Aqueous fluids in the deep earth. This project aims to improve our understanding of the role of fluids in controlling exchanges between the deep Earth, shallow rocks, and atmosphere. The project expects to investigate some of the key weaknesses in the thermodynamic models that are used to predict the behaviour of sulphur, carbon and metals in fluids at high pressure and temperature by using recent advances in computational and experimental (geo)chemistry. Integrated in large-scale geodynamic mod ....Aqueous fluids in the deep earth. This project aims to improve our understanding of the role of fluids in controlling exchanges between the deep Earth, shallow rocks, and atmosphere. The project expects to investigate some of the key weaknesses in the thermodynamic models that are used to predict the behaviour of sulphur, carbon and metals in fluids at high pressure and temperature by using recent advances in computational and experimental (geo)chemistry. Integrated in large-scale geodynamic models, the more reliable predictions will provide a more realistic assessment of the role of sulphur in controlling metal endowment and atmospheric chemistry through geological times. This should provide a useful guide for mineral exploration and planetary science.Read moreRead less
Mechanisms of proxy uptake in biominerals. This project plans to combine nano-analytical and aquaculture methods to develop new models that improve the reliability of paleoclimate reconstructions. The compositions of shells and skeletal materials of marine invertebrates are essential archives for quantifying temperatures and environmental conditions before modern climate records began. However, their reliability relies on understanding their formation. Emerging knowledge from material sciences i ....Mechanisms of proxy uptake in biominerals. This project plans to combine nano-analytical and aquaculture methods to develop new models that improve the reliability of paleoclimate reconstructions. The compositions of shells and skeletal materials of marine invertebrates are essential archives for quantifying temperatures and environmental conditions before modern climate records began. However, their reliability relies on understanding their formation. Emerging knowledge from material sciences indicates that these biocarbonates form via transient precursors rather than direct precipitation from seawater, profoundly affecting their interpretation. This project plans to transfer this new understanding to the earth sciences using nanoscale analytical methods including in vitro geochemical partitioning experiments. This would enable realistic models for geochemical proxy behaviour to be developed, significantly improving paleoclimate interpretations and assessments of ocean acidification effects on marine calcifiers.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101163
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$351,948.00
Summary
Fire and Transformation: Building capacity to manage Australian Bushfires. The scale and intensity of bushfires in Australia has reached alarming levels, and this is only expected to get worse in the coming years. This project aims to support a more robust, integrated and resilient approach to fire management, which focuses on the role of governance. Using a new approach to analysing the present and planning for the future, the project brings together multiple stakeholders and perspectives. Key ....Fire and Transformation: Building capacity to manage Australian Bushfires. The scale and intensity of bushfires in Australia has reached alarming levels, and this is only expected to get worse in the coming years. This project aims to support a more robust, integrated and resilient approach to fire management, which focuses on the role of governance. Using a new approach to analysing the present and planning for the future, the project brings together multiple stakeholders and perspectives. Key outcomes will include practical options to reform governance and policy and an innovative way of exploring tensions and trade-offs in bushfire management. This should bring significant benefits by improving the ability to anticipate and adapt to change, while addressing risk to communities and ecosystems. Read moreRead less
Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth unde ....Maternal contributions to offspring development in a changing climate. This project aims to investigate how maternal contributions to offspring developmental environments affect metabolism, learning, growth, and survival of offspring. This project expects to provide mechanistic and evolutionary insights into how changes in metabolic function, brought about by changes in the developmental environment, contribute to variation in learning and life-history. Expected outcomes include an in-depth understanding of how changes in maternal investment and hormones impact offspring developing in different thermal environments and how such changes are mediated by compromised physiological function – providing significant benefits in understanding population persistence in Australia's rapidly changing climate.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100575
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$428,000.00
Summary
Not drowning, fighting?: UN climate governance and Pacific Island countries. This project aims to significantly advance understandings of UN climate governance processes, and the spaces and strategies utilised by Pacific Island countries to influence the final decision outcomes. This project will generate important new knowledge about global climate governance using an innovative approach to collaborative event ethnography that involves a majority Pacific Islander research team and working ‘inte ....Not drowning, fighting?: UN climate governance and Pacific Island countries. This project aims to significantly advance understandings of UN climate governance processes, and the spaces and strategies utilised by Pacific Island countries to influence the final decision outcomes. This project will generate important new knowledge about global climate governance using an innovative approach to collaborative event ethnography that involves a majority Pacific Islander research team and working ‘internal’ to formal UN climate negotiations. The project should identify key climate change outcomes for the Pacific and Australia that will help address climate security issues, and that raise the status of Pacific Indigenous knowledge systems by incorporating them centrally within understandings of climate change policy. Read moreRead less
