Testing metabolic theories in ecology. There are striking similarities in the way plants and animals take up and use energy (metabolism), despite enormous variation in size and life-style. This project will make the first experimental comparison of the predictions of the two major theories for these broad patterns. The results will significantly progress this controversial and exciting field.
Movement patterns and behavioural strategies of Estuarine Crocodiles: A long-term remote monitoring study using an underwater acoustic array. The on-going recovery of the estuarine crocodile population is creating a paradox for Australians. Although a salient species, an iconic animal, and a firm tourist attraction, estuarine crocodiles pose a significant risk to the public. Knowledge of where crocodiles go, what they do when they get there, and why they select particular habitats at certain tim ....Movement patterns and behavioural strategies of Estuarine Crocodiles: A long-term remote monitoring study using an underwater acoustic array. The on-going recovery of the estuarine crocodile population is creating a paradox for Australians. Although a salient species, an iconic animal, and a firm tourist attraction, estuarine crocodiles pose a significant risk to the public. Knowledge of where crocodiles go, what they do when they get there, and why they select particular habitats at certain times is critical for sustaining the Australian crocodile population, whilst ensuring public safety. This long term study will utilise the latest advancement in underwater acoustic technology to monitor the behavioural and physiological strategies used by estuarine crocodiles in occupying critical habitats, providing vital information for resource managers and policy makers. Read moreRead less
Extreme acid tolerance: Overcoming the challenges of life at low pH. This project aims to investigate tolerance to low pH freshwaters, focusing on the mechanisms that underpin acid tolerance, physiological plasticity, the interactions between low pH and other environmental variables (e.g. temperature), and the costs and/or trade-offs to living in such physiologically challenging environments. Low pH waters are toxic to most animals, yet some freshwater vertebrates have managed to colonise some o ....Extreme acid tolerance: Overcoming the challenges of life at low pH. This project aims to investigate tolerance to low pH freshwaters, focusing on the mechanisms that underpin acid tolerance, physiological plasticity, the interactions between low pH and other environmental variables (e.g. temperature), and the costs and/or trade-offs to living in such physiologically challenging environments. Low pH waters are toxic to most animals, yet some freshwater vertebrates have managed to colonise some of the lowest pH environments on Earth. In our rapidly changing world, this study is expected to provide an important fundamental understanding of the capacity of some organisms to flourish at environmental extremes and their ability to respond to increased variability both within and between environmental stressors.Read moreRead less
Living in a changing climate: the impacts of temperature during aestivation on burrowing frogs. Although arid zones of Australia are characterised by extremes of temperature, little is known about the thermal ecology of frogs inhabiting these regions. This project will determine the effects of temperature on the physiology of an arid-adapted frog and determine whether likely increases in global temperatures will impact its survival.
Photosynthetic traits as “key performance indicators” of coral health. The objective of this project is to advance knowledge on the healthy functioning of the coral–algal symbiosis, which defines the response of coral reef ecosystems to worldwide environmental change. Current approaches to address this problem have linked coral health to algal symbiont diversity but have been unable to resolve the fundamental symbiont functional traits that govern this link – the “key performance indicators (KPI ....Photosynthetic traits as “key performance indicators” of coral health. The objective of this project is to advance knowledge on the healthy functioning of the coral–algal symbiosis, which defines the response of coral reef ecosystems to worldwide environmental change. Current approaches to address this problem have linked coral health to algal symbiont diversity but have been unable to resolve the fundamental symbiont functional traits that govern this link – the “key performance indicators (KPIs)”. This project plans to couple advanced physiological and functional genomics techniques to transform our understanding of how algal symbiont metabolic KPIs regulate coral growth and stress susceptibility. This may provide new diagnostic capability for the assessment of coral health and may enable us to improve coral reef ecosystem management.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101410
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,080.00
Summary
To die or not to die: understanding the energetics of death in nature. By better understanding how and why organisms die, we can improve treatment and prevention of age-related diseases such as cancer. This study will use the northern quoll as a model to examine the environmental, behavioural and physiological mechanisms associated with shortened or extended lifespan in nature.
How sponges and bacteria maintain productivity on coral reefs. This project aims to listen in on conversations between a Great Barrier Reef sponge and its bacterial symbionts. Coral reefs thrive in nutrient-poor tropical seas by efficiently retaining and recycling essential elements. Marine sponges help coral reefs by co-operating with metabolically diverse bacterial symbionts via largely unknown mechanisms. Using an advanced genome-enabled sponge, invertebrate biology, microbiology, genomics an ....How sponges and bacteria maintain productivity on coral reefs. This project aims to listen in on conversations between a Great Barrier Reef sponge and its bacterial symbionts. Coral reefs thrive in nutrient-poor tropical seas by efficiently retaining and recycling essential elements. Marine sponges help coral reefs by co-operating with metabolically diverse bacterial symbionts via largely unknown mechanisms. Using an advanced genome-enabled sponge, invertebrate biology, microbiology, genomics and metabolomics, this project seeks to reveal genomic and metabolic details of the partnership, which could inform environmental restoration, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100429
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$367,000.00
Summary
Unravelling nickel biopathways in tropical hyperaccumulator plants. This project aims to unravel the ways in which hyperaccumulators work. Hyperaccumulators are plants that have the remarkable ability to concentrate up to six per cent nickel in their leaves and up to 25 per cent in their sap. These plants can be used in phytomining – a new technology to recover nickel from mining waste or contaminated land by growing and harvesting these plants and extracting nickel from their biomass. This proj ....Unravelling nickel biopathways in tropical hyperaccumulator plants. This project aims to unravel the ways in which hyperaccumulators work. Hyperaccumulators are plants that have the remarkable ability to concentrate up to six per cent nickel in their leaves and up to 25 per cent in their sap. These plants can be used in phytomining – a new technology to recover nickel from mining waste or contaminated land by growing and harvesting these plants and extracting nickel from their biomass. This project seeks to understand how the plants accumulate nickel by using tracers and synchrotron techniques to follow the pathways of nickel from the soil into the plants. This knowledge may help us to optimise agronomic processes affecting nickel uptake to enable successful phytomining.Read moreRead less
Larval dispersal and settlement mechanisms in the first genome-enabled Australian marine animal, Amphimedon queenslandica (Porifera). We know remarkably little about the lives of the enigmatic animals that live on our stunning coral reefs, except that many have a tiny larval stage that travels far beyond where the adults can go. This project explores how genomes and environment work together to ensure that larvae spread their species around to keep our reefs vibrant and diverse.
ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ....ARC Australia-New Zealand Research Network for Vegetation Function. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits, and in their relations to climate, soils and geography. Global generalizations are emerging. Vegetation Function network will reach from plant function into genomics and crop breeding, into palaeoecology and vegetation history, into landscape management for carbon, water and salinity outcomes, into forecasting future ecosystems under global change, and into phylogeny, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory. Across this span, working groups will target nine identified opportunities for breakthrough research. Each research target needs input from two or more disciplines. Together, the nine targets link across disciplines, as a network that spans from genomic to planetary scales.Read moreRead less