Why are fish shrinking as the climate warms? This project aims to uncover the mechanisms behind the temperature-size rule, a phenomenon causing fishes and other aquatic organisms to decline in size as the climate warms. Drawing on multidisciplinary expertise to test three competing theories, this project expects to identify the fundamental processes driving the temperature-size rule phenomenon. Expected outcomes include improved models to forecast the effects of global warming on fish and fisher ....Why are fish shrinking as the climate warms? This project aims to uncover the mechanisms behind the temperature-size rule, a phenomenon causing fishes and other aquatic organisms to decline in size as the climate warms. Drawing on multidisciplinary expertise to test three competing theories, this project expects to identify the fundamental processes driving the temperature-size rule phenomenon. Expected outcomes include improved models to forecast the effects of global warming on fish and fisheries. The new knowledge and predictive power should be of direct benefit to natural resource managers in the continuing effort to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. This will guide policy and management decisions by enabling more accurate forecasts of the impacts of climate change on wild and cultured fishes.Read moreRead less
Vulnerability of Australian bats to white-nose syndrome. Australia's unique wildlife is inherently at risk from invasive novel pathogens. White-nose syndrome is an emerging fungal disease that has decimated bat populations across North America. This fungal disease is likely to soon jump continents and also seriously threaten Australia's bat fauna. This project aims to quantify the risk of exposure to this fungus and understand the sensitivity of Australian bat populations to white-nose syndrome ....Vulnerability of Australian bats to white-nose syndrome. Australia's unique wildlife is inherently at risk from invasive novel pathogens. White-nose syndrome is an emerging fungal disease that has decimated bat populations across North America. This fungal disease is likely to soon jump continents and also seriously threaten Australia's bat fauna. This project aims to quantify the risk of exposure to this fungus and understand the sensitivity of Australian bat populations to white-nose syndrome mortality. Expected outcomes include spatially-explicit, species-specific models of vulnerability to white-nose syndrome for bat populations across south-eastern Australia, essential for directing actions to prevent, detect and mitigate the impacts of this potentially catastrophic wildlife disease.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100824
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Pre-natal communication in adaptation to hot climate. This project aims to reveal how birds programme their offspring for a warming world, by communicating acoustically with their embryos. Most animals, including humans, can hear external sounds before birth, but it is not known what function this plays. An Australian bird calls to its eggs at high ambient temperatures, which alters nestling growth and survival. This project will show the physiological effects involved and the consequences for a ....Pre-natal communication in adaptation to hot climate. This project aims to reveal how birds programme their offspring for a warming world, by communicating acoustically with their embryos. Most animals, including humans, can hear external sounds before birth, but it is not known what function this plays. An Australian bird calls to its eggs at high ambient temperatures, which alters nestling growth and survival. This project will show the physiological effects involved and the consequences for adaptation to heat in wild birds. This project will elucidate whether the global reduction in animal body size is an adaptive response to rising temperatures, and research the therapeutic benefits of pre-natal sounds.Read moreRead less
Reproductive plasticity and climate change: insights from an opportunistic breeder. Across the globe, birds are struggling to optimise their reproductive timing and investment in a changing and unpredictable climate. This project will use the highly adaptable and opportunistic Australian zebra finch to develop an understanding of how birds tailor their behaviour and physiology to breed across a range of conditions.
The evolution of breathing patterns in animals. Although breathing is usually regarding as a continuous process, many species voluntarily hold their breath for up to several hours at a time. This pattern of periodic breathing is shown by a range of animals including mammals, reptiles, and insects, yet the reasons why they hold their breath is unknown. This project will examine the evolution of breathing patterns in the context of climate and atmospheric conditions. The outcomes of this project w ....The evolution of breathing patterns in animals. Although breathing is usually regarding as a continuous process, many species voluntarily hold their breath for up to several hours at a time. This pattern of periodic breathing is shown by a range of animals including mammals, reptiles, and insects, yet the reasons why they hold their breath is unknown. This project will examine the evolution of breathing patterns in the context of climate and atmospheric conditions. The outcomes of this project will provide insight into the evolution of fundamental characteristic of animals (breathing), describe the role of climate in shaping how animals breathe, and demonstrate how animals will cope with climate change.Read moreRead less
Manipulative tests of metabolic theory. This project aims to take a new interdisciplinary approach to understanding how energy flows through individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. The project expects to develop a new framework for understanding the function of biological systems, bringing together the fields of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, generating research publications, and training students in interdisciplinary research. The proposed research is anticipated ....Manipulative tests of metabolic theory. This project aims to take a new interdisciplinary approach to understanding how energy flows through individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. The project expects to develop a new framework for understanding the function of biological systems, bringing together the fields of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, generating research publications, and training students in interdisciplinary research. The proposed research is anticipated to provide a means for understanding how management interventions can alter energy flows in biological systems, bringing benefits across the areas of climate change adaptation, conservation science, agriculture and aquaculture, and fisheries management.Read moreRead less
The evolution of biological scaling. This project aims to understand why so few biological traits scale proportionally with body size. In contrast to previous mechanistic studies of this longstanding question, the problem will be approached from an evolutionary viewpoint, using artificial selection to engineer animals in which biological scaling laws are either broken or enhanced. By measuring the consequences of this for fitness, the project will provide a new understanding of how organismal si ....The evolution of biological scaling. This project aims to understand why so few biological traits scale proportionally with body size. In contrast to previous mechanistic studies of this longstanding question, the problem will be approached from an evolutionary viewpoint, using artificial selection to engineer animals in which biological scaling laws are either broken or enhanced. By measuring the consequences of this for fitness, the project will provide a new understanding of how organismal size and physiology evolve in nature. The approach should provide significant benefits to our understanding of the role of genetic constraints in hindering or facilitating biological adaptation, furthering our understanding of the capacity of animals to respond to environmental change.Read moreRead less
A new model for animal growth. This project aims to test and further develop a new theory for how animals grow. The new growth theory brings together the fields of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, generating research publications, and training students. The proposed research is anticipated to provide a fundamentally new means for understanding how animals divide energy among growth and reproduction, paving the way for organismal allocation to these processes to be optimised by sele ....A new model for animal growth. This project aims to test and further develop a new theory for how animals grow. The new growth theory brings together the fields of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, generating research publications, and training students. The proposed research is anticipated to provide a fundamentally new means for understanding how animals divide energy among growth and reproduction, paving the way for organismal allocation to these processes to be optimised by selective breeding or genetic manipulation, yielding potential benefits for aquaculture (enhanced growth) or re-introduction (enhanced reproduction).Read moreRead less