Ocean heat content change and its impact on sea level. This project aims to improve projections of possible sea level changes. Sea level rise is among the most significant potential impacts of transient climate change around the world. Poor understanding of the way in which heat is absorbed at the sea surface and distributed by ocean circulation is a leading source of uncertainty in projections of global surface temperature and regional sea level rise by the end of this century. This project aim ....Ocean heat content change and its impact on sea level. This project aims to improve projections of possible sea level changes. Sea level rise is among the most significant potential impacts of transient climate change around the world. Poor understanding of the way in which heat is absorbed at the sea surface and distributed by ocean circulation is a leading source of uncertainty in projections of global surface temperature and regional sea level rise by the end of this century. This project aims to apply novel observational methods, complimented by numerical modelling, to quantify the drivers of recent change. This project expects to transform our ability to predict how ocean temperature and sea level will change in the future.Read moreRead less
A Dynamical Systems Approach to Mapping Southern Ocean Circulation Pathways. Climate change can be expected to have complex, long-term consequences for Australia's biodiversity, for our agricultural and marine production systems, and for regional communities. The Southern Ocean is a critical driver of global climate, connecting the three major oceanic basins. Using sophisticated mathematics to analyse state-of-the-art global ocean models, this project will create a detailed picture of hitherto i ....A Dynamical Systems Approach to Mapping Southern Ocean Circulation Pathways. Climate change can be expected to have complex, long-term consequences for Australia's biodiversity, for our agricultural and marine production systems, and for regional communities. The Southern Ocean is a critical driver of global climate, connecting the three major oceanic basins. Using sophisticated mathematics to analyse state-of-the-art global ocean models, this project will create a detailed picture of hitherto invisible Southern Ocean circulation 'pathways'. The newly discovered pathways will greatly enhance our understanding of the Southern Ocean circulation, lead to improved coupled climate models, and increase our ability to predict future climate change and threats to marine populations. Read moreRead less
Ecological consequences of hydrodynamic disturbances. The Great Barrier Reef is synonymous with Australia to many people worldwide. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to our national tourism industry. As stewards of this unique ecosystem, we are responsible for ensuring its persistence under not only present, but also future climate scenarios. To do so requires the tools for predicting the ecological impacts of physical disturbance that this project will develop. Because of its global s ....Ecological consequences of hydrodynamic disturbances. The Great Barrier Reef is synonymous with Australia to many people worldwide. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to our national tourism industry. As stewards of this unique ecosystem, we are responsible for ensuring its persistence under not only present, but also future climate scenarios. To do so requires the tools for predicting the ecological impacts of physical disturbance that this project will develop. Because of its global significance, this work will continue to generate high-impact publications that will increase the international research profile of Australia. Finally, this project will generate collaborations with top researchers worldwide and will provide high quality training to postgraduate students.
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Benthic Processes and Oceanic Internal Waves. Direct observations will be made of the turbulent motion and sediment re-suspension near the sea bed of the ocean in regions strongly influenced by tides and internal waves. Combined with numerical models, the study will provide new insights into processes that are of fundamental importance to understanding the global dissipation of tidal energy and the role of internal waves in these processes. With observations from the continental slope region of ....Benthic Processes and Oceanic Internal Waves. Direct observations will be made of the turbulent motion and sediment re-suspension near the sea bed of the ocean in regions strongly influenced by tides and internal waves. Combined with numerical models, the study will provide new insights into processes that are of fundamental importance to understanding the global dissipation of tidal energy and the role of internal waves in these processes. With observations from the continental slope region of the Australian North West Shelf, results will also benefit the offshore engineering industry through knowledge of sediment scour and loadings on offshore structures.Read moreRead less
Abrupt Southern Hemisphere Climate Change: The Role Of The Southern Ocean Thermohaline Circulation. Australia's climate is extreme, with harsh droughts, severe bushfire seasons, climate change, soil loss, and salinity all posing potentially enormous socio-economic challenges over the next ten-fifty years. Research into climate change and climate variability is thus highly significant for Australia, and will underpin efforts to protect our biodiversity and ensure the nation's environmental sustai ....Abrupt Southern Hemisphere Climate Change: The Role Of The Southern Ocean Thermohaline Circulation. Australia's climate is extreme, with harsh droughts, severe bushfire seasons, climate change, soil loss, and salinity all posing potentially enormous socio-economic challenges over the next ten-fifty years. Research into climate change and climate variability is thus highly significant for Australia, and will underpin efforts to protect our biodiversity and ensure the nation's environmental sustainability. We propose to launch a major new study of the stability of the Southern Ocean's thermohaline circulation and its role in global climate. This work could have significant long-term benefits for those sectors of society sensitive to shifts in climate; including agriculture, energy, freshwater supply, health, and tourism.Read moreRead less
