Peripheral isolates as hotbeds of adaptive diversity. This project uses cutting edge molecular technology and spatial analyses to predict the location of diversity relevant to managing the impact of climate change. Knowledge generated in this project will open the door to the informed use of genetic translocation in efforts to kerb expected biodiversity losses.
Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in production landscapes. This project aims to develop new approaches using causal inference, optimal allocation theory, and spatial statistics to characterise impacts on a diverse suite of ecosystem services. It will endeavour to develop case studies from three continents and generalisations explicitly tested using simulated landscapes. Environmental and agricultural policies promote land sharing (biodiversity-friendly production) or land sparing (p ....Enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in production landscapes. This project aims to develop new approaches using causal inference, optimal allocation theory, and spatial statistics to characterise impacts on a diverse suite of ecosystem services. It will endeavour to develop case studies from three continents and generalisations explicitly tested using simulated landscapes. Environmental and agricultural policies promote land sharing (biodiversity-friendly production) or land sparing (protected areas, with yield increases elsewhere). Yet the impacts of such policies in diverse contexts and for multiple outcomes are poorly understood. The project could advance our ability to deliver sustainable outcomes and more effective as well as equitable policies for production landscapes.Read moreRead less
Evolution of Australia's globally unique hotspot of floral diversity. Australia has a globally recognised biodiversity hotspot, the southwest of Western Australia, but this unique eucalypt-dominated flora is threatened. This project will gain new insights into the evolutionary processes that generate and maintain such diversity, their vulnerability; and how the iconic eucalypts came to dominate the Australian landscape.
Social, economic and health vulnerabilities in Indonesia. This project aims to study and provide ways to overcome vulnerability in Indonesia. Half the Indonesian population is still clustered around the poverty line, contributing to their vulnerability. This project will identify vulnerable groups and why they are vulnerable. Using a common framework of the life course in eight Indonesian field sites, this project will investigate whether social networks and welfare programs reduce vulnerability ....Social, economic and health vulnerabilities in Indonesia. This project aims to study and provide ways to overcome vulnerability in Indonesia. Half the Indonesian population is still clustered around the poverty line, contributing to their vulnerability. This project will identify vulnerable groups and why they are vulnerable. Using a common framework of the life course in eight Indonesian field sites, this project will investigate whether social networks and welfare programs reduce vulnerability, and pinpoint strategies for reducing vulnerabilities in the future. The project expects to show how vulnerable citizens in Indonesia can be made more secure, helping to build a more stable and prosperous region.Read moreRead less
How does your garden grow? Scaling functional traits to whole-plant growth. Understanding how the traits of leaves and stems influence plant growth is important because plant growth drives emergent ecosystem properties such as rates of water use and carbon and nitrogen cycling. The project will build a new understanding of trait-growth relationships, focusing on species from four Australian forest types.
View-based processing of pattern matching queries in large graphs. Graph data exist ubiquitously in modern information systems. Graph pattern matching (GPM) finds parts of the data graph that match a given pattern. It has applications in many areas including knowledge discovery, public health, and crime detection. This project will develop novel techniques for the efficient processing of GPM queries in large graphs.
Australia's Distinctive Succulent Flora. The project plans to investigate why Australia, the driest vegetated continent, has no landscape dominated by large succulents but nevertheless supports a distinctive, diverse and widespread succulent flora. Focusing on terrestrial succulents and epiphytic orchids, the project plans to explore the evolution, assembly and biodiversity of Australia’s succulent flora, evaluating the roles of genetic composition, photosynthetic physiology, aridity, fire, soil ....Australia's Distinctive Succulent Flora. The project plans to investigate why Australia, the driest vegetated continent, has no landscape dominated by large succulents but nevertheless supports a distinctive, diverse and widespread succulent flora. Focusing on terrestrial succulents and epiphytic orchids, the project plans to explore the evolution, assembly and biodiversity of Australia’s succulent flora, evaluating the roles of genetic composition, photosynthetic physiology, aridity, fire, soil nutrients and salinity in its historical expansion, and assessing the resilience of the assemblages to changing climate. Of particular interest will be how the most water-use efficient type of photosynthesis, crassulacean acid metabolism, is expressed across the succulent landscape.Read moreRead less
Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelli ....Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelling framework and high-performance computing we will integrate economic, land use and biodiversity models to evaluate: (i) policies and incentives for increasing national vegetation cover for carbon sequestration and habitat, and (ii) global risks to nature posed by land use change under future geopolitical scenarios.Read moreRead less
Intelligent Image Retrieval from Distorted and Partial Queries for Rapid Mobile Identification of Pests Threatening Food and the Environment. Pests and diseases are major threats to the Australian food industry and environmental biosecurity. A rapid and mobile pest information retrieval system is critical to prevent a pest becoming established and devastating the region. However, automated insect image retrieval remains an unsolved challenge in the research community. This project addresses the ....Intelligent Image Retrieval from Distorted and Partial Queries for Rapid Mobile Identification of Pests Threatening Food and the Environment. Pests and diseases are major threats to the Australian food industry and environmental biosecurity. A rapid and mobile pest information retrieval system is critical to prevent a pest becoming established and devastating the region. However, automated insect image retrieval remains an unsolved challenge in the research community. This project addresses the fundamental problem of distorted and partial image query in cluttered background in order to achieve pest identification at a much earlier on-site stage. The success of this research will not only make a technical breakthrough towards retrieving objects with movable body parts, but also revolutionise the current pest detection and monitoring process.Read moreRead less