Resilience of eucalypts to future droughts. This project aims to examine how resilient Eucalyptus species are to future droughts by combining data synthesis, manipulative experiments and modelling. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, magnitude and duration of future droughts, with major environmental and socio-economic consequences for Australia. Current predictive capacity is extremely limited: experiments are limited in scale and cannot capture important global change interac ....Resilience of eucalypts to future droughts. This project aims to examine how resilient Eucalyptus species are to future droughts by combining data synthesis, manipulative experiments and modelling. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, magnitude and duration of future droughts, with major environmental and socio-economic consequences for Australia. Current predictive capacity is extremely limited: experiments are limited in scale and cannot capture important global change interactions, whilst models do not represent the functional characteristics and adaptions of eucalypts. This project will develop a strong evidence- and process-based understanding to quantify the functional behaviour of drought-adapted Eucalyptus species and leverage this insight to make future model projections.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100555
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$458,872.00
Summary
Identifying factors that counter negative impacts of ocean climate change. This project aims to identify factors that counter the negative impacts of climate change on coral reefs. This project expects to address key research gaps to ensure the persistence of these ecosystems. Expected outcomes of this project include identification of coral reefs that are buffered by adjacent systems, such as mangroves and seagrass, and characterisation of conditions (e.g. increased food availability) that allo ....Identifying factors that counter negative impacts of ocean climate change. This project aims to identify factors that counter the negative impacts of climate change on coral reefs. This project expects to address key research gaps to ensure the persistence of these ecosystems. Expected outcomes of this project include identification of coral reefs that are buffered by adjacent systems, such as mangroves and seagrass, and characterisation of conditions (e.g. increased food availability) that allow coral reefs and associated organisms to persist under stress. Outcomes of this project should provide significant benefits such as adding to the interventions toolbox in alleviating the impacts of global change on coral reefs and identifying conservation strategies to help prevent the loss of these valuable ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Bridging the land–sea divide to ensure food security under climate change. This project aims to comprehensively evaluate ocean-based food solutions to meet food security needs under climate change. It will resolve a critical blind spot in current plans that isolate land and sea food systems and neglect their interdependencies. Combining global models and data, it will assess the constraints of ocean-based food solutions by anticipating and accounting for land-sea links including: agricultural ru ....Bridging the land–sea divide to ensure food security under climate change. This project aims to comprehensively evaluate ocean-based food solutions to meet food security needs under climate change. It will resolve a critical blind spot in current plans that isolate land and sea food systems and neglect their interdependencies. Combining global models and data, it will assess the constraints of ocean-based food solutions by anticipating and accounting for land-sea links including: agricultural runoff, shared feed resources for farmed animals, and trade-offs for biodiversity and climate mitigation. It will deliver a major leap in our capacity to undertake holistic ecosystem assessment of future food production pathways. Benefits will include integrated food–biodiversity–climate policies for Australia and the world.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
Resolving the role of dryland flooding in the global carbon cycle. Aquatic sources of carbon dioxide and methane are globally significant, but unknown for flooded drylands. The aim of this project is to use an innovative combination of well-integrated methodologies to determine if flooded drylands release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. This project is significant because this release of carbon dioxide and methane has not previously been accounted for and may change the magnitude of ....Resolving the role of dryland flooding in the global carbon cycle. Aquatic sources of carbon dioxide and methane are globally significant, but unknown for flooded drylands. The aim of this project is to use an innovative combination of well-integrated methodologies to determine if flooded drylands release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. This project is significant because this release of carbon dioxide and methane has not previously been accounted for and may change the magnitude of the global terrestrial carbon dioxide sink and account of some of the planet’s missing sources of methane. The outcomes of this project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the global carbon cycle and earth climate system, and inform future management of these systems.
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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
Is climate change altering the carrying capacity of the world’s forests? Planting trees at a global scale has been proposed as a key strategy to reduce global atmospheric CO2 levels. However, changing climatic conditions threaten the ability of forests to be net CO2 absorbers. In a warmer and drier future, forests may not be able to support as many trees. This project aims to identify how climate will alter
forest carrying capacity across millions of hectares of the world’s forests. By combining ....Is climate change altering the carrying capacity of the world’s forests? Planting trees at a global scale has been proposed as a key strategy to reduce global atmospheric CO2 levels. However, changing climatic conditions threaten the ability of forests to be net CO2 absorbers. In a warmer and drier future, forests may not be able to support as many trees. This project aims to identify how climate will alter
forest carrying capacity across millions of hectares of the world’s forests. By combining recent advances in forest modelling with large-scale and long-term forest inventory data, the project will develop a novel framework to forecast forest dynamics under climate change. It will provide specific guidelines to inform global reforestation strategies and foster climate-smart forest management.Read moreRead less
The role of vegetated foreshores in stabilising Australia's shorelines. This project aims to improve Australia's capacity to predict shoreline position with sea level rise, identify the role of vegetation in foreshore stabilisation and determine thresholds for shoreline retreat by quantifying the links between biological, geomorphological and sedimentary processes and shoreline position. Sea level rise and potential increases in storminess are predicted to lead to severe impacts and there is an ....The role of vegetated foreshores in stabilising Australia's shorelines. This project aims to improve Australia's capacity to predict shoreline position with sea level rise, identify the role of vegetation in foreshore stabilisation and determine thresholds for shoreline retreat by quantifying the links between biological, geomorphological and sedimentary processes and shoreline position. Sea level rise and potential increases in storminess are predicted to lead to severe impacts and there is an immediate and critical need to understand and accurately predict the functioning, dynamics, and distribution of Australia's coastal zones. Expected outcomes of this interdisciplinary project include an integrated modelling framework crucial for planning and management of sea level rise responses in Australia.Read moreRead less
Oyster adaptation to climate change via transgenerational plasticity. We are in an age of rapid climate change, where the need to understand the adaptive potential of marine organisms in warmer, more acidified oceans is increasingly urgent. This is especially true in Australia where changes are significant. This project uses a cutting-edge, integrated interdisciplinary approach to measure the capacity of oysters to adapt and persist to climate change via transgenerational plasticity, describe th ....Oyster adaptation to climate change via transgenerational plasticity. We are in an age of rapid climate change, where the need to understand the adaptive potential of marine organisms in warmer, more acidified oceans is increasingly urgent. This is especially true in Australia where changes are significant. This project uses a cutting-edge, integrated interdisciplinary approach to measure the capacity of oysters to adapt and persist to climate change via transgenerational plasticity, describe the epigenetic mechanisms which underlie it and develop an immediate breeding method to protect vulnerable oysters and other marine organisms against climate change. The research outcomes will transform Indigenous-led oyster reef restoration projects and future-proof an iconic food source and national industry.Read moreRead less