Ocean-reef interactions as drivers of continental shelf productivity in a changing climate. Poor coastal management results in the irreparable destruction of reef systems' function and biodiversity, nationally and globally. To manage marine resources effectively we must implement sustainable practices, including forward planning in the context of climate change. A critical limitation in determining appropriate actions is a poor understanding of mechanisms driving productivity. Our project will p ....Ocean-reef interactions as drivers of continental shelf productivity in a changing climate. Poor coastal management results in the irreparable destruction of reef systems' function and biodiversity, nationally and globally. To manage marine resources effectively we must implement sustainable practices, including forward planning in the context of climate change. A critical limitation in determining appropriate actions is a poor understanding of mechanisms driving productivity. Our project will provide key information on the oceanographic mechanisms supporting Australia's coastal systems, linking nutrient supply, physical drivers and climate. By linking all these factors we will both assist in determining appropriate ecosystem management, and provide a knowledge base to support adaptation to future changes in Australia's climate.Read moreRead less
Development of a mechanistic model of marine biological activity. The development of predictive models of marine biological activity lags that in physical oceanography. While modellers of ocean circulation use primarily physical laws, biological processes have typically been modelled using empirical approximations. Many biological processes in the ocean, however, are constrained by quantifiable biophysical limits. This study aims to improve our ability to predict the dynamics of biological po ....Development of a mechanistic model of marine biological activity. The development of predictive models of marine biological activity lags that in physical oceanography. While modellers of ocean circulation use primarily physical laws, biological processes have typically been modelled using empirical approximations. Many biological processes in the ocean, however, are constrained by quantifiable biophysical limits. This study aims to improve our ability to predict the dynamics of biological populations in the marine environment by the development of a model based on mechanistic descriptions of organisms interacting with their environment. The model's performance will be assessed by its ability to predict in situ and remotely sensed data from Australian waters.Read moreRead less
Quantifying the role of salps in marine food webs and organic carbon export. Australia has recently committed significant resources to the observation and forecasting of ocean temperature and circulation that will vastly improve the understanding of environmental forcing of regional scale biological processes. This project will use ocean circulation hindcasts, ship-board measurements and laboratory studies to capture the dynamics of the zooplankton community, and in particular a fast-growing cla ....Quantifying the role of salps in marine food webs and organic carbon export. Australia has recently committed significant resources to the observation and forecasting of ocean temperature and circulation that will vastly improve the understanding of environmental forcing of regional scale biological processes. This project will use ocean circulation hindcasts, ship-board measurements and laboratory studies to capture the dynamics of the zooplankton community, and in particular a fast-growing class of gelatinous zooplankton, the salps, in the waters off southeast Australia. During bloom events, salps can alter the functioning of marine ecosystems. This project will quantify the impact of salp blooms on fish resources and ocean uptake of carbon in southeast Australian waters.Read moreRead less
Quantifying sea-level trends and extremes along Australia's coastal margin. Multi-decadal changes in sea-level, and sea-level extremes, cannot be well quantified along most global coastlines, including Australia's, because the high spatial variability of sea-level is under-sampled by the sparse set of long, high quality tide gauge records. Satellite altimetry provides an alternative data source with greater spatial sampling, yet experiences contamination from land within tens of kilometres from ....Quantifying sea-level trends and extremes along Australia's coastal margin. Multi-decadal changes in sea-level, and sea-level extremes, cannot be well quantified along most global coastlines, including Australia's, because the high spatial variability of sea-level is under-sampled by the sparse set of long, high quality tide gauge records. Satellite altimetry provides an alternative data source with greater spatial sampling, yet experiences contamination from land within tens of kilometres from the coast and also suffers from regionally correlated biases. This project proposes to address these problems through re-tracking radar altimetry waveforms to derive new data in the coastal margin, enabling the production of new inferences on sea-level change and extremes at dramatically improved spatial resolution around Australia.Read moreRead less
Improving the credibility of regional sea level rise projections. Anthropogenic sea level rise is expected to inundate low-lying islands and coastlines around the world, with multiple model projections suggesting that changes in wind patterns will lead to larger than average sea level rise along Australia’s east coast and in neighbouring small island nations. Confidence in projections of this spatial sea level rise variability is low, however, due to a strong mismatch between patterns of observe ....Improving the credibility of regional sea level rise projections. Anthropogenic sea level rise is expected to inundate low-lying islands and coastlines around the world, with multiple model projections suggesting that changes in wind patterns will lead to larger than average sea level rise along Australia’s east coast and in neighbouring small island nations. Confidence in projections of this spatial sea level rise variability is low, however, due to a strong mismatch between patterns of observed and model-projected sea level rise in recent decades. This work will use a newly developed climate model hierarchy and innovative experimental design to determine the cause of this discrepancy and will produce more credible regional sea level rise projections by clarifying and reducing projection uncertainty.
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