New tools to detect ecological effects of contaminants in estuaries. Identifying risks to estuarine environments from pollutants is difficult for environmental managers, who must choose between laboratory toxicity testing that is precise, but hard to generalise to field situations, and more realistic field-based monitoring, which is expensive, with a high signal to noise ratio. New molecular techniques may provide more options. Metabolomics can provide insights into the health of animals, and ec ....New tools to detect ecological effects of contaminants in estuaries. Identifying risks to estuarine environments from pollutants is difficult for environmental managers, who must choose between laboratory toxicity testing that is precise, but hard to generalise to field situations, and more realistic field-based monitoring, which is expensive, with a high signal to noise ratio. New molecular techniques may provide more options. Metabolomics can provide insights into the health of animals, and ecogenomics offers a way to rapidly assess the composition of an ecological community. These techniques offer great promise, but they must be cross-validated against existing methods to derive the best ’toolbox’. Working with Melbourne Water and CSIRO the investigators aim to do this using demonstration estuaries in Victoria.Read moreRead less
Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project
include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on co ....Creating coolspots: eco-engineering heat-resistant intertidal communities. This project aims to identify structural characteristics of marine intertidal habitat patches, formed by seaweeds and shellfish, that protect associated species from thermal extremes. This project will generate new knowledge about how thermally sensitive intertidal species can persist in stressful environments. Expected outcomes of this project
include new approaches for building heat-tolerant ecological communities on coastal infrastructure, and improved tools for predicting the response of intertidal seaweeds and animals to environmental change. The results of this project will benefit coastal management by identifying conservation and rehabilitation strategies that maximise the
resilience of coastal ecosystems to environmental change.Read moreRead less
Assessing fish connectivity across highly-modified seascapes. This project aims to quantify the effects of large-scale infrastructure on fish connectivity and populations by advancing our understanding of critical ecological processes within these modified coastal seascapes. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of fish seascape ecology and management using an innovative approach which considers all life history stages within a metapopulation modelling context. Expected outco ....Assessing fish connectivity across highly-modified seascapes. This project aims to quantify the effects of large-scale infrastructure on fish connectivity and populations by advancing our understanding of critical ecological processes within these modified coastal seascapes. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of fish seascape ecology and management using an innovative approach which considers all life history stages within a metapopulation modelling context. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of an integrated modelling approaches to better predict the effects of habitat modifications. This should provide significant benefits by allowing assessment of development and management actions before they take place, supporting long-term planning.Read moreRead less
Restoring & future-proofing the biocultural values of endangered seagrasses. This project aims to develop best-practice methods for the biocultural restoration of the endangered seagrass Posidonia australis. This species is highly productive, supports fisheries and biodiversity, and plays a key role in mitigating climate change. This project will generate valuable new genetic information to guide restoration strategies including climate-adjusted genotypes. Working with Indigenous groups, we aim ....Restoring & future-proofing the biocultural values of endangered seagrasses. This project aims to develop best-practice methods for the biocultural restoration of the endangered seagrass Posidonia australis. This species is highly productive, supports fisheries and biodiversity, and plays a key role in mitigating climate change. This project will generate valuable new genetic information to guide restoration strategies including climate-adjusted genotypes. Working with Indigenous groups, we aim to document and restore cultural values associated with Posidonia. Working with industrial designers, we seek to develop cost-effective techniques to scale-up seagrass restoration. This research should provide significant environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits by improving seagrass restoration.Read moreRead less
Addressing social and ecological constraints to expand marine restoration. This project aims to improve social and ecological outcomes of marine habitat restoration by increasing community and industry engagement in restoration practices with high socio-economic benefits. By understanding and overcoming social and ecological barriers to successful restoration efforts, this project will generate new knowledge on how communities – both human and marine – can work together to rapidly restore robust ....Addressing social and ecological constraints to expand marine restoration. This project aims to improve social and ecological outcomes of marine habitat restoration by increasing community and industry engagement in restoration practices with high socio-economic benefits. By understanding and overcoming social and ecological barriers to successful restoration efforts, this project will generate new knowledge on how communities – both human and marine – can work together to rapidly restore robust, productive reef habitats. Expected outcomes of this project include a new ecological, multi-species approach that boosts restoration resilience; and a collaborative framework for developing government policy that builds industry and community support for cooperative management of coastal ecosystem restoration.Read moreRead less
