Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101556
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$423,206.00
Summary
Investigating the responses of Australian native bees to climatic warming. This project aims to investigate changes to native bee cognition, morphology, and pollination capability in response to climatic warming. Using emerging experimental methods for behavioural testing and state-of-the-art 3D modelling of museum specimens, the project expects to identify which species are likely to experience change under future climate scenarios. This project expects to determine if increased temperatures ca ....Investigating the responses of Australian native bees to climatic warming. This project aims to investigate changes to native bee cognition, morphology, and pollination capability in response to climatic warming. Using emerging experimental methods for behavioural testing and state-of-the-art 3D modelling of museum specimens, the project expects to identify which species are likely to experience change under future climate scenarios. This project expects to determine if increased temperatures cause pollination deficits through impaired bee cognition and changed morphology. The knowledge gained in this project will allow us to identify vulnerable species and develop strategies across agriculture, government, and community sectors to support pollination and inform conservation priorities.Read moreRead less
Avian embryonic perception: what role for good vibrations? It has long been recognised that animals perceive environmental information before they are born. This project will test for the first time whether such avian communication systems rely on vibrations. We will test the hypothesis that cryptic communication using rhythmic vibration, is essential for embryonic birds to sense parental cues regarding rising temperatures, by measuring neural control in adults, as well as embryonic perception a ....Avian embryonic perception: what role for good vibrations? It has long been recognised that animals perceive environmental information before they are born. This project will test for the first time whether such avian communication systems rely on vibrations. We will test the hypothesis that cryptic communication using rhythmic vibration, is essential for embryonic birds to sense parental cues regarding rising temperatures, by measuring neural control in adults, as well as embryonic perception and response. By experimentally manipulating family communication we will demonstrate the potential for prenatal vibrations to alter developmental outcomes, enriching our understanding of avian sensory development.These data are important for the commercial poultry industry and for captive breeding programs. Read moreRead less
Quantifying environmental constraints on animal behaviour. This project aims to determine how habitat structure, weather and motion vision influence animal behaviour. Motion vision controls locomotion, foraging, evading predators and communicating. However, information on the conditions for motion vision in natural environments is limited. To address this, this project will combine field techniques with tools from 3D animation and computer vision. The project will focus on Australia’s dragon liz ....Quantifying environmental constraints on animal behaviour. This project aims to determine how habitat structure, weather and motion vision influence animal behaviour. Motion vision controls locomotion, foraging, evading predators and communicating. However, information on the conditions for motion vision in natural environments is limited. To address this, this project will combine field techniques with tools from 3D animation and computer vision. The project will focus on Australia’s dragon lizards, and place their motion displays in a visual-ecological context. The expected outcome is a more complete picture of the signalling context, which could advance sensory ecology, vision science and animal behaviour, with practical applications in artificial intelligence and derived benefits for education and community engagement in biology.Read moreRead less
Early stress experiences and stress resilience in pigs. Animal stress has substantial implications on animal productivity, health and welfare of farm animals and thus farm profitability. This project aims to examine the stress resilience in pigs. Modern pig farming is a major source of food, providing substantial nutritional, social and economic benefits in Australia and worldwide. Animal welfare is of increasing concern to the public, consumers and pork producers, and stress vulnerability is an ....Early stress experiences and stress resilience in pigs. Animal stress has substantial implications on animal productivity, health and welfare of farm animals and thus farm profitability. This project aims to examine the stress resilience in pigs. Modern pig farming is a major source of food, providing substantial nutritional, social and economic benefits in Australia and worldwide. Animal welfare is of increasing concern to the public, consumers and pork producers, and stress vulnerability is an animal health and production problem in the life of the commercial pig. This project will generate new knowledge on early life management to endow stress resilience in pigs, with expected benefits for animal welfare, farm productivity and profitability.Read moreRead less
Becoming expert navigators with tiny brains: Learning in desert ants. Desert ants with tiny brains learn to use their surrounding visual landscape to navigate. This project investigates in detail how they do that in a few carefully orchestrated trips around their nest called learning walks. Desert ants are known now to use magnetic cues to orient during their learning walks. The project also probes the role that magnetic cues play in the ants’ learning, as well as the sensory basis of the percep ....Becoming expert navigators with tiny brains: Learning in desert ants. Desert ants with tiny brains learn to use their surrounding visual landscape to navigate. This project investigates in detail how they do that in a few carefully orchestrated trips around their nest called learning walks. Desert ants are known now to use magnetic cues to orient during their learning walks. The project also probes the role that magnetic cues play in the ants’ learning, as well as the sensory basis of the perception of magnetic cues. Geomagnetic cues in the area of the nest will be artificially manipulated to test how ants use this cue. Probing the use of magnetic cues has potential benefits for projects of artificial autonomous navigation in situations when visual cues are unavailable, such as exploring a deep mine.
