How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries s ....How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries species to evaluate their climate resilience. An advanced food web model will be developed to forecast changes to fisheries production in a future world. This provides a much-improved forecast of climate adaptation and managing future biodiversity and fisheries species through resilient genes and populations.Read moreRead less
Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of geneti ....Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of genetic variation. Recent advances in multivariate genetic analysis have demonstrated that a substantial proportion of a phenotype described by quantitative traits has very little genetic variance associated with it, and will therefore tend to be subjected to evolutionary limitsRead moreRead less
Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will ....Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will be investigated with flux tower and remotely sensed data. The project expects to generate new knowledge of how Australian tropical rainforests are responding to climate change. The expected outcome is an enhanced capacity to understand and manage a highly valued component of the Australian forest estate.Read moreRead less
Zooplankton: the missing link in modelling the ocean carbon cycle. What is arguably the biggest gap in our ability to close the ocean carbon cycle, and thus improve future forecasts of carbon sequestration and fisheries? The answer is our modelling of zooplankton, the most abundant animals on Earth. This project aims to build a next-generation ecosystem model that resolves zooplankton groups, their traits and key processes, generating novel insights into carbon sequestration and fisheries. Expec ....Zooplankton: the missing link in modelling the ocean carbon cycle. What is arguably the biggest gap in our ability to close the ocean carbon cycle, and thus improve future forecasts of carbon sequestration and fisheries? The answer is our modelling of zooplankton, the most abundant animals on Earth. This project aims to build a next-generation ecosystem model that resolves zooplankton groups, their traits and key processes, generating novel insights into carbon sequestration and fisheries. Expected outcomes include new methods for zooplankton modelling, leading to a paradigm shift in how we model carbon cycling. This should provide significant benefits, including vastly improved estimates of carbon sequestration and fisheries production, vital for carbon budgets and food security in Australia and globally.Read moreRead less
Sex is important in adaptation to environmental change. Aims: This project will use novel experiments with the aim of determining the potential for plasticity to be adaptive with sexual selection and how non-genetic effects transfer across generations by establishing genomic mechanisms. Significance: Plasticity (or acclimation) is often hailed as the saviour for species in the face of rapid climate change, but it is problematic if it is not adaptive in nature. Expected outcomes: Expected outcome ....Sex is important in adaptation to environmental change. Aims: This project will use novel experiments with the aim of determining the potential for plasticity to be adaptive with sexual selection and how non-genetic effects transfer across generations by establishing genomic mechanisms. Significance: Plasticity (or acclimation) is often hailed as the saviour for species in the face of rapid climate change, but it is problematic if it is not adaptive in nature. Expected outcomes: Expected outcomes include an enhanced ability to predict adaptation of fish under environmental change. Benefits: This project will provide significant benefits to Australian and international communities that rely on fish for nutrition, economic and social values, through an improved evidence base to inform management.Read moreRead less
Does larval environment dictate resilience in a changing ocean? . This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of key marine and freshwater invertebrates. This project expects to generate new knowledge using an interdisciplinary approach to understand the roles of diet and environment in invertebrate stress tolerance. Expected outcomes from this project include crucial insights into biological responses and extinction risk in a changing ocean. This s ....Does larval environment dictate resilience in a changing ocean? . This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of key marine and freshwater invertebrates. This project expects to generate new knowledge using an interdisciplinary approach to understand the roles of diet and environment in invertebrate stress tolerance. Expected outcomes from this project include crucial insights into biological responses and extinction risk in a changing ocean. This should provide significant benefits, such as enhanced capacity to safeguard natural populations and habitats crucial to Australian industries and integral to maintaining the links of Indigenous Australians with their lands.Read moreRead less
Evolutionary models and biodiscovery tools from neurotoxic snake venoms. This project aims to identify the selection pressures that shape snake venom neurotoxins and how they interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and to elucidate their biodiscovery potential. This project aims to test these important toxins on model systems that represent natural prey items in order to determine the molecular and functional evolution of neurotoxic peptides. Expected outcomes include substantial contri ....Evolutionary models and biodiscovery tools from neurotoxic snake venoms. This project aims to identify the selection pressures that shape snake venom neurotoxins and how they interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and to elucidate their biodiscovery potential. This project aims to test these important toxins on model systems that represent natural prey items in order to determine the molecular and functional evolution of neurotoxic peptides. Expected outcomes include substantial contributions to the body of evolutionary biology knowledge, while also having the applied benefit of discovering novel compounds with potential for use in drug design and discovery. These outcomes will benefit Australian science and society by elucidating fundamental processes while revealing biodisovery resources.Read moreRead less
The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change. This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of Australia’s oyster industry, by combining the science of genetics, physiology and ecology to identify already resilient oysters. Through the first complete understanding of resilience in oysters, including the trade-offs they have made in other fitness traits, the project develops new capacities to 'climate and future-proof' our natural oyst ....The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change. This project aims to investigate the impact of global environmental change on the survival of Australia’s oyster industry, by combining the science of genetics, physiology and ecology to identify already resilient oysters. Through the first complete understanding of resilience in oysters, including the trade-offs they have made in other fitness traits, the project develops new capacities to 'climate and future-proof' our natural oyster populations and the Australian oyster industry, to enable the restoration of degraded oyster habitats. This project will ensure the future of an iconic and economically important national industry and food source and contribute to preserving the critical cultural links of Indigenous Australians with their lands.Read moreRead less
Tapping into non-English-language science in tackling global challenges. This project aims to transform the conventional practice of English-biased evidence use to multilingual evidence synthesis to enable us to better tackle global challenges. The project expects to lay the foundations and provide platforms for multilingual, unbiased evidence-based solutions to global issues including biodiversity loss, climate adaptation and animal-origin diseases. Expected outcomes include a database of non-E ....Tapping into non-English-language science in tackling global challenges. This project aims to transform the conventional practice of English-biased evidence use to multilingual evidence synthesis to enable us to better tackle global challenges. The project expects to lay the foundations and provide platforms for multilingual, unbiased evidence-based solutions to global issues including biodiversity loss, climate adaptation and animal-origin diseases. Expected outcomes include a database of non-English-language evidence on the three global issues of focus, machine learning tools, and machine translation platforms that make non-English-language evidence accessible. This should benefit national/international policies and practices by making a neglected source of evidence available for science-led decision-making.Read moreRead less
Does climatic thermal variability matter? This project aims to research how annual and daily variability in temperature effects the distribution of species, their tolerance to temperature, their dispersal ability and genetic structuring. Expected outcomes include more accurate assessment of the ecological risk of climate change, which is expected to result in altered average temperatures and temperature variability. Such assessments will result in better management of species and ecosystems faci ....Does climatic thermal variability matter? This project aims to research how annual and daily variability in temperature effects the distribution of species, their tolerance to temperature, their dispersal ability and genetic structuring. Expected outcomes include more accurate assessment of the ecological risk of climate change, which is expected to result in altered average temperatures and temperature variability. Such assessments will result in better management of species and ecosystems facing threats from climate change.Read moreRead less