Understanding the survival of forests under drought . Droughts are predicted to become more extreme in the near future, with potentially devastating impacts on Australian forest ecosystems. This project aims to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how plants tolerate extreme drought stress and utilise this new knowledge to improve vegetation models suitable for assessing ecosystem vulnerability. We will use innovative experimental methodology to determine the processes by which wat ....Understanding the survival of forests under drought . Droughts are predicted to become more extreme in the near future, with potentially devastating impacts on Australian forest ecosystems. This project aims to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how plants tolerate extreme drought stress and utilise this new knowledge to improve vegetation models suitable for assessing ecosystem vulnerability. We will use innovative experimental methodology to determine the processes by which water transport breaks down in roots, stems and leaves and the mechanisms governing recovery from severe drought stress. The project will provide a deeper understanding of drought tolerance in trees, improved forecasting of risks to native vegetation, and enhanced management of native forest resources. Read moreRead less
Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat. This project aims to improve accuracy and precision in predicting the impact of water availability and heat stress on grassland function. Grassland ecosystems are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and carbon storage. Grasslands are highly sensitive to drought and heat stress, but studies recently showed that current grassland models cannot predict these responses because they do not adequately represent the key processes ....Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat. This project aims to improve accuracy and precision in predicting the impact of water availability and heat stress on grassland function. Grassland ecosystems are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and carbon storage. Grasslands are highly sensitive to drought and heat stress, but studies recently showed that current grassland models cannot predict these responses because they do not adequately represent the key processes of physiological drought tolerance, leaf browning, and species traits. This project will collect targeted data sets in order to develop and test model representations of these key processes. This will provide significant benefits, such as greatly increasing capacity to predict the impact of drought and heat stress on grasslands, at scales ranging from field to globe.Read moreRead less
Understanding the mechanisms of thermal acclimation in the symbiotic algae (Symbiodinium) within cnidarian corals. Global warming is a major threat to coral reefs, contributing to devastating coral bleaching. This project will provide new insight into how coral reefs can respond to rising global temperature through clarifying the thermal acclimation mechanisms in corals using molecular techniques.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101266
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,536.00
Summary
Evolutionary and environmental basis of CO2 tolerance in coral reef fishes. This project aims to examine the effects of ocean acidification on coral reef fishes due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Physiological performance of fish vary under elevated CO2, but behaviour is consistently, negatively impacted. This project aims to investigate evolutionary trade-offs between behaviour and performance, physiological mechanisms key to compromising, maintaining, or enhancing metabolic pe ....Evolutionary and environmental basis of CO2 tolerance in coral reef fishes. This project aims to examine the effects of ocean acidification on coral reef fishes due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Physiological performance of fish vary under elevated CO2, but behaviour is consistently, negatively impacted. This project aims to investigate evolutionary trade-offs between behaviour and performance, physiological mechanisms key to compromising, maintaining, or enhancing metabolic performance under elevated CO2, and the importance of habitat in how fish respond to elevated CO2. As fish play critical roles in marine ecosystems by structuring food webs and driving ecological processes, this information will be critical for predicting the effects of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101654
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$335,528.00
Summary
Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimil ....Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimilation and ecosystem modelling, this project will provide critically needed evidence to disentangle the multifaceted impacts of climate change to Eucalyptus trees. This will help reduce the predictive uncertainty in assessing the vulnerability and resilience of Eucalyptus forests in the changing Australian landscape. Read moreRead less
Coping with temperature extremes: morphological constraints on leaf function in a warmer, drier climate. This project will determine how hydraulic properties of temperate, evergreen leaves affect their capacity to cope with seasonal variation in temperature extremes. The results will enhance mechanistic understanding of temperature tolerance, and inform prediction of vegetation change in response to climate warming and increasing CO2 concentrations.
Will trees get enough nitrogen to sustain productivity in elevated CO2? The project proposes to explore how tissue nitrogen declines in future elevated carbon dioxide (eCO2) by studying the availability of soil nitrogen to plants and use of nitrogen by Eucalyptus woodland trees. Plant canopy nitrogen concentrations decline in nearly every large-scale eCO2 study done on native soils. The project plans to explore how changes in ecosystem nitrogen balance occur, by investigating if leaf nitrogen de ....Will trees get enough nitrogen to sustain productivity in elevated CO2? The project proposes to explore how tissue nitrogen declines in future elevated carbon dioxide (eCO2) by studying the availability of soil nitrogen to plants and use of nitrogen by Eucalyptus woodland trees. Plant canopy nitrogen concentrations decline in nearly every large-scale eCO2 study done on native soils. The project plans to explore how changes in ecosystem nitrogen balance occur, by investigating if leaf nitrogen declines under eCO2 due to the balance of plant activity versus changes in soil nitrogen availability. The outcomes are central to knowing the extent to which extra nitrogen ‘feeds’ the eCO2 fertilisation response and sustains long-term increases in productivity. Expected outcomes may support the development of management options to sustain future forest productivity.Read moreRead less
The role of epigenetics in conferring resilience to environmental change. This project aims to determine whether epigenetic mechanisms confer resilience to environmental change in natural populations. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms is significant because they can mediate compensatory responses by animals to rapid environmental change. This project intends to link molecular changes to ecological outcomes to determine rapid remodeling of phenotypes to maintain fitness in variable environments ....The role of epigenetics in conferring resilience to environmental change. This project aims to determine whether epigenetic mechanisms confer resilience to environmental change in natural populations. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms is significant because they can mediate compensatory responses by animals to rapid environmental change. This project intends to link molecular changes to ecological outcomes to determine rapid remodeling of phenotypes to maintain fitness in variable environments. The project would benefit Australia’s research capacity and training, and the efficacy of conserving our natural environment.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100660
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$409,805.00
Summary
Unravelling the impacts of global warming on whole ecological communities. This project aims to resolve how entire ecological communities respond to global warming and identify the mechanisms that underpin these responses. Combining manipulations of marine invertebrate communities with assays of energy use, the project expects to reveal emergent effects that cannot be predicted from responses of individual species. The expected outcome is a mechanistic understanding of how warming affects resour ....Unravelling the impacts of global warming on whole ecological communities. This project aims to resolve how entire ecological communities respond to global warming and identify the mechanisms that underpin these responses. Combining manipulations of marine invertebrate communities with assays of energy use, the project expects to reveal emergent effects that cannot be predicted from responses of individual species. The expected outcome is a mechanistic understanding of how warming affects resource use of entire communities that will increase our capacity to predict the consequences of climate change on food-web stability and productivity. These findings should reveal how species interactions alter energy use and invasion risk which is vital to manage ecosystems in a warmer world.Read moreRead less
Woodland response to elevated CO2 in free air carbon dioxide enrichment: does phosphorus limit the sink for Carbon? This project will determine if growth of Australian woodland trees is limited by phosphorus, and if that limitation means the woodland carbon sink is constrained from responding to rising atmospheric CO2. Assessing the CO2 sink capacity of native eucalypt woodland is central to meeting Australia's domestic and international carbon accounting commitments.