Effects of global climate change on marine phytoplankton: interactions between UV radiation and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Global climate change is one of the most significant ecological challenges for the 21st Century. Phytoplankton contribute over 45% of the planet's annual net primary production and form the basis of most aquatic food chains. Conversely, some phytoplankton are toxic and cause problems in marine and fresh waters. Climate change can potentially disrupt aquatic ....Effects of global climate change on marine phytoplankton: interactions between UV radiation and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Global climate change is one of the most significant ecological challenges for the 21st Century. Phytoplankton contribute over 45% of the planet's annual net primary production and form the basis of most aquatic food chains. Conversely, some phytoplankton are toxic and cause problems in marine and fresh waters. Climate change can potentially disrupt aquatic foodchains by its impact on primary production by phytoplankton or stimulating growth of potentially toxic forms. Our project will investigate the combined impact of increasing carbon dioxide and ultraviolet light on phytoplankton and thereby help climate modellers assess the impact of climate change on aquatic ecosystems and particularly on the nation's and the world's fisheries.Read moreRead less
Fossil evidence for the evolution of Australia's modern vegetation. This project will provide Australian scientists and public with a better appreciation of the origins of our modern flora by providing evidence of landscape and community change over the past 40 million years, the nature of major extinction and diversification events and the response of the vegetation to climate change. The project will raise our understanding of the changing role of fire in the Australian landscape. It will also ....Fossil evidence for the evolution of Australia's modern vegetation. This project will provide Australian scientists and public with a better appreciation of the origins of our modern flora by providing evidence of landscape and community change over the past 40 million years, the nature of major extinction and diversification events and the response of the vegetation to climate change. The project will raise our understanding of the changing role of fire in the Australian landscape. It will also revise our understanding of the geological evolution of southeastern Australian basins and provide better genetic modelling of Victoria's brown coal deposits. Importantly, the project will provide postgraduate research training opportunities for a new generation of palaeobotanists and coal petrologists.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561224
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$267,767.00
Summary
14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of sp ....14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of specific biomolecular compounds that unambiguously formed part of the original sample, and the isolation of these biomolecules for radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry. Here we request funds to establish Australia's first compound-specific radiocarbon dating facility, to obtain ages of high accuracy for key studies of climate and landscape change, evolutionary biology and archaeology.Read moreRead less
Linkages between productivity and consistent behavioural traits in fish: implications for harvesting, climate impacts, and selective breeding for aquaculture. The extent to which behavior, growth and reproduction are genetically linked in fish populations is unknown, but critical for predicting the impacts of fish harvesting and climate warming, and developing fish stains for aquaculture. If strongly linked, fish harvest will always remove aggressive, large and productive fish, requiring their p ....Linkages between productivity and consistent behavioural traits in fish: implications for harvesting, climate impacts, and selective breeding for aquaculture. The extent to which behavior, growth and reproduction are genetically linked in fish populations is unknown, but critical for predicting the impacts of fish harvesting and climate warming, and developing fish stains for aquaculture. If strongly linked, fish harvest will always remove aggressive, large and productive fish, requiring their protection; in aquaculture, selecting for productive fish will also increase aggression-related injuries. If not strongly linked, we may be able to select for high productivity and low aggression in fish, or high productivity and low metabolism, thus reducing feed costs in aquaculture associated with aggressive behaviour leading to injury and infection, and reduced growth at warmer temperatures.Read moreRead less
ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to deter ....ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to determine how best to describe Australia's current biodiversity and the biological and environmental history leading up to the present. A major outcome will be the ability to predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity to assist management decisions across Australia, with lessons of global importance.Read moreRead less
Characterisation of Bioadhesives from Marine diatoms. Biofouling occurs at great expense to governments and industry, adding up to 60% annually to the cost of propulsive fuel consumption in shipping. Diatoms include the most common algal biofoulers of natural and artificial surfaces (e.g. ship hulls). The structure of diatom adhesives will be elucidated in order to determine the molecular basis of their adhesive properties. As diatoms are capable of reversible adhesion, an understanding of th ....Characterisation of Bioadhesives from Marine diatoms. Biofouling occurs at great expense to governments and industry, adding up to 60% annually to the cost of propulsive fuel consumption in shipping. Diatoms include the most common algal biofoulers of natural and artificial surfaces (e.g. ship hulls). The structure of diatom adhesives will be elucidated in order to determine the molecular basis of their adhesive properties. As diatoms are capable of reversible adhesion, an understanding of this mechanism may enable development of strategies to counter adhesion in antifouling products (e.g. paints). This knowledge will contribute to development of new adhesives or strategies to modify and/or prevent adhesion.Read moreRead less
Characterization of bioadhesives from marine diatom slimes and their interactions with different substrata; developing environmentally friendly, foul-release coatings. This project represents a collaborative effort between Melbourne University, the Department of Defense and Akzo Nobel to develop new, environmentally friendly strategies to modify and/or prevent marine slime adhesion in anti-foul coatings or paint. Fouling by diatom slimes occurs at great expense to industry and the Australian N ....Characterization of bioadhesives from marine diatom slimes and their interactions with different substrata; developing environmentally friendly, foul-release coatings. This project represents a collaborative effort between Melbourne University, the Department of Defense and Akzo Nobel to develop new, environmentally friendly strategies to modify and/or prevent marine slime adhesion in anti-foul coatings or paint. Fouling by diatom slimes occurs at great expense to industry and the Australian Navy, adding up to 60% annually to the cost of propulsive fuel consumption in shipping. We will characterize the chemical and physical properties of the slime adhesives in order to understand how organisms control adhesion, and use these principles to develop new technology, anti-foul paints.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882936
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$135,000.00
Summary
MEGA - Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser for Australian landscapes. This Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser will be able to continuously monitor water, energy, carbon and nitrogen exchange in a multitude of uniquely Australian ecosystems: from low-canopy forests (up to 20m) and afforested plantations to wetlands and agricultural grazing, cropping, horticulture and viticulture systems. This research capacity provides benefits and opportunities such as 1) community resource 2) monitoring ....MEGA - Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser for Australian landscapes. This Mobile Ecosystem Gas-exchange Analyser will be able to continuously monitor water, energy, carbon and nitrogen exchange in a multitude of uniquely Australian ecosystems: from low-canopy forests (up to 20m) and afforested plantations to wetlands and agricultural grazing, cropping, horticulture and viticulture systems. This research capacity provides benefits and opportunities such as 1) community resource 2) monitoring tool for carbon and water budgets 3) mobile process laboratory 4) data for model validation. The susceptibility and vulnerability of ecosystems to changing temperature and extended drought will be determined.Read moreRead less
Tolerance of temperature extremes under drought: linking physiological processes with morphological constraints on leaf function. Freezing temperatures affect over 70% of Australia. Each year frosts cause substantial damage to agriculture and forestry. We will examine how decrease in hydraulic conduit diameter increases freeze tolerance in native woody species and quantify impacts of this tolerance on productivity of leaves. The results have application in managing temperate woody vegetation un ....Tolerance of temperature extremes under drought: linking physiological processes with morphological constraints on leaf function. Freezing temperatures affect over 70% of Australia. Each year frosts cause substantial damage to agriculture and forestry. We will examine how decrease in hydraulic conduit diameter increases freeze tolerance in native woody species and quantify impacts of this tolerance on productivity of leaves. The results have application in managing temperate woody vegetation under current and future climate scenarios. By improving understanding of the behaviour of water in leaves during freezing, we will contribute to improved models of physical stresses and strains in biological tissues during freezing, which find application in cryo-storage of biological materials important in agriculture, medicine, and conservation.Read moreRead less