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Hotspots of endemism for invertebrate conservation in south-east Australia. The project aims to identify and predict hotspots of species endemism to guide conservation and restoration efforts. This work is significant in the current extinction crisis because endemic species (those unique to a region) are at higher risk of extinction due to human causes. The project will model the relationship of narrow range endemic species with contemporary and past environments, estimate the historical loss of ....Hotspots of endemism for invertebrate conservation in south-east Australia. The project aims to identify and predict hotspots of species endemism to guide conservation and restoration efforts. This work is significant in the current extinction crisis because endemic species (those unique to a region) are at higher risk of extinction due to human causes. The project will model the relationship of narrow range endemic species with contemporary and past environments, estimate the historical loss of species through land-clearing and fire, and predict future responses to climate change, to inform conservation planning. Lastly, it will test the efficacy of habitat transplants in restoring local invertebrate assemblages. Benefits include better informed conservation planning and new restoration approaches.Read moreRead less
The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecologic ....The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecological impacts of industry development. Important benefits of the project include information and tools for streamlining development approvals and accurately assessing risks to threatened species to improve outcomes for both our economy and our natural environment.Read moreRead less
New metrics to measure and track fauna community condition in Australia. This project aims to improve how biodiversity is measured by developing a system to describe the condition of animal communities, analogous to those used for plant communities. It develops and tests the system for Australia’s birds, then extends the approach to other animal groups. The project expects to develop a data-driven typology of bird communities, accompanying community condition metrics that are scalable from site ....New metrics to measure and track fauna community condition in Australia. This project aims to improve how biodiversity is measured by developing a system to describe the condition of animal communities, analogous to those used for plant communities. It develops and tests the system for Australia’s birds, then extends the approach to other animal groups. The project expects to develop a data-driven typology of bird communities, accompanying community condition metrics that are scalable from site to national levels, and guidance for using these metrics in practice. These metrics will enable holistic and relevant measures of the biodiversity value of sites, improve evaluation of restoration actions, reveal trends in community condition, and inform monitoring and evaluation tools for emerging biodiversity markets.Read moreRead less
More than a reserve? Measuring the benefits of private protected areas. This project aims to develop a framework for understanding the full suite of benefits derived from privately protected areas in Australia. It will develop and test a new interdisciplinary approach to measure the ecological, socio-cultural, and economic benefits of protected areas to both human and non-human beneficiaries. Outcomes will include a systematic process to effectively gather data, analyse, and report on the full s ....More than a reserve? Measuring the benefits of private protected areas. This project aims to develop a framework for understanding the full suite of benefits derived from privately protected areas in Australia. It will develop and test a new interdisciplinary approach to measure the ecological, socio-cultural, and economic benefits of protected areas to both human and non-human beneficiaries. Outcomes will include a systematic process to effectively gather data, analyse, and report on the full suite of benefits derived from protected areas. The framework will provide a robust evidence base for the range of benefits provided by private protected areas. This will be vital to manage and grow Australia’s protected area network to reduce biodiversity and environmental declines, and meet international commitments.Read moreRead less
Fate of PAPs and short-chain PFAS in biosolids amended soils. Biosolids generated during wastewater treatment contain PFAS which are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. Application of biosolids to agricultural land may result in soil, groundwater and surface water PFAS contamination via leaching and run-off and pose unknown potential risk to soil health, crops and beneficial biota. This study aims to generate novel knowledge on the PFAS fate in biosolid amended soils, crops and toxicity to ke ....Fate of PAPs and short-chain PFAS in biosolids amended soils. Biosolids generated during wastewater treatment contain PFAS which are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. Application of biosolids to agricultural land may result in soil, groundwater and surface water PFAS contamination via leaching and run-off and pose unknown potential risk to soil health, crops and beneficial biota. This study aims to generate novel knowledge on the PFAS fate in biosolid amended soils, crops and toxicity to key soil and aquatic biota at environmentally relevant concentrations. This study is supported by Australian water and its allied industries, as it is important for them to ensure that biosolids application to agricultural land is an environmentally sustainable solution to the Australian farmers and communities.Read moreRead less
Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques ....Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques that use large amounts of unlabeled data to enhance performance. Our design takes advantage of additional information available for marine imagery such as geolocation and remote sensing context. We will explore how these representations can guide additional sampling and improve performance in classification tasks.Read moreRead less
Modern statistical methods for clustering community ecology data. This project will develop statistical methods and software for clustering community ecology data, and use them to analyse systematic survey and citizen science program data collected along the Great Barrier Reef. By doing so, the project will address the dearth of statistical classification techniques for high-dimensional, multi-response data with complex relationships. When the resultant clustering methods are used to construct b ....Modern statistical methods for clustering community ecology data. This project will develop statistical methods and software for clustering community ecology data, and use them to analyse systematic survey and citizen science program data collected along the Great Barrier Reef. By doing so, the project will address the dearth of statistical classification techniques for high-dimensional, multi-response data with complex relationships. When the resultant clustering methods are used to construct bioregions and characterise species’ environmental responses, they should significantly enhance evaluations of the impact of human activity and environmental change on coral diversity. Ultimately, these evaluations can underpin future decisions in the conservation and management of the Great Barrier Reef.Read moreRead less
Assessing fish connectivity across highly-modified seascapes. This project aims to quantify the effects of large-scale infrastructure on fish connectivity and populations by advancing our understanding of critical ecological processes within these modified coastal seascapes. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of fish seascape ecology and management using an innovative approach which considers all life history stages within a metapopulation modelling context. Expected outco ....Assessing fish connectivity across highly-modified seascapes. This project aims to quantify the effects of large-scale infrastructure on fish connectivity and populations by advancing our understanding of critical ecological processes within these modified coastal seascapes. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of fish seascape ecology and management using an innovative approach which considers all life history stages within a metapopulation modelling context. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of an integrated modelling approaches to better predict the effects of habitat modifications. This should provide significant benefits by allowing assessment of development and management actions before they take place, supporting long-term planning.Read moreRead less
Resolving the role of kelp in blue carbon cycles to enable management. We aim to uncover how kelp forests contribute to carbon storage, biodiversity enhancement and nutrient mitigation in Australia. We will combine mapping and modelling to identify local variation in kelp carbon stocks and sequestration potential and verify kelp carbon export to deep ocean sinks through genetic tracing in seawater and sediments. Co-benefits will be identified through nutrient experiments and reef surveys. We wil ....Resolving the role of kelp in blue carbon cycles to enable management. We aim to uncover how kelp forests contribute to carbon storage, biodiversity enhancement and nutrient mitigation in Australia. We will combine mapping and modelling to identify local variation in kelp carbon stocks and sequestration potential and verify kelp carbon export to deep ocean sinks through genetic tracing in seawater and sediments. Co-benefits will be identified through nutrient experiments and reef surveys. We will also assess the risk that calcification and production of halogenic gas within the kelp forest could offset its climate mitigation potential. Project outcomes will enable management to consider kelp ecosystem services broadly and optimize our capacity to meet current emission reduction and biodiversity commitments.Read moreRead less
Using animal-borne sensors to unravel East Antarctic coastal productivity. This project will examine the mechanisms underpinning the high productivity in Antarctic coastal polynyas, which are ice-free oases within the sea ice supporting abundant marine life. The study expects to generate essential new biochemical and biological observations using autonomous platforms to understand phytoplankton dynamics in these inaccessible habitats along Australia’s Antarctic Territory. Expected outcomes inclu ....Using animal-borne sensors to unravel East Antarctic coastal productivity. This project will examine the mechanisms underpinning the high productivity in Antarctic coastal polynyas, which are ice-free oases within the sea ice supporting abundant marine life. The study expects to generate essential new biochemical and biological observations using autonomous platforms to understand phytoplankton dynamics in these inaccessible habitats along Australia’s Antarctic Territory. Expected outcomes include novel insight into the role of iron supply from melting glaciers in supporting marine production. This should reduce the high uncertainty in prognoses for polynya activity under anthropogenic climate change, and support Australia’s international leadership in conservation and management of important Antarctic ecosystems.Read moreRead less