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Mapping a complete visual circuit in zebrafish. Our senses perceive the outside world and permit appropriate behaviours, but the underlying brain circuits are poorly understood. This project will use new technologies to observe all active brain cells in zebrafish during the important behaviour of visual predator avoidance and characterise the underlying circuits comprehensively. This approach's significance is in its breadth, spanning functional imaging, anatomy, computational modelling, and beh ....Mapping a complete visual circuit in zebrafish. Our senses perceive the outside world and permit appropriate behaviours, but the underlying brain circuits are poorly understood. This project will use new technologies to observe all active brain cells in zebrafish during the important behaviour of visual predator avoidance and characterise the underlying circuits comprehensively. This approach's significance is in its breadth, spanning functional imaging, anatomy, computational modelling, and behaviour, with the major outcome of producing the first complete map of a visual behaviour at the level of brain circuits and the individual brain cells composing them. Benefits will include new insights into visual processing and the refinement of new genetic, optical, and informatics approaches.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100352
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$388,487.00
Summary
Reconstructing evolutionary history of termite collective nest construction. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how complex animal collective behaviour has evolved in the history of life. It combines the quantification of termite building behaviour and nest structures using a state-of-the-art video tracking technique with the latest molecular phylogenetics. This project expects to provide the first comprehensive information on termite collective building in a phyloge ....Reconstructing evolutionary history of termite collective nest construction. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how complex animal collective behaviour has evolved in the history of life. It combines the quantification of termite building behaviour and nest structures using a state-of-the-art video tracking technique with the latest molecular phylogenetics. This project expects to provide the first comprehensive information on termite collective building in a phylogenetic framework, which will be a showcase study of future studies on the evolution of complex phenotypes and resolve a debate over termite social evolution. Furthermore, it provides new knowledge of Australian native termite fauna as economically destructive pest insects.Read moreRead less
Neuronal Control of Adaptive Walking. This project seeks to understand how signals from the brain control motor circuits so that an animal can adaptively walk across varying terrains in pursuit of its ever-changing goals. It will focus on the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model. The fly is an agile walker, its nervous system has been almost fully mapped at the synaptic level, and genetic reagents are available to selectively measure or manipulate the activity of single neurons. This project specif ....Neuronal Control of Adaptive Walking. This project seeks to understand how signals from the brain control motor circuits so that an animal can adaptively walk across varying terrains in pursuit of its ever-changing goals. It will focus on the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model. The fly is an agile walker, its nervous system has been almost fully mapped at the synaptic level, and genetic reagents are available to selectively measure or manipulate the activity of single neurons. This project specifically focuses on the circuits that generate forward and backward walking, and switch between the two. It will enhance Australia's capacity in connectome-driven neuroscience research, deliver fundamental insights into neuronal motor control, and inspire the design of more agile robots.Read moreRead less
Overcoming limits of miniaturisation to enhance spatial memory capacities. Ensuring optimal efficiency at the smallest possible physical limit is a challenge for technical systems, which has been elegantly solved by biological systems. This project aims to identify how insects with miniature brains enhance their memory capacities. It will leverage previous ARC funded research on navigation of Australian ants and apply sophisticated analytical tools to quantify the neural connectivity in the brai ....Overcoming limits of miniaturisation to enhance spatial memory capacities. Ensuring optimal efficiency at the smallest possible physical limit is a challenge for technical systems, which has been elegantly solved by biological systems. This project aims to identify how insects with miniature brains enhance their memory capacities. It will leverage previous ARC funded research on navigation of Australian ants and apply sophisticated analytical tools to quantify the neural connectivity in the brain in the context of spatial memory. Expected outcomes include understanding how expensive neural tissue can be miniaturised for efficient spatial navigation, identifying the consequences of miniaturisation for developing miniature and autonomous agents, enhancing research capacity and institutional collaborations.Read moreRead less
Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation ....Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation perception can inform the design and development of novel bio-inspired imaging sensors that will be particularly suited to small, autonomous robots.Read moreRead less