Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL120100050
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,079,069.00
Summary
Sea level change and climate sensitivity. This project will aim to improve understanding of climate and sea-level change on timescales relevant to longer-term planning, by characterising the relationship between past sea-level/ice-volume change and other key climate factors such as temperature and greenhouse gases, and by quantifying how rapidly sea level may adjust to climate change.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE110100045
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,000.00
Summary
A mass spectrometer to analyse carbonate isotope records of Australia's climate, soil and groundwater history. Water is a critical resource in Australia, yet there is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the causes and timing of groundwater recharge in the past. This facility will allow researchers to better understand climate and groundwater interactions through high resolution isotope analysis of deposits, such as cave stalagmites and marine corals.
Novel dating methods for marine sediments of relevance to determining past climate changes. Future climate change is a subject of enormous contemporary interest with economic and social implications for much of humanity. Accurate knowledge of past climates is, however, crucial to understanding how the global climate will evolve into the future. This proposal aims to develop novel methods for dating marine sediments using cosmogenic isotopes, in order to extract the palaeoclimatic signals that ar ....Novel dating methods for marine sediments of relevance to determining past climate changes. Future climate change is a subject of enormous contemporary interest with economic and social implications for much of humanity. Accurate knowledge of past climates is, however, crucial to understanding how the global climate will evolve into the future. This proposal aims to develop novel methods for dating marine sediments using cosmogenic isotopes, in order to extract the palaeoclimatic signals that are locked into these sediments. We will concentrate on the Southern Ocean which plays a crucial role in the world's climate. This proposal will also contribute to Australia's international obligation to conduct research in this critical area.Read moreRead less
The Australian expression of the Pliocene warm period, an analog for future greenhouse conditions. Records of the planet's response to past climate are important for predicting the future under conditions of global warming. This project will assemble one such record but, in contrast to much existing data, it emphasises the palaeoclimate of southern Australian through a time interval widely regarded as an analog for our climate in the year 2100.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL160100028
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,847,675.00
Summary
Understanding the past to predict and manage the climate of the future. Understanding the past to predict and manage the climate of the future. Using key analogues from the geological record, this project aims to understand seasonal and spatial changes in Australia’s rainfall under a warming climate, and to chart the nature of the ecological responses. Shifts in rainfall patterns will have a greater societal impact for Australia than changes in temperature, but are difficult to predict with exis ....Understanding the past to predict and manage the climate of the future. Understanding the past to predict and manage the climate of the future. Using key analogues from the geological record, this project aims to understand seasonal and spatial changes in Australia’s rainfall under a warming climate, and to chart the nature of the ecological responses. Shifts in rainfall patterns will have a greater societal impact for Australia than changes in temperature, but are difficult to predict with existing numerical models. The research is expected to forge important international links between researchers studying past and future climates, anticipate and manage change, and demonstrate the critical scientific value of Australia’s geological heritage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100443
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$393,434.00
Summary
Resolving nutrient groundwater exports versus soil burial in mangroves. This project aims to examine the role of mangroves in the sequestration and burial of nutrients. Coastal areas increasingly receive enriched nutrient loads, driving anthropogenic eutrophication. Mangrove wetlands naturally filter and bury large quantities of nutrients through soil accretion. This project aims to quantify nutrient groundwater export as related to mangrove soil nutrient retention and determine if these wetland ....Resolving nutrient groundwater exports versus soil burial in mangroves. This project aims to examine the role of mangroves in the sequestration and burial of nutrients. Coastal areas increasingly receive enriched nutrient loads, driving anthropogenic eutrophication. Mangrove wetlands naturally filter and bury large quantities of nutrients through soil accretion. This project aims to quantify nutrient groundwater export as related to mangrove soil nutrient retention and determine if these wetlands have the potential to provide negative feedback to coastal eutrophication. The project plans to use state-of-the-art radionuclide tracer technology to quantify the relationship between groundwater discharge and historical soil nutrient retention.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100219
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
A modern, high-tech mineral separation facility for geochemistry and isotope science. This project will support geoscience research in Western Australia that incorporates a new conservative way of fragmenting rocks to their constituent grains. The facility will provide mineral samples for discovery science and for applied research for the minerals and petroleum industries.
Australia as the world warmed: our regional response to rapid global warming events in the geological past. Projections of global climate change over the next century are so negative we must look to the Pliocene Epoch, more than 2.5 million years ago, for past analogues. Nonetheless, more recent episodes of rapid global warming during the late Pleistocene might approximate those expected for coming decades. This project will study past Australian regional temperature and rainfall responses to th ....Australia as the world warmed: our regional response to rapid global warming events in the geological past. Projections of global climate change over the next century are so negative we must look to the Pliocene Epoch, more than 2.5 million years ago, for past analogues. Nonetheless, more recent episodes of rapid global warming during the late Pleistocene might approximate those expected for coming decades. This project will study past Australian regional temperature and rainfall responses to these events, on a high-resolution absolute timescale. The necessary analytical technologies are new, meaning a study of this scope could not previously be attempted, and they will be further developed under this project. Outputs will include spatial patterns and lead/lag relationships which can be used to supplement climate model predictions for Australia.Read moreRead less
Holding coral reefs together with soluble cement. This project aims to characterise and understand cement formation in coral reefs. Coral reefs are constructed by cementing together aragonite building blocks made by corals. The main cementing agent is high-magnesium calcite, the most soluble carbonate mineral and susceptible to ocean acidification. High-magnesium calcite cements are best developed on the high energy margins of coral reefs. This project will quantify how crustose coralline algae ....Holding coral reefs together with soluble cement. This project aims to characterise and understand cement formation in coral reefs. Coral reefs are constructed by cementing together aragonite building blocks made by corals. The main cementing agent is high-magnesium calcite, the most soluble carbonate mineral and susceptible to ocean acidification. High-magnesium calcite cements are best developed on the high energy margins of coral reefs. This project will quantify how crustose coralline algae produces high-magnesium calcite and controls the dissolution and reprecipitation of high-magnesium cements. This project intends to quantify rates of reef cementation, susceptibility to ocean acidification and warming, and possible mitigating effects of alkalinity addition.Read moreRead less
Coastal wetlands: are our valuable carbon sinks vulnerable? Saline coastal wetlands store large amounts of carbon and are potentially the most efficient sinks of carbon amongst natural ecosystems. This project will use isotopic tracers to quantify carbon retention within saline coastal wetlands in southeastern Australia, establish the vulnerability of these wetlands to sea-level rise using estimates of sediment accretion and surface elevation change, and use this information to predict the distr ....Coastal wetlands: are our valuable carbon sinks vulnerable? Saline coastal wetlands store large amounts of carbon and are potentially the most efficient sinks of carbon amongst natural ecosystems. This project will use isotopic tracers to quantify carbon retention within saline coastal wetlands in southeastern Australia, establish the vulnerability of these wetlands to sea-level rise using estimates of sediment accretion and surface elevation change, and use this information to predict the distribution of saline coastal wetlands and estimate the carbon sequestration potential of coastal wetlands within a ‘low-carbon economy’. This project will remove impediments to the proper economic evaluation of saline coastal wetlands and enable restoration coastal wetlands to be used to offset carbon emissions.Read moreRead less