Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and its components. This project aims to demonstrate how temperate evergreen forests could buffer against climate change. Soil respiration returns around half the carbon taken up by forests to the atmosphere. This project will characterise and quantify how microbes and roots in soils depend on temperature and substrate supply, and so predict how rising temperatures and drought will affect forests as natural carbon sequestration sinks. This project will ....Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and its components. This project aims to demonstrate how temperate evergreen forests could buffer against climate change. Soil respiration returns around half the carbon taken up by forests to the atmosphere. This project will characterise and quantify how microbes and roots in soils depend on temperature and substrate supply, and so predict how rising temperatures and drought will affect forests as natural carbon sequestration sinks. This project will resolve the roles of environmental drivers of soil respiration across forests; integrate mechanistic understanding of differing plant and microbial responses to temperature within a common modelling framework; and evaluate the implications of this knowledge in predictions of climatic impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling.Read moreRead less
Integrating climate adaptation into rainforest restoration plantings. This project aims to investigate the impact of within species adaptation to climate on restoratoin success in the Australian Wet Tropics. For a suite of six species of tropical tree frequently employed in rainforest restoration plantings in northeast Queensland, this project aims to test the hypothesis that collecting seed from populations in similar ecoclimatic settings to the planting site will result in superior seedling gr ....Integrating climate adaptation into rainforest restoration plantings. This project aims to investigate the impact of within species adaptation to climate on restoratoin success in the Australian Wet Tropics. For a suite of six species of tropical tree frequently employed in rainforest restoration plantings in northeast Queensland, this project aims to test the hypothesis that collecting seed from populations in similar ecoclimatic settings to the planting site will result in superior seedling growth and survival. The expected outcome is to provide practical advice to restoration practitioners about the importance of matching the provenance of seed source to planting sites, and opportunities for selecting provenances pre-adapted to predicted future climatic conditions at planting sites.Read moreRead less
Devising ecologically sustainable restoration programs for degraded rural landscapes by integrating landscape ecology, genetics and ecophysiology. Concern about tree decline in rural landscape is widespread, and disturbingly climate change is predicted to exacerbate this problem. Past ill-considered tree plantings have proven to be economically wasteful, achieved limited ecological resilience and negligible improvement of biodiversity values. Using Tasmania as a 'model system', we will advance t ....Devising ecologically sustainable restoration programs for degraded rural landscapes by integrating landscape ecology, genetics and ecophysiology. Concern about tree decline in rural landscape is widespread, and disturbingly climate change is predicted to exacerbate this problem. Past ill-considered tree plantings have proven to be economically wasteful, achieved limited ecological resilience and negligible improvement of biodiversity values. Using Tasmania as a 'model system', we will advance this problem by undertaking research to determine how seedling establishment, tree growth, carbon storage and water use are influenced by landscape setting, management history, climate change, species type and local varieties. This research will provide a much needed evidence to devise ecologically sustainable tree-plantings in southern Australia.Read moreRead less
Interactions among invading species: transient hybridisation and rates of replacement. Habitats are often invaded sequentially by multiple species. Interactions between these invaders can potentially alter their rates of spread and eventual distributions. This project will combine experimental research and modelling to test specific hypotheses about the processes occurring as one species arrives in a region already containing a close relative and proceeds to replace it. It will use two sea rock ....Interactions among invading species: transient hybridisation and rates of replacement. Habitats are often invaded sequentially by multiple species. Interactions between these invaders can potentially alter their rates of spread and eventual distributions. This project will combine experimental research and modelling to test specific hypotheses about the processes occurring as one species arrives in a region already containing a close relative and proceeds to replace it. It will use two sea rockets (Cakile sp.) currently invading Australia’s coastline is its focus. By determining the importance of such species interactions, the research will contribute to the development of better estimates of invasive species impacts, thereby improving decisions on their management.Read moreRead less
Living in a high carbon dioxide world: impacts on freshwater phytoplankton populations from elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. This project will investigate likely changes in phytoplankton populations in reservoirs that will be caused by increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next century. The project will provide water supply managers with the necessary information to plan future strategies for water treatment and operating procedures.