Understanding when biocontrol and enemy release affect plant populations. This project aims to determine when introduced species escape from their natural enemies, and when biocontrol efforts succeed. Enemy release and biocontrol are key to our understanding and management of invasions. However there has never been a broad quantitative assessment of the circumstances under which biocontrol and enemy release affect introduced populations. This project will use a combination of meta-analyses and i ....Understanding when biocontrol and enemy release affect plant populations. This project aims to determine when introduced species escape from their natural enemies, and when biocontrol efforts succeed. Enemy release and biocontrol are key to our understanding and management of invasions. However there has never been a broad quantitative assessment of the circumstances under which biocontrol and enemy release affect introduced populations. This project will use a combination of meta-analyses and international field studies to address this knowledge gap. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that facilitate biological invasions, and improved success of biocontrol agents.Read moreRead less
How does your garden grow? Scaling functional traits to whole-plant growth. Understanding how the traits of leaves and stems influence plant growth is important because plant growth drives emergent ecosystem properties such as rates of water use and carbon and nitrogen cycling. The project will build a new understanding of trait-growth relationships, focusing on species from four Australian forest types.
Improving access to phylogenomic resources for under-resourced species: a new look at existing tools. This project will have an impact on our understanding of how to most effectively use existing genomic resources to benefit a wider range of species and to better design new genomic resources. By doing so, improved access to genomic resources will be provided to species that currently have few options.
Evolutionary history and conservation of an iconic Australian plant group. This project aims to strengthen biodiversity conservation using evolutionary biology. By using new DNA sequencing technologies the project aims to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the diverse and ecologically important plant family Proteaceae. This will be used to discover how past environmental changes have produced the biodiversity we see today, and forecast likely future changes to biodiversity under expected r ....Evolutionary history and conservation of an iconic Australian plant group. This project aims to strengthen biodiversity conservation using evolutionary biology. By using new DNA sequencing technologies the project aims to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the diverse and ecologically important plant family Proteaceae. This will be used to discover how past environmental changes have produced the biodiversity we see today, and forecast likely future changes to biodiversity under expected rapid environmental change. The key outcome will be a new methodology for a predictive, forward-looking conservation science that accounts explicitly for the dynamic, evolving nature of biodiversity. The key benefit will be a more robust scientific basis for strategic allocation of limited conservation resources.Read moreRead less
Global patterns of mammalian biodiversity loss over the last 50,000 years. Wild mammals have experienced major population losses and extinctions in recent centuries, but their communities had already suffered from widespread losses during the Pleistocene. Existing literature has focused on documenting individual extinctions or continental-scale patterns. This project aims to show how biodiversity loss played out at the local scale around the world. It will use palaeontological and zooarchaeologi ....Global patterns of mammalian biodiversity loss over the last 50,000 years. Wild mammals have experienced major population losses and extinctions in recent centuries, but their communities had already suffered from widespread losses during the Pleistocene. Existing literature has focused on documenting individual extinctions or continental-scale patterns. This project aims to show how biodiversity loss played out at the local scale around the world. It will use palaeontological and zooarchaeological data to show how losses varied in space, how population sizes changed, and how species attributes such as rarity and body size related to loss. The world of mammals has become more homogeneous as biodiversity has declined. The challenge is to show how that happened across space and time.
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Do chromosomal rearrangements drive genomic evolution and speciation? This project aims to gain an understanding of the processes driving speciation using the internationally recognised and uniquely Australian rock-wallaby model system, where speciation appears to be caught in the act. Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, yet one that is not well understood. The project plans to use recent advances in marsupial genomics, bioinformatics, cytogenetics and epigenetics to determine the ....Do chromosomal rearrangements drive genomic evolution and speciation? This project aims to gain an understanding of the processes driving speciation using the internationally recognised and uniquely Australian rock-wallaby model system, where speciation appears to be caught in the act. Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, yet one that is not well understood. The project plans to use recent advances in marsupial genomics, bioinformatics, cytogenetics and epigenetics to determine the role that chromosome rearrangements play in the speciation process. This may provide critical knowledge for understanding the process of speciation and for future decisions regarding the effective management of biodiversity.Read moreRead less
The biosynthesis and evolution of novel semiochemicals in orchids. This project aims to discover new enzymes and genes, unlocking new tools for producing useful chemicals. Many plants secure pollination by attracting animal pollinators. How these crucial interactions evolved remains a mystery. Australia is a world centre for pollination by sexual deception in which hundreds of orchids use novel semiochemicals to sexually attract specific pollinators. In this study we aim to: characterise the bio ....The biosynthesis and evolution of novel semiochemicals in orchids. This project aims to discover new enzymes and genes, unlocking new tools for producing useful chemicals. Many plants secure pollination by attracting animal pollinators. How these crucial interactions evolved remains a mystery. Australia is a world centre for pollination by sexual deception in which hundreds of orchids use novel semiochemicals to sexually attract specific pollinators. In this study we aim to: characterise the biosynthetic pathway and molecular basis of these unique semiochemicals; investigate speciation processes with robust orchid phylogenies; and reveal new insights into the evolution of animal pollination. This should also lead to better design options for managing endangered orchids and developing resilient populations.Read moreRead less