Diatom silica production under future ocean conditions, genes to biomes. This project aims to quantify how ocean warming and acidification will alter natural diatom assemblages and silica production rates to predict changes in the cycling and transfer of carbon and silicon in the future ocean. This project expects to generate new knowledge of environmental controls on diatom silicification and their ocean-scale implications by integrating the disciplines of physiology, molecular biology and quan ....Diatom silica production under future ocean conditions, genes to biomes. This project aims to quantify how ocean warming and acidification will alter natural diatom assemblages and silica production rates to predict changes in the cycling and transfer of carbon and silicon in the future ocean. This project expects to generate new knowledge of environmental controls on diatom silicification and their ocean-scale implications by integrating the disciplines of physiology, molecular biology and quantitative modelling. Expected outcomes include essential advancements in future simulations of marine productivity and silicon cycling and a deeper understanding of threats to marine life from climate change. This should provide significant benefits such as improved valuations on the sustainability of ocean ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Resolving the warming East Australian Current's impact on a marine food web. Resolving the warming East Australian Current's impact on a marine food web. This project aims to understand the effects of climate change on marine food webs, from plankton production to predation by iconic marine fauna, by integrating data on oceanographic conditions and fish distribution with the foraging patterns and breeding success of seabirds. Warming waters due to strengthening western boundary currents have unk ....Resolving the warming East Australian Current's impact on a marine food web. Resolving the warming East Australian Current's impact on a marine food web. This project aims to understand the effects of climate change on marine food webs, from plankton production to predation by iconic marine fauna, by integrating data on oceanographic conditions and fish distribution with the foraging patterns and breeding success of seabirds. Warming waters due to strengthening western boundary currents have unknown consequences for coastal marine food webs. Innovative prey capture signatures from accelerometers, and advanced movement models from satellite locations will show how predators locate and prey upon fish schools. Anticipated outcomes are insight into how changing resource availability in the oceans affects ecosystem resilience; improved viability for coastal industries; and ecosystem-based conservation management strategies.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL140100260
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,775,898.00
Summary
Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. This project aims to generate unique insights into the processes and history that produced the current distribution of modern humans and the bacteria we carry with us (our microbiome). The project will use combined signals of bacterial, genomic and climate data to reconstruct the impacts of migrations, changes in diet, environment, and health in different parts ....Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. This project aims to generate unique insights into the processes and history that produced the current distribution of modern humans and the bacteria we carry with us (our microbiome). The project will use combined signals of bacterial, genomic and climate data to reconstruct the impacts of migrations, changes in diet, environment, and health in different parts of the world. A key aspect will be the creation of a program to map the genetic history of indigenous Australia, and the impacts of colonisation on indigenous people around the world. Research advances will be transferred to Early Career Researchers through an innovative program of workshops, and the resulting data will be used to create a new format for Australian genetic databases.Read moreRead less
Coping with temperature extremes: morphological constraints on leaf function in a warmer, drier climate. This project will determine how hydraulic properties of temperate, evergreen leaves affect their capacity to cope with seasonal variation in temperature extremes. The results will enhance mechanistic understanding of temperature tolerance, and inform prediction of vegetation change in response to climate warming and increasing CO2 concentrations.
Diversity maintenance in patchy environments. This project aims to advance understanding of species coexistence and diversity maintenance in complex natural environments. Though diversity varies across patchy natural and human-created environments, the mechanistic drivers of these patterns remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap limits our ability to predict and manage responses of natural communities to environmental changes. Using data from threatened Western Australian wildflower communi ....Diversity maintenance in patchy environments. This project aims to advance understanding of species coexistence and diversity maintenance in complex natural environments. Though diversity varies across patchy natural and human-created environments, the mechanistic drivers of these patterns remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap limits our ability to predict and manage responses of natural communities to environmental changes. Using data from threatened Western Australian wildflower communities and novel ecological models of species coexistence, the project aims to deliver a mechanistic understanding of biological diversity, and provide fundamental knowledge needed to improve ecosystem management and restoration outcomes across Australia and globally.Read moreRead less
Fiddling while home burns: climate change and fiddler crabs. Climate change is already affecting many Australian animals, including fiddler crabs. This project will use extensive knowledge of fiddler crab biology to determine whether they can behaviourally compensate for the rapid changes that are occurring by using experiments and observations conducted under natural conditions in the mangroves of Darwin harbour.
