Developing Assisted Reproductive Technologies for the Conservation of Critically Endangered Australian Amphibians. Unprecedented rates of species extinction are of global concern. Although high extinction rates are reported for all vertebrate classes, amphibians are the most severely affected. Captive-breeding programs play a key role in maintaining populations of endangered amphibian species, but in most cases reproductive rates are too low to support long term re-introduction programmes. This ....Developing Assisted Reproductive Technologies for the Conservation of Critically Endangered Australian Amphibians. Unprecedented rates of species extinction are of global concern. Although high extinction rates are reported for all vertebrate classes, amphibians are the most severely affected. Captive-breeding programs play a key role in maintaining populations of endangered amphibian species, but in most cases reproductive rates are too low to support long term re-introduction programmes. This study aims to develop sophisticated Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) to enhance the propagation and genetic management of endangered Australian frog species. ART is a powerful new approach to ex situ conservation that, if integrated into existing captive breeding programs, will ensure the preservation of Australia’s unique amphibian biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Linking individual traits, the gut microbiome and parasite load in wildlife. This project aims to apply principles of community ecology to the gut microbiome of an urban exploiter – the common brushtail possum - to reveal how animal traits influence individual variation in the load of gut parasites that cause disease in both humans and wildlife. By combining assays defining the behavioural and physiological states of individuals with sophisticated analyses of their gut microbiome, our project wi ....Linking individual traits, the gut microbiome and parasite load in wildlife. This project aims to apply principles of community ecology to the gut microbiome of an urban exploiter – the common brushtail possum - to reveal how animal traits influence individual variation in the load of gut parasites that cause disease in both humans and wildlife. By combining assays defining the behavioural and physiological states of individuals with sophisticated analyses of their gut microbiome, our project will provide a new, yet crucial, perspective on how and why diseases spread. Our discoveries will help understand and manage the burden of infectious diseases from parasites in and beyond our cities and across the human-wildlife interface; essential for improving human and wildlife health in an increasingly urbanised Australia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989072
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$100,000.00
Summary
High throughput nitrogen analysis for ecological studies. Australian environments are unproductive partly because they contain little Nitrogen (N) and changes in atmospheric CO2 will exacerbate this. Furthermore, animals cannot extract all the N from the plants they eat. An assay has been developed that measures how much they can extract (available N) and it is intended to use it to measure habitat quality and the effects of climate change over large tracts of land. This requires thousands of ....High throughput nitrogen analysis for ecological studies. Australian environments are unproductive partly because they contain little Nitrogen (N) and changes in atmospheric CO2 will exacerbate this. Furthermore, animals cannot extract all the N from the plants they eat. An assay has been developed that measures how much they can extract (available N) and it is intended to use it to measure habitat quality and the effects of climate change over large tracts of land. This requires thousands of N analyses. The equipment we are requesting - a LECO combustion analyser, allows us to analyse samples quickly and safely and uses fewer chemicals and much less water than do traditional machines.Read moreRead less
Australia's ocean microbiome: how the diversity and functionality of microbes influence key oceanographic provinces. Every millilitre of seawater contains millions of microbes that maintain the health of our planet, but their identity and function in Australian waters is undefined. This project will identify the microbes inhabiting Australian marine systems, elucidate the services they provide, and predict how they will be affected by future environmental changes
Diatom lipids to reveal sea-ice history in remote Antarctic regions. This project aims to understand seasonal Antarctic sea-ice extent using molecular, geochemical, elemental and genomic characteristics of specific marine phytoplankton (diatoms). Little is known of the seasonal sea-ice variation and the position of the summer sea-ice extent a million years before satellite records, but this information is critical to determining air-sea gas exchange and ecosystem food web regulation. This projec ....Diatom lipids to reveal sea-ice history in remote Antarctic regions. This project aims to understand seasonal Antarctic sea-ice extent using molecular, geochemical, elemental and genomic characteristics of specific marine phytoplankton (diatoms). Little is known of the seasonal sea-ice variation and the position of the summer sea-ice extent a million years before satellite records, but this information is critical to determining air-sea gas exchange and ecosystem food web regulation. This project will unite geochemical and biological approaches to provide the data to improve past Antarctic ecosystem and climate models where sea-ice data is missing. Studying diatom biomarkers in deep sea cores from Australia’s Southern Ocean will redefine knowledge of Antarctic climate and provide data necessary to improve global ecosystem and climate models.Read moreRead less
