Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101129
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$438,479.00
Summary
Assessing the risks of extracting metals for the global energy transition. This project aims to produce the first of its kind online atlas that systematically documents the social, environmental and economic impacts in mining locations around the world. Analysing impacts at the source of metal supply chains is crucial to comprehend the implications of transitioning to metal-intensive low-carbon energy technologies. The project would deliver insights on available pathways to achieve a ‘just’ ener ....Assessing the risks of extracting metals for the global energy transition. This project aims to produce the first of its kind online atlas that systematically documents the social, environmental and economic impacts in mining locations around the world. Analysing impacts at the source of metal supply chains is crucial to comprehend the implications of transitioning to metal-intensive low-carbon energy technologies. The project would deliver insights on available pathways to achieve a ‘just’ energy transition, meaning a transition that successfully tackles climate change without placing unacceptable burden on mining communities and environments. The goal of the research is to generate evidence-based recommendations so that future metal supply can be both reliable and responsible.Read moreRead less
Forecasting fish resilience to environmental change in northern Australia. This project aims to use a traits-based modelling framework, incorporating variability both within and between species, to forecast the resilience of freshwater fishes in northern Australia to impending environmental change. While northern Australian rivers are among the most pristine and productive on earth, they face profound change due to human activity. Emerging evidence suggests that flexibility in functional traits ....Forecasting fish resilience to environmental change in northern Australia. This project aims to use a traits-based modelling framework, incorporating variability both within and between species, to forecast the resilience of freshwater fishes in northern Australia to impending environmental change. While northern Australian rivers are among the most pristine and productive on earth, they face profound change due to human activity. Emerging evidence suggests that flexibility in functional traits (e.g. life history, physiology, behaviour, diet) may result in resilience to environmental change. This project aims to provide decision-makers with essential information and new tools to underpin future planning and resource management.Read moreRead less
The ecological impact of large carnivore restoration. This project aims to assess the ecological changes that have arisen due to the repatriation of estuarine crocodiles to Australian ecosystems. It is significant because the restoration provides a rare opportunity to empirically test changes in ecosystem processes under varying degrees of large carnivore predation pressure. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of the processes that govern the strength of predator-ecosystem interacti ....The ecological impact of large carnivore restoration. This project aims to assess the ecological changes that have arisen due to the repatriation of estuarine crocodiles to Australian ecosystems. It is significant because the restoration provides a rare opportunity to empirically test changes in ecosystem processes under varying degrees of large carnivore predation pressure. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of the processes that govern the strength of predator-ecosystem interactions and an ability to quantify the biomass, social structure, and behaviours of predators required to influence these processes. Benefits should include improvements in how the ecological role of large carnivores is measured, and when and where carnivore populations should be culled or conserved.Read moreRead less
Conservation of tropical forests for their carbon and biodiversity values. International efforts to save tropical forests for the carbon they store could help mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. This project will aid these efforts by developing methods to model future deforestation and extending decision theory for the new challenges presented by international carbon-payment schemes.
Delivering Benefits from Nature in a Highly Connected World . This project aims to improve knowledge of the implications of global flows of ecosystem services (the benefits people receive from nature) for achieving sustainable land use by developing novel predictive models and decision tools. The project is significant because it will resolve the complex challenge of assessing land use strategies when land use change has impacts on ecosystem service provision locally and globally. Expected outco ....Delivering Benefits from Nature in a Highly Connected World . This project aims to improve knowledge of the implications of global flows of ecosystem services (the benefits people receive from nature) for achieving sustainable land use by developing novel predictive models and decision tools. The project is significant because it will resolve the complex challenge of assessing land use strategies when land use change has impacts on ecosystem service provision locally and globally. Expected outcomes will be new evidence for the effect of land use change on the global distribution of ecosystem service benefits and how ecosystem services trade-off against each other. This should provide significant benefits by enabling better assessment of land use policy in an increasingly highly connected world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101207
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$334,000.00
Summary
Predicting fisheries change from cumulative impacts to aquatic habitats. This project intends to quantify the role that aquatic habitats play in fisheries, and to help identify where to restore degraded aquatic habitats. Fisheries are a globally important resource but their status is declining in many regions, often because of the loss of aquatic habitats. However, the role of habitat in fishery declines is poorly quantified, and new models are needed that integrate existing datasets to attribut ....Predicting fisheries change from cumulative impacts to aquatic habitats. This project intends to quantify the role that aquatic habitats play in fisheries, and to help identify where to restore degraded aquatic habitats. Fisheries are a globally important resource but their status is declining in many regions, often because of the loss of aquatic habitats. However, the role of habitat in fishery declines is poorly quantified, and new models are needed that integrate existing datasets to attribute change in a fishery to change in its habitats. The project aims to develop a new statistical analysis to examine the role of habitat loss in the global status of fisheries and how multiple human impacts to habitats affect fisheries, to decide how we can best protect aquatic habitats.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101624
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,870.00
Summary
Reconciling development and conservation trade-offs from global and Australian protected area expansion. Driven by recent international commitments, the following eight years are likely to see the greatest expansion of the global protected area network in history, but underlying biases in protected area location could limit the cost-efficiency and conservation value of this expansion. To increase the transparency of decisions underlying protected area expansion, this project will develop and tes ....Reconciling development and conservation trade-offs from global and Australian protected area expansion. Driven by recent international commitments, the following eight years are likely to see the greatest expansion of the global protected area network in history, but underlying biases in protected area location could limit the cost-efficiency and conservation value of this expansion. To increase the transparency of decisions underlying protected area expansion, this project will develop and test spatially-explicit scenarios of expanding human influence at the global scale and the impacts on biodiversity. This information will be then be used to determine the trade-offs and synergies between human development potential and biodiversity benefits from protected area expansion, both globally and in Australia.Read moreRead less
Where's the beef? A systems model for taming a wicked environmental problem. Demand for beef is increasing dramatically, particularly in Asia. This project aims to build systems models of local environmental impacts of beef production coupled with models of global beef trade to analyse production and policy scenarios. Beef is the food commodity with the largest ecological footprint, and increased production will have globally significant impacts on land and water resources, biodiversity, and cli ....Where's the beef? A systems model for taming a wicked environmental problem. Demand for beef is increasing dramatically, particularly in Asia. This project aims to build systems models of local environmental impacts of beef production coupled with models of global beef trade to analyse production and policy scenarios. Beef is the food commodity with the largest ecological footprint, and increased production will have globally significant impacts on land and water resources, biodiversity, and climate. The scale of these impacts depends on where and how cattle production occurs. Outcomes of this research include a framework for projecting regional and global ecological impacts of domestic cattle production policies, allowing informed decisions that consider and benefit environmental and socio-economic values.Read moreRead less
Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in production landscapes. This project aims to develop new approaches using causal inference, optimal allocation theory, and spatial statistics to characterise impacts on a diverse suite of ecosystem services. It will endeavour to develop case studies from three continents and generalisations explicitly tested using simulated landscapes. Environmental and agricultural policies promote land sharing (biodiversity-friendly production) or land sparing (p ....Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in production landscapes. This project aims to develop new approaches using causal inference, optimal allocation theory, and spatial statistics to characterise impacts on a diverse suite of ecosystem services. It will endeavour to develop case studies from three continents and generalisations explicitly tested using simulated landscapes. Environmental and agricultural policies promote land sharing (biodiversity-friendly production) or land sparing (protected areas, with yield increases elsewhere). Yet the impacts of such policies in diverse contexts and for multiple outcomes are poorly understood. The project could advance our ability to deliver sustainable outcomes and more effective as well as equitable policies for production landscapes.Read moreRead less