Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,000.00
Summary
High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality c ....High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality changes, pollution histories, recent geomorphological change, land-use change, introduction of invasive species and the occurrence of bushfires. A better understanding of the occurrence and timing of these major environmental issues is of national and regional importance.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100041
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$100,000.00
Summary
A high-resolution isotope facility for low cost analysis of water, plant, and soil/sediment samples to understand environmental change. The most significant environmental challenges facing Australia include ensuring sustainable management of our water resources and conservation of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, particularly in the face of our changing climate and land-use. The new instruments will accelerate progress across a number of projects aimed at understanding the developme ....A high-resolution isotope facility for low cost analysis of water, plant, and soil/sediment samples to understand environmental change. The most significant environmental challenges facing Australia include ensuring sustainable management of our water resources and conservation of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, particularly in the face of our changing climate and land-use. The new instruments will accelerate progress across a number of projects aimed at understanding the development of groundwater resources, the relative dependency of ecosystems on groundwater versus soil and surface water, and an assessment of the likely impacts of altered hydrology, especially dewatering and salinisation, on ecosystems. In addition, they will also be used to extend our knowledge of climate variability in the recent past and increase understanding of critical marine resources.Read moreRead less
Annual temperature variability and abrupt climate change over the Holocene. This project intends to generate a near-continuous annual temperature reconstruction for the past 10 000 years using low-elevation Huon pine from south-western Tasmania. The unprecedented length and temporal resolution of the reconstruction would offer new insights into temperature variability at decadal, centennial, and millennial time scales and establish a unique record describing the nature, timing, and intensity of ....Annual temperature variability and abrupt climate change over the Holocene. This project intends to generate a near-continuous annual temperature reconstruction for the past 10 000 years using low-elevation Huon pine from south-western Tasmania. The unprecedented length and temporal resolution of the reconstruction would offer new insights into temperature variability at decadal, centennial, and millennial time scales and establish a unique record describing the nature, timing, and intensity of abrupt temperature changes associated with known events in the palaeoclimate record. The detailed understanding of historical temperature variability and past abrupt climate change provided by the tree-ring record would provide a historical context for recent and future climate variability.Read moreRead less
The divergence phenomenon in tree-ring-reconstructed temperatures: global problem or Northern Hemisphere anomaly? Concerns about recent global warming derive from comparisons of current temperatures and past temperatures reconstructed mainly from tree-rings. There is some evidence that tree-rings are becoming less sensitive to temperature at some high-latitude sites. The project will determine the scale and extent of this problem across the Southern Hemisphere.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100907
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,715.00
Summary
Investigating the synchroneity of global atmospheric shifts in the Holocene. The austral mid-latitude westerly winds dominate Southern Hemisphere climate variability today (including the Australasian region) and are tightly coupled to the Southern Ocean, modulating the air-sea CO2 flux. However, short instrumental records in the south make future climate projections uncertain. This Project will develop the first highly-detailed reconstructions of westerly airflow from targeted Southern Ocean isl ....Investigating the synchroneity of global atmospheric shifts in the Holocene. The austral mid-latitude westerly winds dominate Southern Hemisphere climate variability today (including the Australasian region) and are tightly coupled to the Southern Ocean, modulating the air-sea CO2 flux. However, short instrumental records in the south make future climate projections uncertain. This Project will develop the first highly-detailed reconstructions of westerly airflow from targeted Southern Ocean islands during key periods of change, representing a range of climate states over the Holocene (the last 11,650 yrs). Intensive radiocarbon dating will allow precise alignment to a network of palaeoclimate records to test the timing, drivers and impacts of circulation change across Australia and globally.Read moreRead less
New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently und ....New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently underestimated or missing in climate models. The expected outcomes include a better understanding of the non-linear responses in the climate system. This should provide significant benefits, such as an assessment of whether the smooth climate changes currently projected through to year 2100 are misleading.Read moreRead less
Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significan ....Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significant rock art against environmental change and economic development.
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Understanding interglacial diversity. This project intends to improve our understanding of interglacial processes. Interglacials, the relatively brief warm intervals of Quaternary ice-age cycles, have varied significantly over the last 800 000 years in terms of their duration, timing, intensity and complexity. The reason for such diversity has eluded palaeoclimatologists for decades. This is because of the difficulty of dating marine and ice records, which best preserve interglacial histories. T ....Understanding interglacial diversity. This project intends to improve our understanding of interglacial processes. Interglacials, the relatively brief warm intervals of Quaternary ice-age cycles, have varied significantly over the last 800 000 years in terms of their duration, timing, intensity and complexity. The reason for such diversity has eluded palaeoclimatologists for decades. This is because of the difficulty of dating marine and ice records, which best preserve interglacial histories. The projects plans to compile precisely dated time series of past interglacials that can be linked directly to these records, allowing robust comparisons between interglacial properties and changes in Earth's astronomical parameters. This would advance palaeoclimate theory and provide a new perspective on the future evolution of the climate system.Read moreRead less
Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt ....Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt climate perturbations in the Northern Hemisphere reached our region, and the processes by which this occurred. The results will advance theory on how abrupt climate change propagates globally and provide a long-awaited climatic context for capstone events in Australia's natural history.Read moreRead less
New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will al ....New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will also provide an essential reference record of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet history, which will complement data from forthcoming Antarctic ice cores. Together, this will better contextualise current and projected greenhouse warming.Read moreRead less