Mesozoic Austral Biodiversity: Research and Regional Museum Applications. The impact of environmental alteration on Australia’s biodiversity has poorly understood long-term effects. This project examines the controversial biogeography and evolution of Australia’s biodiversity during the Age of Dinosaurs (mid-Cretaceous ~100 MYA) and their adaptational responses to climatic change. Fossils readily capture the public imagination and thus help promote complex scientific concepts in the global media ....Mesozoic Austral Biodiversity: Research and Regional Museum Applications. The impact of environmental alteration on Australia’s biodiversity has poorly understood long-term effects. This project examines the controversial biogeography and evolution of Australia’s biodiversity during the Age of Dinosaurs (mid-Cretaceous ~100 MYA) and their adaptational responses to climatic change. Fossils readily capture the public imagination and thus help promote complex scientific concepts in the global media. This project raises awareness about sustainable use of non-renewable fossil resources through public education and ecotourism fieldwork programs; these will help generate local interest and thus protection of sensitive fossil localities by highlighting them as lucrative tourism assets for regional communities.Read moreRead less
Towards operational monitoring of key climate parameters from synthetic aperture radar. Agricultural productivity is a major contributor to the Australian economy, but is experiencing significant stress in response to climate change. Moreover, soil moisture controls vegetation dynamics that contribute to carbon storage, atmospheric processes leading to severe weather, and runoff generation processes leading to floods and runoff yield from urban water storage catchments. Consequently, high reso ....Towards operational monitoring of key climate parameters from synthetic aperture radar. Agricultural productivity is a major contributor to the Australian economy, but is experiencing significant stress in response to climate change. Moreover, soil moisture controls vegetation dynamics that contribute to carbon storage, atmospheric processes leading to severe weather, and runoff generation processes leading to floods and runoff yield from urban water storage catchments. Consequently, high resolution time-series information on soil moisture and vegetation status from space represents a powerful tool for understanding climate change impacts on Australia. It is therefore imperative that products be developed specifically for the Australian environment to take full advantage of radar data from satellites.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100079
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$200,000.00
Summary
A thermally stratified Sea-Ice-Wave Interaction Facility. A thermally stratified sea ice wave interaction facility: Predictions of climate change now impact all levels of society as future political, social and environmental plans are made on the basis of these models. Predictions require models of many complex dynamical processes with a wide range of parameters. An important process is the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) dynamics. The MIZ is the region between the open ocean and the fully ice-covered o ....A thermally stratified Sea-Ice-Wave Interaction Facility. A thermally stratified sea ice wave interaction facility: Predictions of climate change now impact all levels of society as future political, social and environmental plans are made on the basis of these models. Predictions require models of many complex dynamical processes with a wide range of parameters. An important process is the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) dynamics. The MIZ is the region between the open ocean and the fully ice-covered ocean where waves and ice interact, causing ice-breaking and wave attenuation. This unique facility will enable experiments in sea-ice-wave interactions in a controlled environment. Water and air temperature, thermal stratification, water waveform and ice properties will be adjusted in order to preserve key characteristics of the complex ocean environment.Read moreRead less
Integrating climate adaptation into rainforest restoration plantings. This project aims to investigate the impact of within species adaptation to climate on restoratoin success in the Australian Wet Tropics. For a suite of six species of tropical tree frequently employed in rainforest restoration plantings in northeast Queensland, this project aims to test the hypothesis that collecting seed from populations in similar ecoclimatic settings to the planting site will result in superior seedling gr ....Integrating climate adaptation into rainforest restoration plantings. This project aims to investigate the impact of within species adaptation to climate on restoratoin success in the Australian Wet Tropics. For a suite of six species of tropical tree frequently employed in rainforest restoration plantings in northeast Queensland, this project aims to test the hypothesis that collecting seed from populations in similar ecoclimatic settings to the planting site will result in superior seedling growth and survival. The expected outcome is to provide practical advice to restoration practitioners about the importance of matching the provenance of seed source to planting sites, and opportunities for selecting provenances pre-adapted to predicted future climatic conditions at planting sites.Read moreRead less
The Norfolk Island Carbon and Health Evaluation Program: a case study of personal carbon trading for reducing obesity and greenhouse gas emissions. This project tests a system of Personal Carbon Trading for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving health. Carbon credit cards given to everyone on Norfolk Island are designed to financially reward people for reducing energy use (fuel and fatty food mainly) by increasing walking/cycling and improving nutrition to improve health
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE210100028
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes ....Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes include understanding past global environmental change on multiple time scales, the deep biosphere, plate tectonics, formation and distribution of resources, and generation of hazards. These outcomes are paramount to Australia’s national science and research priorities, and societal and economic prosperity.Read moreRead less
The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment. Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation tem ....The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment. Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation temperature and is independent of the oxygen-18:oxygen-16 value of the host water from which the mineral precipitated. The materials to be investigated span the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and will provide robust past temperature estimates and the delta-oxygen-18 values of waters, thereby permitting hydrological balances (for example, precipitation/evaporation) to be constructed. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100067
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program:
This project is for a 5-year membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program, the world’s largest collaborative research program in earth and ocean sciences addressing international priorities. The program conducts seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes to study the history and current activity of the Earth, recorded in sed ....Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program:
This project is for a 5-year membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program, the world’s largest collaborative research program in earth and ocean sciences addressing international priorities. The program conducts seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes to study the history and current activity of the Earth, recorded in sediments and rocks below the seafloor. The program’s aims include understanding past global environments on multiple time scales, the deep biosphere, plate tectonics, occurrence and distribution of resources, and generation of hazards. Several multinational expeditions are scheduled and planned in our marine jurisdiction and within the Australasian region. Read moreRead less
Climate Change and Burden of Disease: Current Risk and Future Burden. Climate change has had a negative impact on human health. However, few studies have assessed burden of diseases (BOD) for these climate-sensitive/heat attributable diseases. We will generate the first national picture of the climate attributable BOD in Australia, measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY), the attribution from climate, and project future BOD under various climatic/demographic change scenarios. This proje ....Climate Change and Burden of Disease: Current Risk and Future Burden. Climate change has had a negative impact on human health. However, few studies have assessed burden of diseases (BOD) for these climate-sensitive/heat attributable diseases. We will generate the first national picture of the climate attributable BOD in Australia, measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY), the attribution from climate, and project future BOD under various climatic/demographic change scenarios. This project will rank Australian climate-sensitive/heat attributable diseases by their current burden and projected increase under climate changes, and provide needed scientific evidence to policy-makers in the development, prioritization and implementation of current and future climate change and health adaptation strategies. Read moreRead less
The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecologic ....The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecological impacts of industry development. Important benefits of the project include information and tools for streamlining development approvals and accurately assessing risks to threatened species to improve outcomes for both our economy and our natural environment.Read moreRead less