Testing the importance of large-scale climate factors to plant community assembly following land-use change. This project will examine the native plant species and functional diversity of Australia's rain forest communities to create a predictive framework of how plant communities recover following deforestation. Such a framework is key to focusing conservation efforts in degraded and multi-use landscapes.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100599
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Forecasting ecosystem collapse and recovery by tracking networks of species. This project aims to assess and predict ecosystem decline by measuring change in networks of interacting species. Efforts to prevent ecosystem collapse are failing. A focus on managing individual species ignores the fact that ecosystems function because species have complex associations with one another and the environment. This project will use methods from social networks, food-web theory and web-searching behaviour, ....Forecasting ecosystem collapse and recovery by tracking networks of species. This project aims to assess and predict ecosystem decline by measuring change in networks of interacting species. Efforts to prevent ecosystem collapse are failing. A focus on managing individual species ignores the fact that ecosystems function because species have complex associations with one another and the environment. This project will use methods from social networks, food-web theory and web-searching behaviour, to discover symptoms of declining ecosystems and find robust metrics that diagnose change in networks of co-occurring species. The intended outcome is to clarify the relationship between species interactions, co-occurrence and ecosystem decline, knowledge critical to ecosystem recovery.Read moreRead less
From genes to ecosystems: does genetic divergence in eucalyptus alter biodiversity and ecosystem function? The project will use a dominant tree species of south-eastern Australia to examine how genetic based variation in its traits influences community organisation, biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Outcomes from this research will be important for responding to an uncertain future environment and maintaining the services ecosystems provide.
Rapid evolution, and the dynamics and stability of ecological communities. Population sizes of species go up and down and often we do not know why. This is a problem because changes in population size underpin more complex ecological change, and understanding why population sizes change affects our ability to manage environmental impacts, and threatened, harvested and pest species. The aim of this project is to discover how rapid evolution – evolution occurring over just a few generations – driv ....Rapid evolution, and the dynamics and stability of ecological communities. Population sizes of species go up and down and often we do not know why. This is a problem because changes in population size underpin more complex ecological change, and understanding why population sizes change affects our ability to manage environmental impacts, and threatened, harvested and pest species. The aim of this project is to discover how rapid evolution – evolution occurring over just a few generations – drives changes in population sizes of plants in Australian freshwater ecosystems. By focusing on this fundamental yet poorly understood process, our results promise to rewrite our understanding of the causes of change in ecological communities, while highlighting a unique and little studied component of Australia’s biota.Read moreRead less
Modelling dynamics in spatial ecology. This project addresses how birth, death and movement drive patterns of plants and animals in space and time. We aim to apply and extend dynamical statistical models grounded in theory. Dynamical models are needed for us to understand how species and ecological communities respond to environmental change and disturbance including bushfires, climate change and extremes and species invasion. Using data from forest plots and animal movement, we aim to understan ....Modelling dynamics in spatial ecology. This project addresses how birth, death and movement drive patterns of plants and animals in space and time. We aim to apply and extend dynamical statistical models grounded in theory. Dynamical models are needed for us to understand how species and ecological communities respond to environmental change and disturbance including bushfires, climate change and extremes and species invasion. Using data from forest plots and animal movement, we aim to understand influences on individuals and species, and how to use that to generate robust predictions. The project is expected to produce statistical models and software for use by ecologists. This should help predict, and manage, ecological impacts of environmental change and disturbances.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101439
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$445,009.00
Summary
Towards reliable and explainable models for anticipating ecological change. This project aims to develop a quantitative framework for multivariate ecological prediction. This will allow us to better anticipate how ecosystems respond to environmental change. Recent modelling advances now make it possible to use the complexity of community ecology data to deliver better predictions. The project intends to use long-term ecological datasets to build and test novel multivariate prediction models, usi ....Towards reliable and explainable models for anticipating ecological change. This project aims to develop a quantitative framework for multivariate ecological prediction. This will allow us to better anticipate how ecosystems respond to environmental change. Recent modelling advances now make it possible to use the complexity of community ecology data to deliver better predictions. The project intends to use long-term ecological datasets to build and test novel multivariate prediction models, using tick paralysis rates in Australian dogs as a case study. Expected outcomes are better tools for studying ecosystem change and new hypotheses about how ecological communities are shaped. Application of these models should provide significant benefits, such as prediction of paralysis tick burdens to improve risk mitigation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100900
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,718.00
Summary
When and where are temperate reef communities vulnerable to ocean warming? This project will test in the laboratory and the field, when and where ocean warming will exceed the thermal limits of marine species and why certain species show greater sensitivity to warming temperatures than others. This project expects to generate robust estimates about how temperature sensitivity varies between populations across species’ ranges and identify the ecological implications for habitat loss in areas wher ....When and where are temperate reef communities vulnerable to ocean warming? This project will test in the laboratory and the field, when and where ocean warming will exceed the thermal limits of marine species and why certain species show greater sensitivity to warming temperatures than others. This project expects to generate robust estimates about how temperature sensitivity varies between populations across species’ ranges and identify the ecological implications for habitat loss in areas where thermal limits differ between key species. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capacity to detect when and where vulnerability hotspots will emerge that could jeopardise the immense social, ecological, and economic value of Australia’s temperate reefs, next to which 70% of Australians live, along 8,000 km of coastline.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100746
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Trait plasticity and the maintenance of functional diversity. This project aims to determine if trait plasticity mediates functional degradation of coral reefs. It will use natural environmental gradients to identify mechanisms that enable corals to persist in marginal habitats. The project will use three-dimensional imaging to measure how variability in traits influences functional redundancy. This will facilitate better predictions of the effects of environmental change on reef systems. Expect ....Trait plasticity and the maintenance of functional diversity. This project aims to determine if trait plasticity mediates functional degradation of coral reefs. It will use natural environmental gradients to identify mechanisms that enable corals to persist in marginal habitats. The project will use three-dimensional imaging to measure how variability in traits influences functional redundancy. This will facilitate better predictions of the effects of environmental change on reef systems. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of the response of coral reef ecosystems to environmental change and a framework for predicting reefs at risk of degradation. Benefits will be to both global biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services in reef dependent communities.Read moreRead less
Habitat degradation on coral reefs. This project aims to determine how reef degradation modifies predator-prey dynamics in fish communities, and how parental effects may help species to cope with habitat change. Live corals are ecosystem engineers that support the world’s most biodiverse communities, but anthropogenic factors have led to unprecedented global declines in live coral. The transition from live to dead coral-dominated habitats is associated with a modified sensory landscape of fear f ....Habitat degradation on coral reefs. This project aims to determine how reef degradation modifies predator-prey dynamics in fish communities, and how parental effects may help species to cope with habitat change. Live corals are ecosystem engineers that support the world’s most biodiverse communities, but anthropogenic factors have led to unprecedented global declines in live coral. The transition from live to dead coral-dominated habitats is associated with a modified sensory landscape of fear for resident fishes, via chemical interference emanating from degraded coral. Inter-generational advantages would help management to regulate reef usage to promote resilience.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100709
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Assessing pollination services of honey bees in native ecosystems and threats posed by parasites. The European honeybee is our most abundant pollinator but we know little about its role in native Australian ecosystems or how its many diseases may affect its ability to pollinate. This project will determine whether honeybees are important pollinators of native plants and how a common parasite affects their pollination ability.