Endocrine disruption in wildlife: a sexual selection perspective . The Project aims to uncover how environmental pollution by hormone-mimicking chemicals affects wildlife behaviour, reproductive performance, and offspring viability. Through an integrative approach that combines multigenerational laboratory studies with an experimental evolution perspective, the Project expects to yield important insights into the pervasive influence of chemical contaminants on biological systems, and the capacit ....Endocrine disruption in wildlife: a sexual selection perspective . The Project aims to uncover how environmental pollution by hormone-mimicking chemicals affects wildlife behaviour, reproductive performance, and offspring viability. Through an integrative approach that combines multigenerational laboratory studies with an experimental evolution perspective, the Project expects to yield important insights into the pervasive influence of chemical contaminants on biological systems, and the capacity for animals to adapt to environments degraded by human activity. Findings will enable predictions of the ecological and evolutionary consequences of anthropogenic change, and contribute new knowledge relevant to the management of Australia’s biodiversity and the security of its sensitive freshwater resources.Read moreRead less
How drugs in the wild affect animal behaviour, ecosystems, and evolution. This Project aims to track – with fish species and across different modes, scales, and levels of complexity from controlled laboratory experimentation to studies in the wild – how drugs in the environment affect wildlife behaviour and survival, and therefore also the ecological communities they inhabit. Contamination of aquatic habitats by pharmaceuticals poses a serious threat to wildlife and to human health. Expected out ....How drugs in the wild affect animal behaviour, ecosystems, and evolution. This Project aims to track – with fish species and across different modes, scales, and levels of complexity from controlled laboratory experimentation to studies in the wild – how drugs in the environment affect wildlife behaviour and survival, and therefore also the ecological communities they inhabit. Contamination of aquatic habitats by pharmaceuticals poses a serious threat to wildlife and to human health. Expected outcomes include new mechanistic understandings and predictive capability for real world application. Findings should add significantly to our knowledge of how wildlife respond to environmental change, and enhance the evidence base for management and security of Australia’s biodiversity and freshwater resources.Read moreRead less
Mid-Career Industry Fellowships - Grant ID: IM230100371
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,043,792.00
Summary
The plight of the bogong moth: a model for conservation in Australia. This project aims to direct conservation actions for the bogong moth, an endangered species of profound cultural, ecological, and economic importance to Australians. Although iconic and famous for their epic migration to the Australian Alps, the bogong moth's distribution and flyways are unknown making conservation actions impossible. This project expects to forge the key partnerships and harness public enthusiasm to generate ....The plight of the bogong moth: a model for conservation in Australia. This project aims to direct conservation actions for the bogong moth, an endangered species of profound cultural, ecological, and economic importance to Australians. Although iconic and famous for their epic migration to the Australian Alps, the bogong moth's distribution and flyways are unknown making conservation actions impossible. This project expects to forge the key partnerships and harness public enthusiasm to generate the data needed for conservation actions via a National Bogong Moth Observatory. The expected outcomes of this project are enhanced capacity to identify and mitigate threats to bogong moths. This should provide significant benefits such as a highly transferable model for continent-wide conservation in Australia.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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100831
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$416,670.00
Summary
The effects of mitochondrial genetic variation on physiology and behaviour. This project aims to test how mitochondrial DNA variation drives molecular, physiological, and behavioural differences between genders and among populations. This project, through the testing of a new hypothesis, expects to generate new knowledge to understand why males and females differ consistently in key health-related traits like longevity. The expected outcomes of this project will provide new discoveries that deli ....The effects of mitochondrial genetic variation on physiology and behaviour. This project aims to test how mitochondrial DNA variation drives molecular, physiological, and behavioural differences between genders and among populations. This project, through the testing of a new hypothesis, expects to generate new knowledge to understand why males and females differ consistently in key health-related traits like longevity. The expected outcomes of this project will provide new discoveries that deliver fundamental insights into the genetics of gender differences, with benefits that extend into the biomedical sciences. The project is also expected to enhance the international profile of Australian science through cutting-edge research in evolutionary genetics.Read moreRead less
Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native ....Quantifying the threat posed by feral cats to Australian reptiles. This project aims to provide the first quantification of the impact of feral cats on Australian reptiles, the country’s most diverse vertebrate lineage. This project expects to provide crucial missing pieces of the puzzle by adopting an innovative behavioural approach to determine how cats hunt for lizards, and how lizards respond to cat predation risk. The expected outcomes are an improved understanding of the capacity of native lizards to recognise cats as predators and respond appropriately, and a determination of the magnitude of threat that cats pose to native lizards. Importantly, our study aims to trial management strategies to mitigate the impact of cat predation on native reptiles.Read moreRead less
Senescence, sociality and sex. As individuals age, their body functions and survival prospects decline. Why some individuals deteriorate slower and later in life, is a critical question we cannot adequately answer, although the social environment has been suggested to be important. Using a recently established molecular biomarker of aging, this project aims to experimentally investigate in a wild bird if age-related decline is faster when individuals lack social support or face sexual competitio ....Senescence, sociality and sex. As individuals age, their body functions and survival prospects decline. Why some individuals deteriorate slower and later in life, is a critical question we cannot adequately answer, although the social environment has been suggested to be important. Using a recently established molecular biomarker of aging, this project aims to experimentally investigate in a wild bird if age-related decline is faster when individuals lack social support or face sexual competition. Expected outcomes are insights into key determinants of delayed aging and longer lifespan. Potential benefits include improved understanding of drivers of healthy aging, and improved ability to predict population persistence and identify conservation priorities. Read moreRead less
Ecological role of sleep in maintaining optimal brain function in birds. This project aims to explain the function of sleep. Sleep is thought to maintain optimal brain functioning to support waking cognition. Nearly all sleep research is laboratory-based, which fails to realistically capture how animals benefit from sleep. Ecologists treat sleep as a simple behaviour, instead of as a heterogeneous neurophysiological state, while neuroscientists generally fail to appreciate the insights ecologica ....Ecological role of sleep in maintaining optimal brain function in birds. This project aims to explain the function of sleep. Sleep is thought to maintain optimal brain functioning to support waking cognition. Nearly all sleep research is laboratory-based, which fails to realistically capture how animals benefit from sleep. Ecologists treat sleep as a simple behaviour, instead of as a heterogeneous neurophysiological state, while neuroscientists generally fail to appreciate the insights ecological and evolutionary systems offer. This project adopts a cross-disciplinary approach, bringing together animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, anthropogenic disturbance and sleep neurophysiology. By doing so, the project will add a new dimension of understanding on the functions of sleep.Read moreRead less
Multidisciplinary analysis of financial reference points and wellbeing. The aim is to find how to improve financial decisions (i) during unexpected economic shocks, and (ii) by the socially disadvantaged. The project will produce the first large-scale evidence on heterogeneity in benchmarks (reference points) against which people evaluate financial alternatives and the role of such benchmarks in financial risk-taking and in creating and perpetuating economic inequality. The expected outcomes inc ....Multidisciplinary analysis of financial reference points and wellbeing. The aim is to find how to improve financial decisions (i) during unexpected economic shocks, and (ii) by the socially disadvantaged. The project will produce the first large-scale evidence on heterogeneity in benchmarks (reference points) against which people evaluate financial alternatives and the role of such benchmarks in financial risk-taking and in creating and perpetuating economic inequality. The expected outcomes include transformed interdisciplinary understanding of financial decisions and significantly greater capacity for multidisciplinary collaboration. The findings will inform policy on promoting financial wellbeing and to mitigate the devastating effects of sudden economic shocks such as that of COVID-19.Read moreRead less
Linking sex-specific adaptation to the evolution of infectious disease. This project aims to examine how differences in the response of males and females to pathogen attack can influence the evolution of infectious disease. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of host-pathogen co-evolution, by integrating approaches from the fields of evolutionary genetics, sexual selection, and epidemiology. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capacity to build interdisciplinary collabor ....Linking sex-specific adaptation to the evolution of infectious disease. This project aims to examine how differences in the response of males and females to pathogen attack can influence the evolution of infectious disease. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of host-pathogen co-evolution, by integrating approaches from the fields of evolutionary genetics, sexual selection, and epidemiology. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capacity to build interdisciplinary collaborations and development of theory that predicts infection dynamics in any species with separate sexes. This is expected to provide significant benefits, such as improving our knowledge of why the sexes differ and potentially providing new avenues for understanding disease outbreaks and preventing population declines or extinctions.Read moreRead less