Understanding the survival of forests under drought . Droughts are predicted to become more extreme in the near future, with potentially devastating impacts on Australian forest ecosystems. This project aims to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how plants tolerate extreme drought stress and utilise this new knowledge to improve vegetation models suitable for assessing ecosystem vulnerability. We will use innovative experimental methodology to determine the processes by which wat ....Understanding the survival of forests under drought . Droughts are predicted to become more extreme in the near future, with potentially devastating impacts on Australian forest ecosystems. This project aims to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how plants tolerate extreme drought stress and utilise this new knowledge to improve vegetation models suitable for assessing ecosystem vulnerability. We will use innovative experimental methodology to determine the processes by which water transport breaks down in roots, stems and leaves and the mechanisms governing recovery from severe drought stress. The project will provide a deeper understanding of drought tolerance in trees, improved forecasting of risks to native vegetation, and enhanced management of native forest resources. Read moreRead less
To grow or to store: Do plants hedge their bets? This project aims to resolve a long-standing question about the function of perennial plants: how much of the carbon taken up by photosynthesis is used immediately for growth, and how much is kept in reserve as insurance against future stress? This question is important to our understanding of how plants respond to stresses such as severe drought, and yet lack of data and theoretical modelling currently hampers our ability to answer it. By applyin ....To grow or to store: Do plants hedge their bets? This project aims to resolve a long-standing question about the function of perennial plants: how much of the carbon taken up by photosynthesis is used immediately for growth, and how much is kept in reserve as insurance against future stress? This question is important to our understanding of how plants respond to stresses such as severe drought, and yet lack of data and theoretical modelling currently hampers our ability to answer it. By applying novel data analysis and modelling tools to recent experimental results, the project plans to test hypotheses for how plants allocate carbon between growth and storage in response to stress. Insights from the project may underpin better management of Australia’s vulnerable ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Ocean currents and genetic connectedness in a complex archipelago. To what extent are marine coastal communities ?open?, i.e. how often do the oceans carry larvae far from their point of spawning, and what influence does such ocean transport have on the spread of genetic information? These are some of the most fundamental questions of biological oceanography; the project will provide new answers by using an extremely detailed genetic data set from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off Western Austra ....Ocean currents and genetic connectedness in a complex archipelago. To what extent are marine coastal communities ?open?, i.e. how often do the oceans carry larvae far from their point of spawning, and what influence does such ocean transport have on the spread of genetic information? These are some of the most fundamental questions of biological oceanography; the project will provide new answers by using an extremely detailed genetic data set from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off Western Australian together with an advanced numerical ocean model especially suited to that environment and developed in Australia.Read moreRead less
Habitat degradation on coral reefs. This project aims to determine how reef degradation modifies predator-prey dynamics in fish communities, and how parental effects may help species to cope with habitat change. Live corals are ecosystem engineers that support the world’s most biodiverse communities, but anthropogenic factors have led to unprecedented global declines in live coral. The transition from live to dead coral-dominated habitats is associated with a modified sensory landscape of fear f ....Habitat degradation on coral reefs. This project aims to determine how reef degradation modifies predator-prey dynamics in fish communities, and how parental effects may help species to cope with habitat change. Live corals are ecosystem engineers that support the world’s most biodiverse communities, but anthropogenic factors have led to unprecedented global declines in live coral. The transition from live to dead coral-dominated habitats is associated with a modified sensory landscape of fear for resident fishes, via chemical interference emanating from degraded coral. Inter-generational advantages would help management to regulate reef usage to promote resilience.Read moreRead less