Future Keepers: impacts of climate change on ecosystem function providers. The aim of this project is to predict how key ecosystem service providers may change under resource limitation and thermal stress. The project seeks to assess how common species respond to climatic fluctuations and resource limitations when competing for resources in familiar and novel environments along six biogeographic transects throughout Australia. In combination with hypothesis-driven field, laboratory and transplan ....Future Keepers: impacts of climate change on ecosystem function providers. The aim of this project is to predict how key ecosystem service providers may change under resource limitation and thermal stress. The project seeks to assess how common species respond to climatic fluctuations and resource limitations when competing for resources in familiar and novel environments along six biogeographic transects throughout Australia. In combination with hypothesis-driven field, laboratory and transplant experiments, citizen science will be used to create a longitudinal data set of the constraints put on dominant and functionally important species. The project also seeks to enable more robust forecasting of biological responses to environmental change by integrating both empirical and theoretical capabilities.Read moreRead less
Temperature-dependent toxicity of plant secondary compounds to mammalian herbivores. Changes in the toxicity of plant secondary compounds is an unexplored consequence of rises in ambient temperatures. Evidence from agricultural and laboratory studies suggests that temperature dependent toxicity can have major effects on the intake and metabolism of plant secondary metabolites by mammals. These effects are mediated by a decrease in liver metabolism and by the effects of plant secondary metabolite ....Temperature-dependent toxicity of plant secondary compounds to mammalian herbivores. Changes in the toxicity of plant secondary compounds is an unexplored consequence of rises in ambient temperatures. Evidence from agricultural and laboratory studies suggests that temperature dependent toxicity can have major effects on the intake and metabolism of plant secondary metabolites by mammals. These effects are mediated by a decrease in liver metabolism and by the effects of plant secondary metabolites on mitochondrial function which leads to greater heat production. The project will quantify the importance of temperature dependent toxicity and measures the changes in the cost of detoxification to better model the effects of climate change on marsupial herbivores.Read moreRead less