Salinity tolerance along an aridity gradient: linking physiological processes with morphological constraints on leaf function in mangroves. The proposed research will provide insight into the physiological and morphological features that control the productivity of mangrove forests across broad gradients in salinity and aridity. Central to this is this identification of plant traits that increase salt and drought tolerance, which will assist in the development of plant varieties suited to Austra ....Salinity tolerance along an aridity gradient: linking physiological processes with morphological constraints on leaf function in mangroves. The proposed research will provide insight into the physiological and morphological features that control the productivity of mangrove forests across broad gradients in salinity and aridity. Central to this is this identification of plant traits that increase salt and drought tolerance, which will assist in the development of plant varieties suited to Australian conditions. The results will also contribute to development of process-based models to better predict the response of mangrove vegetation to changing climate. A deep understanding of the processes that influence the growth and survival of mangroves is of fundamental importance to sustainable fisheries and protection of wildlife reliant on coastal ecosystems. Read moreRead less
Dynamic assessment of threats to marine megafauna in face of global change. This project aims to develop a global approach to synthesise global tracking datasets and deliver near real-time diagnostics on risks for marine megafauna at a global scale pushing forward a new frontier in dynamic marine spatial management to improve conservation. This project expects to increase our understanding of how marine megafauna movements vary with environmental changes and how much they overlap with threatenin ....Dynamic assessment of threats to marine megafauna in face of global change. This project aims to develop a global approach to synthesise global tracking datasets and deliver near real-time diagnostics on risks for marine megafauna at a global scale pushing forward a new frontier in dynamic marine spatial management to improve conservation. This project expects to increase our understanding of how marine megafauna movements vary with environmental changes and how much they overlap with threatening global human activities. Expected outcomes will demonstrate how big data in marine telemetry can be synthesised and translated into ecologically significant behaviours. This should provide significant benefits to address global scientific and societal problems highlighted in the Australian science and research priorities.Read moreRead less
Leaf respiration under drought: a global perspective. Predicting future net carbon exchange is necessary for better management of vegetation resources by Australia. Incorporating the responses of plant respiration to drought and temperature is crucial for predicting future rates of net carbon exchange. Using laboratory and field studies, this research will develop an understanding of how water availability and temperature impact on plant respiration of a broad range of economically important and ....Leaf respiration under drought: a global perspective. Predicting future net carbon exchange is necessary for better management of vegetation resources by Australia. Incorporating the responses of plant respiration to drought and temperature is crucial for predicting future rates of net carbon exchange. Using laboratory and field studies, this research will develop an understanding of how water availability and temperature impact on plant respiration of a broad range of economically important and ecologically relevant plant species. Equations will be formulated that will improve how modellers calculate drought-dependent variations in plant respiration (and thus plant productivity), thereby improving predictions for a future, warmer world.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100073
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$280,000.00
Summary
High-throughput sample preparation robotics to enable emerging large-scale plant genomics, metabolomics and proteomics research. Discovering and breeding plants that are best suited for new environmental conditions requires the analysis of many samples to discover the underlying genes, metabolites and proteins. The project will build two robotic instruments that will facilitate the rapid grinding and extraction of plant tissues to facilitate these discoveries across Australia.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668417
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$108,667.00
Summary
New-Generation Near Infrared Spectrometer for Ecological Research. Sustainable use of the natural resources of Australia depends on studies that define how ecological communities respond to disturbance and change. An important part of this is understanding how the composition of plants and animals such as insects, change reflecting for example, increased concentrations of toxins. However making large numbers of analyses is expensive and slow. Near infrared spectroscopy is a non-destructive an ....New-Generation Near Infrared Spectrometer for Ecological Research. Sustainable use of the natural resources of Australia depends on studies that define how ecological communities respond to disturbance and change. An important part of this is understanding how the composition of plants and animals such as insects, change reflecting for example, increased concentrations of toxins. However making large numbers of analyses is expensive and slow. Near infrared spectroscopy is a non-destructive analytical method that allows the composition of materials to be deduced based on their interaction with light. Adopting these methods in ecology will allow many samples to be analysed quickly and cheaply and also stop waste and duplication of analytical work.Read moreRead less