ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions. Despite facing the sixth global mass extinction of species, most conservation management is unevaluated and inefficient. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions will provide international research leadership in tackling the complex problems of environmental management and monitoring in an uncertain world. Working through six Australian universities and six international organisations, the Centre will forge new approaches and ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions. Despite facing the sixth global mass extinction of species, most conservation management is unevaluated and inefficient. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions will provide international research leadership in tackling the complex problems of environmental management and monitoring in an uncertain world. Working through six Australian universities and six international organisations, the Centre will forge new approaches and tools from ecology, mathematics, statistics, economics and the social sciences. It will lead the world in developing and delivering predictive models and decision-making approaches to improve outcomes in conservation.Read moreRead less
Acoustics for Large Scale Biodiversity Assessment. Aims: This project will investigate using automated acoustic recording to efficiently census biodiversity assessment at a continental scale.
Significance: To generate new techniques for analysing environmental acoustic data and assessing Australian biodiversity, verified empirical estimates of biodiversity, an understanding of causes of variation in biodiversity.
Expected outcomes: methods for large-scale and accurate assessment of biodiversity ....Acoustics for Large Scale Biodiversity Assessment. Aims: This project will investigate using automated acoustic recording to efficiently census biodiversity assessment at a continental scale.
Significance: To generate new techniques for analysing environmental acoustic data and assessing Australian biodiversity, verified empirical estimates of biodiversity, an understanding of causes of variation in biodiversity.
Expected outcomes: methods for large-scale and accurate assessment of biodiversity, enhanced capacity to detect causes of variation in biodiversity, open-source software tools for analysing environmental audio data, biodiversity datasets.
Benefits: measuring and understanding biodiversity change, allowing enhanced management, conservation, and use of Australian natural resources.
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Beyond fire frequency: understanding fire season for ecosystem management. This project aims to investigate how the season of fire, arguably one of the biggest changes brought about by fire management, can impact ecosystems and the persistence of threatened species. The project expects to generate new yet fundamental knowledge of how the timing of fire has shifted, using a multidisciplinary team with expertise in remote sensing and fire ecology, and experimentally assess fire season effects on s ....Beyond fire frequency: understanding fire season for ecosystem management. This project aims to investigate how the season of fire, arguably one of the biggest changes brought about by fire management, can impact ecosystems and the persistence of threatened species. The project expects to generate new yet fundamental knowledge of how the timing of fire has shifted, using a multidisciplinary team with expertise in remote sensing and fire ecology, and experimentally assess fire season effects on soil properties and plant persistence. The project aims to enhance capacity of conservation agencies across Australia to effectively implement fires while maintaining biodiversity values. This should provide significant benefits for informed management of the large numbers of threatened species under their protection.Read moreRead less
Conserving wildlife at landscape-scales. The project aims to conserve threatened wildlife at large scales in unfenced landscapes. Using empirical field experiments in Australia and New Zealand, the project will test how suppressing populations of invasive prey – rabbits – could reduce the effect of invasive predators – cats – on native wildlife. Feral cats threaten biodiversity globally, including Australia and New Zealand. Effective control of cats is difficult at large-scales but rabbit contro ....Conserving wildlife at landscape-scales. The project aims to conserve threatened wildlife at large scales in unfenced landscapes. Using empirical field experiments in Australia and New Zealand, the project will test how suppressing populations of invasive prey – rabbits – could reduce the effect of invasive predators – cats – on native wildlife. Feral cats threaten biodiversity globally, including Australia and New Zealand. Effective control of cats is difficult at large-scales but rabbit control is feasible. The project aims to provide a conceptual approach for biodiversity conservation that can be scaled up to mitigate the effects of invasive predators at large scales globally and allow restoration of ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Biodiversity indicators for better conservation decisions. This project aims to test, design and select biodiversity indicators to support conservation. Reliable and sensitive biodiversity indicators are critical to track progress towards conservation targets, but the ability of most biodiversity indicators to reveal trends needed by decision-makers is untested. This project will test indicators to monitor biodiversity change at local to global scales, by sampling ecosystem models to evaluate ho ....Biodiversity indicators for better conservation decisions. This project aims to test, design and select biodiversity indicators to support conservation. Reliable and sensitive biodiversity indicators are critical to track progress towards conservation targets, but the ability of most biodiversity indicators to reveal trends needed by decision-makers is untested. This project will test indicators to monitor biodiversity change at local to global scales, by sampling ecosystem models to evaluate how indicator design, data bias and environmental variability affect performance. Project outcomes are expected to ensure that that data collected to monitor and assess the state of Australia’s environment are informative, cost-effective and robust. This is expected to have implications for predicting and measuring effects of policy such as the Convention on Biological Diversity.Read moreRead less
