Reconstructing the historical frequency and intensity of Australian droughts: A multi-species dendrochronological approach. Drought directly and indirectly impacts every Australian. Severe droughts devastate rural communities, lead to increased water restrictions and bushfire activity, slows the national economy and threatens diverse ecosystems. Our research will improve understanding of where, when, and how intensely droughts have occurred across eastern Australia in the past. The results will ....Reconstructing the historical frequency and intensity of Australian droughts: A multi-species dendrochronological approach. Drought directly and indirectly impacts every Australian. Severe droughts devastate rural communities, lead to increased water restrictions and bushfire activity, slows the national economy and threatens diverse ecosystems. Our research will improve understanding of where, when, and how intensely droughts have occurred across eastern Australia in the past. The results will provide unique insights into the processes that generate Australian droughts and how future droughts might be anticipated. The results will provide farmers, hydrologists, and policy-makers with better data on long-term variability in water supplies to improve local, regional, and national water planning initiatives and infrastructure development.Read moreRead less
The historical environment of Angkor: an investigation of synergy between people and landscape. Understanding the complex inter-relationship between humans and the natural environment is of critical importance. The use of geo-scientific techniques to interpret historical environmental records provides a useful tool for obtaining this knowledge. Using the medieval city of Angkor, Cambodia, as a case study, the proposed research will employ well-established analytical techniques in a new and innov ....The historical environment of Angkor: an investigation of synergy between people and landscape. Understanding the complex inter-relationship between humans and the natural environment is of critical importance. The use of geo-scientific techniques to interpret historical environmental records provides a useful tool for obtaining this knowledge. Using the medieval city of Angkor, Cambodia, as a case study, the proposed research will employ well-established analytical techniques in a new and innovative manner to reconstruct environmental change and cultural adaptation. This research, the first of its kind undertaken at Angkor, will revolutionise our understanding of this World Heritage site, and contribute to a better understanding of the synergy between human culture and its environmental context.Read moreRead less
Technology and behavioural evolution in late Pleistocene Africa, Europe and Australia. Many of the behaviours which distinguish Homo sapiens from other species first appeared in the late Pleistocene, raising the issue of whether our cognitive capacity changed significantly in this period. This project will use recent advances developed by Australian researchers to help resolve this cornerstone issue in human behavioural evolution. The project will also emphasise the importance of Australian arch ....Technology and behavioural evolution in late Pleistocene Africa, Europe and Australia. Many of the behaviours which distinguish Homo sapiens from other species first appeared in the late Pleistocene, raising the issue of whether our cognitive capacity changed significantly in this period. This project will use recent advances developed by Australian researchers to help resolve this cornerstone issue in human behavioural evolution. The project will also emphasise the importance of Australian archaeology to models of human evolution, redressing the peripheral role that the Pleistocene archaeology of the country is often accorded. In addressing these issues, the project will highlight Australia's commitment to core issues in human evolution, and deepen Australia's scientific ties with South Africa.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,000.00
Summary
High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality c ....High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality changes, pollution histories, recent geomorphological change, land-use change, introduction of invasive species and the occurrence of bushfires. A better understanding of the occurrence and timing of these major environmental issues is of national and regional importance.Read moreRead less
Antarctic marine diatoms: Key to predicting the effects of global climate change on a temperature-sensitive ecosystem. This project aims to determine the effects of global climate change on Antarctic diatoms. Diatoms are a major component of the polar phytoplankton. They are sensitive to changes in their marine environment, detection of which is an essential part of the Antarctic climate change strategy. Understanding the environmental processes that cause natural variation in extant diatoms ....Antarctic marine diatoms: Key to predicting the effects of global climate change on a temperature-sensitive ecosystem. This project aims to determine the effects of global climate change on Antarctic diatoms. Diatoms are a major component of the polar phytoplankton. They are sensitive to changes in their marine environment, detection of which is an essential part of the Antarctic climate change strategy. Understanding the environmental processes that cause natural variation in extant diatoms will make it possible to reconstruct the response of fossil diatoms, preserved in marine sediments, to past climate change. This understanding is vital for predicting the effect of future anthropogenic warming on this ecosystem.Read moreRead less
Variability in El Niño frequency and intensity over the past 4000 years. Fossil corals contain a rich archive of past climate variability for tropical oceans which can extend the limited instrumental data and increase our understanding of climate sensitivity. El Niño variations in the Pacific have far-reaching impacts on Australian climate, and this project will reconstruct variations in the past in order to better forecast climate sensitivity in the future. It focuses on Christmas Island whic ....Variability in El Niño frequency and intensity over the past 4000 years. Fossil corals contain a rich archive of past climate variability for tropical oceans which can extend the limited instrumental data and increase our understanding of climate sensitivity. El Niño variations in the Pacific have far-reaching impacts on Australian climate, and this project will reconstruct variations in the past in order to better forecast climate sensitivity in the future. It focuses on Christmas Island which is the optimal site to capture El Niño variability at several different time scales, and will lead to a better understanding of atmospheric and oceanic factors that have caused climate variability.Read moreRead less
Sustainable development in southwestern Victoria: construction of a baseline palaeoecological record for assessment of past and future human-environment interactions. A detailed, continuous, sediment-based, multi-proxy palaeoenvironment record, will be constructed to contribute to the goals of the innovative, community-based Lake Condah Sustainability Development Project that are informed management and heritage listing of the Mt Eccles lava flow region, southwestern Victoria. The record, coveri ....Sustainable development in southwestern Victoria: construction of a baseline palaeoecological record for assessment of past and future human-environment interactions. A detailed, continuous, sediment-based, multi-proxy palaeoenvironment record, will be constructed to contribute to the goals of the innovative, community-based Lake Condah Sustainability Development Project that are informed management and heritage listing of the Mt Eccles lava flow region, southwestern Victoria. The record, covering at least the last 20,000 years, is designed to (a) provide a dated framework for understanding past human-environment relationships, especially the development of a unique Aboriginal complex hunter-gatherer society based on aquaculture, (b) an historical basis for fire management of a nationally important vegetation community and (c) the provision of a palaeoclimate record of global significance.Read moreRead less
Antarctic freshwater lake fauna: Palaeobiogeography, palaeoecology and applications to climate change studies. The origins of the Antarctic freshwater fauna are poorly known: Are the species currently extant long-term endemics descended from species present before the formation of the Antarctic ice-cap, or are they recent invaders from more temperate zones? By studying the distribution of faunal remains in the sediments of freshwater lakes, a picture of the development of the fauna in space and ....Antarctic freshwater lake fauna: Palaeobiogeography, palaeoecology and applications to climate change studies. The origins of the Antarctic freshwater fauna are poorly known: Are the species currently extant long-term endemics descended from species present before the formation of the Antarctic ice-cap, or are they recent invaders from more temperate zones? By studying the distribution of faunal remains in the sediments of freshwater lakes, a picture of the development of the fauna in space and time ('palaeobiogeography') will be formed that will allow the Antarctic fauna to be placed in a wider biogeographic context. Changes in the faunal distribution will also be interpreted in terms of lake palaeoecology and climate change.Read moreRead less