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
Impact of reforestation on the mitigation of climate extremes in eastern Australia resulting from global warming. This project will provide new information for climate change policy development and the goal of an Environmentally Sustainable Australia. It has a strong policy-management imperative, investigating the need for the maintenance and restoration of healthy native vegetation cover as part of Australia’s climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Our previous research has shown ....Impact of reforestation on the mitigation of climate extremes in eastern Australia resulting from global warming. This project will provide new information for climate change policy development and the goal of an Environmentally Sustainable Australia. It has a strong policy-management imperative, investigating the need for the maintenance and restoration of healthy native vegetation cover as part of Australia’s climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Our previous research has shown that land clearing has contributed to climate change, including more severe and persisting droughts, in eastern Australia. Successful implementation of the research findings will lead to an increased ability of regional landscapes to buffer against a more extreme future climate driven by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.Read moreRead less
Modelling the potential of large-scale revegetation to reduce the impacts of climate change in semi-arid Australia. This project will contribute to Australia's capacity to respond to climate change and to the ecologically sustainable management of our natural resources. It will provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential of large-scale revegetation to moderate climate change, and to identify limitations to adaptation.
Next-generation vegetation model based on functional traits. Global vegetation models try to answer big questions, such as the effects of climate change and carbon dioxide (CO2) on ecosystems and vice versa. But as present models are outdated and give inconsistent results, the project is planning a new, more robust model that will fully exploit recent advances in plant functional ecology and earth system science.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120103022
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Generalising a root-water uptake mechanism for successful land surface modelling. Understanding root functioning in Australian savanna ecosystems is critically important for successful resource management but such understanding is not represented in land surface models (LSMs). This project will incorporate root functioning into LSMs and improve our ability to manage water and carbon natural resources in a changing climate.
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
Either side of the Big Wet: the future resilience of south-eastern Australia's biota. Australia must develop strategies for managing its biodiversity under climate changes expected to occur under projected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios. The project will furnish comprehensive data on the response of plants and animals to the break in the Big Dry (1997-2009) in 2010-11 and evaluate how predict biotic components will cope with future climates.
An integrated mechanistic model of species' responses to environmental change: from individual responses to range shifts and beyond. To effectively adapt to future environmental change, reliable forecasts are needed of how human alterations to climate and habitat will affect species. This project integrates cutting-edge methods in nutritional, physiological and spatial ecology to develop new tools for predicting and understanding how species will respond to environmental change.
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