Improving predictions of species distribution dynamics. This project aims to mainstream methods for improved prediction of species distributions under the impacts of environmental change. This is important because these predictions are commonly used to guide environmental decisions, but the standard modelling methods used to produce them have critical limitations. This project intends to (i) make key statistical developments to methods for modelling dynamics of species distributions and (ii) tra ....Improving predictions of species distribution dynamics. This project aims to mainstream methods for improved prediction of species distributions under the impacts of environmental change. This is important because these predictions are commonly used to guide environmental decisions, but the standard modelling methods used to produce them have critical limitations. This project intends to (i) make key statistical developments to methods for modelling dynamics of species distributions and (ii) translate the methods into practice, through guidelines, tools and training, engagement with users and case studies addressing species of current concern. This should provide significant benefits because it will enable better decisions and more effective and cost-efficient management actions.Read moreRead less
New statistical approaches for analysing foodwebs and species distributions. Identifying how species are distributed over the landscape, interact and self-organise into foodwebs are central goals in Ecology. This project aims to provide innovative new Bayesian modelling tools to improve our understanding of species distributions and their foodweb networks. It is expected to develop a general framework for extending species distribution models to deal with multiple species, incorporating both the ....New statistical approaches for analysing foodwebs and species distributions. Identifying how species are distributed over the landscape, interact and self-organise into foodwebs are central goals in Ecology. This project aims to provide innovative new Bayesian modelling tools to improve our understanding of species distributions and their foodweb networks. It is expected to develop a general framework for extending species distribution models to deal with multiple species, incorporating both their interactions as well as errors in detection. The project also hopes to develop a robust Bayesian methodology for partitioning complex foodweb networks into ecologically relevant compartments as there are currently no reliable methods to achieve this. Both projects are of relevance to conservation policy and management of threatened species.Read moreRead less
Planning for sustainable development and biodiversity on Indigenous lands. This project aims to develop a new approach to participatory land-use planning for sustainable development and conservation, in partnership with the Tiwi Land Council. Planning for sustainable development is complex but vital to reconciling economic, social and conservation goals worldwide. The project will evaluate land-use scenarios, including Indigenous Protected Areas, with ecological and economic models that integrat ....Planning for sustainable development and biodiversity on Indigenous lands. This project aims to develop a new approach to participatory land-use planning for sustainable development and conservation, in partnership with the Tiwi Land Council. Planning for sustainable development is complex but vital to reconciling economic, social and conservation goals worldwide. The project will evaluate land-use scenarios, including Indigenous Protected Areas, with ecological and economic models that integrate Indigenous and scientific knowledge. Benefits will include new planning tools and improved understanding of trade-offs between goals, especially on Australia’s Indigenous estates.Read moreRead less
Spatially explicit solutions for managing fire and biodiversity. This project aims to develop a framework for predicting the impact of future fire regimes on the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species. Inappropriate fire regimes are one of the most significant threats to biodiversity in Australia. There is an urgent need to better understand how species respond to fire and to develop effective fire management strategies that achieve conservation goals. This project intends to int ....Spatially explicit solutions for managing fire and biodiversity. This project aims to develop a framework for predicting the impact of future fire regimes on the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species. Inappropriate fire regimes are one of the most significant threats to biodiversity in Australia. There is an urgent need to better understand how species respond to fire and to develop effective fire management strategies that achieve conservation goals. This project intends to integrate ecological models, fire behaviour simulation and formal decision-making approaches to evaluate alternative fire scenarios in real landscapes. The major output is anticipated to be linked ecological models and decision tools that help managers to better protect biodiversity in flammable landscapes.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101030
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$442,638.00
Summary
Road to recovery: evidence-based conservation of threatened ecosystems. The project aims to develop novel decision-support tools to cost-effectively recover threatened ecosystems, through landscape-scale, evidence-based ecological restoration. This project expects to develop strategic frameworks to reverse ecosystem declines and promote recovery using a novel combination of ecological theory, expert elicitation, evidence synthesis and prioritisation techniques. Anticipated outcomes include decis ....Road to recovery: evidence-based conservation of threatened ecosystems. The project aims to develop novel decision-support tools to cost-effectively recover threatened ecosystems, through landscape-scale, evidence-based ecological restoration. This project expects to develop strategic frameworks to reverse ecosystem declines and promote recovery using a novel combination of ecological theory, expert elicitation, evidence synthesis and prioritisation techniques. Anticipated outcomes include decision-support tools for setting realistic recovery goals, identifying effective restoration actions and planning for full recovery of threatened ecosystems. This project should provide significant benefits to the Australian federal and state governments, by informing policy and management of threatened ecosystems.Read moreRead less