Balancing estuarine and societal health in a changing environment. This project aims to facilitate sustainable development in a fast-growing coastal region (Peel-Harvey, south-western Australia). By exploiting 30+ year data sets for this catchment-estuary system and integrating ecological, hydrological, biogeochemical, modelling and socio-economic expertise, this project seeks to link primary catchment drivers to estuarine health response (up to higher fauna), quantify estuarine ecological healt ....Balancing estuarine and societal health in a changing environment. This project aims to facilitate sustainable development in a fast-growing coastal region (Peel-Harvey, south-western Australia). By exploiting 30+ year data sets for this catchment-estuary system and integrating ecological, hydrological, biogeochemical, modelling and socio-economic expertise, this project seeks to link primary catchment drivers to estuarine health response (up to higher fauna), quantify estuarine ecological health and ecosystem services under historical and future scenarios, and test resilience across the human–natural system. Envisaged outcomes include evidence-based catchment planning solutions that optimise trade-offs between socio-economic development goals and minimal downstream impacts on estuarine health.Read moreRead less
Investing in ecological portfolios: retaining migratory strategies of fish. In finance, investors minimize risk and optimize long term returns by building stock portfolios with different attributes. This contingency strategy also occurs in ecological systems. We will use portfolio effects as a conceptual model to characterise the poorly known sub-population variations in migratory strategies of estuarine fish and their response to environmental conditions. In doing so, we will determine how envi ....Investing in ecological portfolios: retaining migratory strategies of fish. In finance, investors minimize risk and optimize long term returns by building stock portfolios with different attributes. This contingency strategy also occurs in ecological systems. We will use portfolio effects as a conceptual model to characterise the poorly known sub-population variations in migratory strategies of estuarine fish and their response to environmental conditions. In doing so, we will determine how environmental change drives variations in migratory strategies, impacts long-term growth and population trophic web dynamics. Outcomes will foster novel and dynamic management frameworks that enhance population stability despite the predicted volatility of environmental conditions.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100330
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$461,299.00
Summary
Creating shellfish reefs for hazard risk reduction and habitat restoration. Living shorelines are a potentially powerful solution to two pervasive problems: an increased need for coastal protection; and the restoration of lost habitats. This project aims to investigate the effective application of living shorelines using shellfish reefs. It expects to generate new knowledge to ensure living shorelines achieve both hazard risk reduction and habitat restoration goals. Expected outcomes of this pro ....Creating shellfish reefs for hazard risk reduction and habitat restoration. Living shorelines are a potentially powerful solution to two pervasive problems: an increased need for coastal protection; and the restoration of lost habitats. This project aims to investigate the effective application of living shorelines using shellfish reefs. It expects to generate new knowledge to ensure living shorelines achieve both hazard risk reduction and habitat restoration goals. Expected outcomes of this project include an enhanced capacity within Australia for the application of nature-based coastal defence, and a better understanding of effective living shoreline design. This should provide significant socio-economic and environmental benefits through the development of a sustainable and adaptive method of coastal defence.Read moreRead less
Improving the success of hybrid living shorelines for coastal protection. This project aims to improve the success of hybrid living shorelines that combine the restoration of mangroves and oysters with engineered structures to enhance restoration outcomes and coastal hazard resilience. It expects to generate new knowledge on the effectiveness of innovative coastal-manager-led solutions that have not yet been robustly evaluated. Expected outcomes of this project include delivery of the technical ....Improving the success of hybrid living shorelines for coastal protection. This project aims to improve the success of hybrid living shorelines that combine the restoration of mangroves and oysters with engineered structures to enhance restoration outcomes and coastal hazard resilience. It expects to generate new knowledge on the effectiveness of innovative coastal-manager-led solutions that have not yet been robustly evaluated. Expected outcomes of this project include delivery of the technical guidelines needed to practically design and implement nature-based coastal protection at scale. This should provide significant socio-economic and environmental benefits through improving Australia’s capacity to adapt to increased erosion and flood risk caused by climate change and coastal urbanisation.Read moreRead less
Universal properties and application of species size distributions. This project aims to identify general properties of body size distributions for thousands of aquatic species by bringing together datasets enabled by global observation and citizen science programs, novel statistical methods and latest theoretical advances. By addressing temperature effects on body sizes, the project expects to generate new knowledge about species status globally, under the combined impacts of climate change and ....Universal properties and application of species size distributions. This project aims to identify general properties of body size distributions for thousands of aquatic species by bringing together datasets enabled by global observation and citizen science programs, novel statistical methods and latest theoretical advances. By addressing temperature effects on body sizes, the project expects to generate new knowledge about species status globally, under the combined impacts of climate change and harvesting. Expected outcomes include new tools to integrate limited body size data into a consistent framework for significance advancement of models used in research and management. This should increase the capacity to assess human impacts on natural ecosystems and predict global warming driven changes.Read moreRead less