Regulating the Climate Finance Revolution. This project aims to identify how financial market regulators might best incentivise financial institutions to shift from high to low carbon investments, thereby mitigating climate change. It expects to generate new knowledge identifying regulatory excellence in previously uncharted territory and to enable best practice policymaking. Its expected outcomes will be to identify the central roles that the design and implementation of regulation can play in ....Regulating the Climate Finance Revolution. This project aims to identify how financial market regulators might best incentivise financial institutions to shift from high to low carbon investments, thereby mitigating climate change. It expects to generate new knowledge identifying regulatory excellence in previously uncharted territory and to enable best practice policymaking. Its expected outcomes will be to identify the central roles that the design and implementation of regulation can play in fast tracking finance for climate action. Its benefits should include advancing climate change mitigation, facilitating the development of Australia as a competitive sustainable finance market and contributing to Australia’s research on achieving a desirable energy future. Read moreRead less
Towards a globalised history of international relations, the case of Japan. This project aims to revise the Euro-American-centric understanding of the history of international relations by incorporating the case of the first non-Euro-American modern power, Japan, and developing theory that internalises colonialism. Benefits to Australia and beyond include gaining a more historically accurate knowledge of this history, greater insights into the impact of this dominant understanding on the actions ....Towards a globalised history of international relations, the case of Japan. This project aims to revise the Euro-American-centric understanding of the history of international relations by incorporating the case of the first non-Euro-American modern power, Japan, and developing theory that internalises colonialism. Benefits to Australia and beyond include gaining a more historically accurate knowledge of this history, greater insights into the impact of this dominant understanding on the actions of non-Euro-American powers, and enhanced sensitivity of policy-makers and practitioners to their schemes to post-colonial societies. This revised history could also benefit general public debates on rethinking measures for dealing with issues arising from the diversity within Australian society and internationally.Read moreRead less
Determining fossilisation processes of a rare iron-rich Lagerstätte. Most fossil sites only preserve resistant elements such as bones and teeth, leading to questions about how soft animals and structures have evolved over time. The recent discovery of a fossil deposit in New South Wales appears to demonstrate a new set of conditions for the preservation of soft tissues. This project aims to constrain the age of and assess the fossilisation processes that produced this unique fossil site. We will ....Determining fossilisation processes of a rare iron-rich Lagerstätte. Most fossil sites only preserve resistant elements such as bones and teeth, leading to questions about how soft animals and structures have evolved over time. The recent discovery of a fossil deposit in New South Wales appears to demonstrate a new set of conditions for the preservation of soft tissues. This project aims to constrain the age of and assess the fossilisation processes that produced this unique fossil site. We will use an integrative approach to reconstruct the formation of this Lagerstätte. The work will provide significant advances in our understanding of the process of fossilisation and guide the discovery of other exceptionally-well preserved fossil deposits, critical in reconstructing the biological history of Australia.Read moreRead less
Smart materials for atmospheric water management and water harvesting. Fresh water is a scarce resource in many parts of the globe but uncomfortably over-supplied in other regions. Dehumidifying machines, such as air conditioners, are extensively used in humid climates to enhance human comfort, but with great energy costs. Likewise, the production of potable water in remote dry regions is energy intensive. We propose novel hyper-absorbent desiccating polymers combined into sorption-powered engin ....Smart materials for atmospheric water management and water harvesting. Fresh water is a scarce resource in many parts of the globe but uncomfortably over-supplied in other regions. Dehumidifying machines, such as air conditioners, are extensively used in humid climates to enhance human comfort, but with great energy costs. Likewise, the production of potable water in remote dry regions is energy intensive. We propose novel hyper-absorbent desiccating polymers combined into sorption-powered engines inspired by nastic movements in plants to develop extremely efficient dehumidifiers and water harvesting machines. These polymer actuators can help address the auto-acceleration of climate change caused by the increasing use of air conditioners and provide cheap, clean water for remote communities.Read moreRead less