenotypic data and spatially-explicit modelling approaches to assess adaptation and vulnerability of aquatic biodiversity to environmental change. It focuses on a family of Australian freshwater fishes that evolved in response to hydrological disturbance and shows contemporary patterns of biodiversity shaped by hydroclimatic variation and anthropogenic pressures. The project expects to disclose a positive correlation between family-wide adaptive capacity and variance in ecological disturbance. This work will address fundamental and novel questions about factors shaping adaptation and resilience along naturally and anthropogenically disturbed ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Developing best-practice approaches for restoring forest ecosystems that are resilient to climate change. Existing restoration practices for forests tend to rely on ad hoc rules of thumb that lack a firm scientific basis and risk failure due to climate change. The project will model biodiversity, genetic and growth performance data to develop best-practice restoration guidelines for forest ecosystems to enable them to become resilient to climate change and maximise biodiversity and carbon captur ....Developing best-practice approaches for restoring forest ecosystems that are resilient to climate change. Existing restoration practices for forests tend to rely on ad hoc rules of thumb that lack a firm scientific basis and risk failure due to climate change. The project will model biodiversity, genetic and growth performance data to develop best-practice restoration guidelines for forest ecosystems to enable them to become resilient to climate change and maximise biodiversity and carbon capture outcomes.Read moreRead less
Putting adaptation into vegetation models: towards a predictive theory of trait diversity and stand structure. By incorporating natural selection into models of vegetation, this project will help to predict what sorts of plants are found where and why. This will greatly improve the ability to predict the likely outcomes of human impacts (changing climates, increased disturbance, logging) for future vegetation and species diversity.
Evolution of environmental regulation of cell states in animal life cycles. This project seeks to understand how the environment influences the fate of cells over an animal's life, and how this influence originated in animal evolution. Using a homegrown Australian model, a sea sponge from the Great Barrier Reef, and advanced multi-omic approaches (genomics plus cell biology), this project aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying global cell state changes that are induced through the interplay o ....Evolution of environmental regulation of cell states in animal life cycles. This project seeks to understand how the environment influences the fate of cells over an animal's life, and how this influence originated in animal evolution. Using a homegrown Australian model, a sea sponge from the Great Barrier Reef, and advanced multi-omic approaches (genomics plus cell biology), this project aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying global cell state changes that are induced through the interplay of environmental and endogenous signals at metamorphosis. Because of the evolutionary position of sponges, outcomes of this project expect to reveal the cardinal rules governing environmentally-induced cell state changes that are obligatory for most animals to complete their complex life cycles.Read moreRead less
The ecology of parasite transmission in fauna translocations. Parasitic diseases pose a threat to the conservation management of Australia's biodiversity. This project will improve our understanding of the impact and transmission of parasites in fauna translocations, contributing to the conservation management of Australian ecosystems by government and private agencies.