Resolving how five million years of dramatic climatic changes shaped Australia's unique fauna. Australia’s biota is a product of its unique heritage, tectonic history and most especially its climate. Over the past five million years it has been beset by a series of intense climatic shifts driven by a combination of global and regional factors. This project will be the first to track faunal responses to environmental changes across this critical interval. It will establish the dynamics of the ori ....Resolving how five million years of dramatic climatic changes shaped Australia's unique fauna. Australia’s biota is a product of its unique heritage, tectonic history and most especially its climate. Over the past five million years it has been beset by a series of intense climatic shifts driven by a combination of global and regional factors. This project will be the first to track faunal responses to environmental changes across this critical interval. It will establish the dynamics of the origin of the modern southern vertebrate fauna, analysing changes in diversity, diet and community structure. By exploring associations between phases of faunal turnover and key climatic transitions, it will bring a Southern Hemisphere perspective to evolutionary models of Cenozoic faunal change largely generated to date from Northern Hemisphere data.Read moreRead less
Faunal responses to past climatic and human impacts in eastern Australia. The Wellington Caves in central eastern New South Wales are Australia's most historically significant fossil locality and preserve one of the world's most complete records of vertebrate life spanning the past 4 million years. To date this unique archive has been vastly under-exploited as a source of information on how faunas respond to increased aridity and climatic variability, as well as human activities over the past 50 ....Faunal responses to past climatic and human impacts in eastern Australia. The Wellington Caves in central eastern New South Wales are Australia's most historically significant fossil locality and preserve one of the world's most complete records of vertebrate life spanning the past 4 million years. To date this unique archive has been vastly under-exploited as a source of information on how faunas respond to increased aridity and climatic variability, as well as human activities over the past 50 000 years. This project aims to elucidate how climate change drove the evolution of the modern fauna of eastern Australia by analysing changes in diversity, diet and community structure over time. It may also help break the 130-year climate-versus-humans deadlock over what drove the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions.Read moreRead less
Evolution in tooth and claw: exploring the relationship between the radiation of marsupial herbivores and late Cenozoic climate change. Establishing how animals responded to past environmental changes is essential for understanding the ecology of modern species and managing them in light of contemporary climatic trends. By applying several novel analytical methods this project will unravel the links between the radiation of Australian marsupials and key stages in climatic evolution.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL140100260
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,775,898.00
Summary
Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. This project aims to generate unique insights into the processes and history that produced the current distribution of modern humans and the bacteria we carry with us (our microbiome). The project will use combined signals of bacterial, genomic and climate data to reconstruct the impacts of migrations, changes in diet, environment, and health in different parts ....Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. Using ancient microbiomes and genomes to reconstruct human history. This project aims to generate unique insights into the processes and history that produced the current distribution of modern humans and the bacteria we carry with us (our microbiome). The project will use combined signals of bacterial, genomic and climate data to reconstruct the impacts of migrations, changes in diet, environment, and health in different parts of the world. A key aspect will be the creation of a program to map the genetic history of indigenous Australia, and the impacts of colonisation on indigenous people around the world. Research advances will be transferred to Early Career Researchers through an innovative program of workshops, and the resulting data will be used to create a new format for Australian genetic databases.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354582
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation be ....Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation between separate disciplines. Networking across all seven strands will create a broader linkage, spanning across palaeobiology, ecosystem function, vegetation structure, global change, ecophysiology, phylogeny, genomics, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory.Read moreRead less
Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environ ....Sumatra’s role in ancient human movements and evolution. This project aims to test whether humans moving through Southeast Asia used a savannah corridor, facilitating their migrations into Sumatra and Java, and examine the effect of rainforests on human movements and evolution. This will be accomplished by examining ecological proxies from vertebrate remains found in established and newly identified fossil sites in Sumatra. These results are expected to provide a new understanding of the environmental context of human evolution in Asia, and identify routes ancient people took as they moved south through Asia and into Australia.Read moreRead less
450 Million year history of plant gas exchange capacity and the role of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Our planet faces an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide that is unprecedented in human history, but has occurred in ancient times. By studying the relationship between past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, plant gas exchange and climate we will gain powerful global insight into future scenarios of continental carbon and water fluxes. This global perspective is essential for Australia to a ....450 Million year history of plant gas exchange capacity and the role of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Our planet faces an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide that is unprecedented in human history, but has occurred in ancient times. By studying the relationship between past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, plant gas exchange and climate we will gain powerful global insight into future scenarios of continental carbon and water fluxes. This global perspective is essential for Australia to assess its vulnerability to global climate change in relation to other nations, thereby informing national planning of landscape resource use, including primary industry, water infrastructure and carbon trading.Read moreRead less
Past and future effects of climate change on the carbon-water balance of plants. Over the coming century, climate change will profoundly impact Australian vegetation via the direct effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on plants and the indirect effects of CO2-forced changes in rainfall and temperature, with major implications for agricultural production and water resources. This project will address these threats by providing new tools for measuring and predicting vegetation-clim ....Past and future effects of climate change on the carbon-water balance of plants. Over the coming century, climate change will profoundly impact Australian vegetation via the direct effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on plants and the indirect effects of CO2-forced changes in rainfall and temperature, with major implications for agricultural production and water resources. This project will address these threats by providing new tools for measuring and predicting vegetation-climate feedbacks. It will determine the combined effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and drought on the productivity of natural and agricultural landscapes, and provide the biophysical framework for developing the next generation of high-yielding, drought tolerant crop varieties for the rapidly approaching greenhouse world.Read moreRead less
Effect of climate boundary changes on the Southern Westerly Winds. This project aims to produce high quality data on how the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) respond to largescale changes in climate boundary conditions over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Because the SWW are key drivers of Southern Hemisphere climate, Southern Ocean circulation and global carbon dioxide concentrations, it is important to understand how they respond to changes in boundary conditions. Uncertainty about how they ....Effect of climate boundary changes on the Southern Westerly Winds. This project aims to produce high quality data on how the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) respond to largescale changes in climate boundary conditions over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Because the SWW are key drivers of Southern Hemisphere climate, Southern Ocean circulation and global carbon dioxide concentrations, it is important to understand how they respond to changes in boundary conditions. Uncertainty about how they do so limits attempts at accurate predictive climate modelling. This project will test conceptual models of SWW dynamics and provide essential boundary conditions for predictive climate models. The project intends to simultaneously build and support a research capacity and global network, and advance Australia’s knowledge and contribution in the area of global climate dynamics.Read moreRead less
Constructing a temporally-constrained palaeoecological model of Quaternary faunal evolution and extinction in eastern Australia. Increased climatic variability and human-induced environmental degradation have had severe impacts on biodiversity, socio-economic sustainability and possibly our own future survival, thus attracting global attention. This study will help unravel the causes of the extinctions of Australia's large-size animals (megafauna) during the periods of last glaciation and earlie ....Constructing a temporally-constrained palaeoecological model of Quaternary faunal evolution and extinction in eastern Australia. Increased climatic variability and human-induced environmental degradation have had severe impacts on biodiversity, socio-economic sustainability and possibly our own future survival, thus attracting global attention. This study will help unravel the causes of the extinctions of Australia's large-size animals (megafauna) during the periods of last glaciation and earliest human colonisation of Australia. Investigating the causes of megafauna extinction is essential for an understanding of how those prehistoric events shaped the modern biota, and for the development of conservation strategies for our endemic faunas in an era of increased climatic and environmental variability and vulnerability.Read moreRead less