Unsaturation of vapour pressure inside leaves: fundamental, but unknown. This project aims to determine when and to what extent the air inside leaves becomes unsaturated with water vapour. All current interpretation and modelling of leaf gas exchange assumes saturation under all circumstances. Compelling evidence has been obtained that suggests this is not true under moderate air vapour pressure deficits. A novel technique will be employed to assess the water vapour concentration of the air insi ....Unsaturation of vapour pressure inside leaves: fundamental, but unknown. This project aims to determine when and to what extent the air inside leaves becomes unsaturated with water vapour. All current interpretation and modelling of leaf gas exchange assumes saturation under all circumstances. Compelling evidence has been obtained that suggests this is not true under moderate air vapour pressure deficits. A novel technique will be employed to assess the water vapour concentration of the air inside leaves based on stable isotope analysis of carbon dioxide and water vapour exchanged between leaves and air. The project is expected to provide fundamental knowledge about how stomata regulate photosynthesis and water use, with significant implications for modelling vegetation function and for improving the performance of crop plants.Read moreRead less
Coupling tropical cyclone and climate physics with ocean waves. It is argued that without accounting for the wave effects directly, the physics of large-scale air-sea interactions is inaccurate and incomplete. The project will introduce explicit coupling of large-scale atmospheric and oceanic phenomena with the physics of surface waves which should lead to improved predictions of tropical cyclones and climate.
Dissipation and relaxation in statistical mechanics. This project studies the mathematical conditions for relaxation either to equilibrium or to steady states, which is important in predicting behaviour in diverse fields including climate modelling, materials science, nanotechnology and biology. Early career researchers will be involved in the project, gaining valuable skills in theory and simulation.
Indian Ocean Climate Change: Ningaloo Reef, a litmus test for the survival of coral reefs. Coral reefs are at the frontline from the effects of rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide that is causing both global warming and oceans to become more acid-like. Our research program will determine how the survival of one of the World’s most pristine and best preserved coral reefs, Ningaloo Reef, is linked to the response of Australia’s Indian Ocean to climate change. For the first time, we will simula ....Indian Ocean Climate Change: Ningaloo Reef, a litmus test for the survival of coral reefs. Coral reefs are at the frontline from the effects of rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide that is causing both global warming and oceans to become more acid-like. Our research program will determine how the survival of one of the World’s most pristine and best preserved coral reefs, Ningaloo Reef, is linked to the response of Australia’s Indian Ocean to climate change. For the first time, we will simulate realistic ‘future’ conditions and see how actual coral reef systems respond. This will provide a ‘yardstick’ against which the best-case survival potential of the world’s coral reefs can be assessed, critical for underpinning the urgently needed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we are to ensure the survival of coral reefs.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. This Centre aims to transform understanding of past and present climate extremes and revolutionise Australia’s capability to predict them into the future. Climate extremes cost Australia up to $4 billion a year and will intensify over coming decades. This Centre’s blue-sky research will discover processes that explain the behaviour of present and future climate extremes. It will use its researchers, data, modelling, collaboration, graduate programme ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. This Centre aims to transform understanding of past and present climate extremes and revolutionise Australia’s capability to predict them into the future. Climate extremes cost Australia up to $4 billion a year and will intensify over coming decades. This Centre’s blue-sky research will discover processes that explain the behaviour of present and future climate extremes. It will use its researchers, data, modelling, collaboration, graduate programme and early career researcher mentoring to transform Australia’s capacity to predict climate extremes. This research is expected to make Australia more resilient to climate extremes and minimise risks from climate extremes to the Australian environment, society and economy.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100089
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$490,000.00
Summary
Connecting big data with high performance computing for climate science. Connecting big data with high performance computing for climate science: The ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science is a key user of the National Computational Infrastructure facility (NCI). This research requires massive data integrated with high performance computing in an operational facility. Fast disk capacity that is simultaneously connected to NCI long-term storage, cloud and high performance computing s ....Connecting big data with high performance computing for climate science. Connecting big data with high performance computing for climate science: The ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science is a key user of the National Computational Infrastructure facility (NCI). This research requires massive data integrated with high performance computing in an operational facility. Fast disk capacity that is simultaneously connected to NCI long-term storage, cloud and high performance computing severely limits use of the NCI. To resolve this limitation, 1.7 petabytes of storage will be installed to transform the efficiency of the facility. This will enable more ambitious science to be undertaken. This investment will be used to launch a transformation from petascale to exascale problems and communicate the lessons learned to other research communities in Australia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100051
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,000,000.00
Summary
Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the NCI National Facility. Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the national computational infrastructure facility:
This project aims to ensure that Australian researchers have access to the integrated high-performance computing and data environments they need. Australia’s national computational infrastructure (NCI) is the national, high-end research computing facility, providing researchers in universities, government science agencies ....Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the NCI National Facility. Maintaining and enhancing merit-based access to the national computational infrastructure facility:
This project aims to ensure that Australian researchers have access to the integrated high-performance computing and data environments they need. Australia’s national computational infrastructure (NCI) is the national, high-end research computing facility, providing researchers in universities, government science agencies and industry with world-class, integrated, high-performance services. These services enable high-impact, data-intensive computational research in all fields of science and technology. This project would continue merit-based access to NCI at the current level, ensuring ongoing international competitiveness of Australian research.Read moreRead less
The Southern Ocean's response to abrupt climate change. This project aims to determine how the Southern Ocean responds to abrupt climate change, through geochemical analysis of marine sediment cores. Rapid warming events of the last ice age provide an analogue to human-caused warming. Experiments using ocean climate models will evaluate the drivers and consequences of the biogeochemical response of different sectors and zones of the Southern Ocean. The intended outcome is a better understanding ....The Southern Ocean's response to abrupt climate change. This project aims to determine how the Southern Ocean responds to abrupt climate change, through geochemical analysis of marine sediment cores. Rapid warming events of the last ice age provide an analogue to human-caused warming. Experiments using ocean climate models will evaluate the drivers and consequences of the biogeochemical response of different sectors and zones of the Southern Ocean. The intended outcome is a better understanding of how and why climate change impacts ocean productivity in the ecologically significant Southern Ocean. This will lead to better representations of carbon feedbacks in climate models and more robust projections of future climate change.Read moreRead less
Is there a climatic tipping point for Antarctic Bottom Water formation? Antarctic Bottom Water plays an important role in global ocean circulation and climate and yet its formation is also highly sensitive to climate change. This project will analyse new seafloor, core and water samples from the understudied Cape Darnley, East Antarctica, collected on a voyage in early 2022. This new data will be used in combination with an improved high resolution regional ocean model, to understand modern and ....Is there a climatic tipping point for Antarctic Bottom Water formation? Antarctic Bottom Water plays an important role in global ocean circulation and climate and yet its formation is also highly sensitive to climate change. This project will analyse new seafloor, core and water samples from the understudied Cape Darnley, East Antarctica, collected on a voyage in early 2022. This new data will be used in combination with an improved high resolution regional ocean model, to understand modern and past Antarctic Bottom Water formation under different climate states (warmer and colder than present), to determine if there are climate tipping points for the shut down of Antarctic Bottom Water formation. The anticipated benefits include a better understanding of future climate change on this important water mass.Read moreRead less