From developmental stability to organismic senility: Hox genes and telomere impact on life history evolution. Australia benefits from training researchers and technicians in new, break-through biotechnology and from applying this knowledge to relevant, cutting-edge questions in highly publicized research fields. This project contains both these ingredients. Our model species (a lizard) has a relatively high level of offspring malformations (ca 15%), which makes it much more likely to detect thei ....From developmental stability to organismic senility: Hox genes and telomere impact on life history evolution. Australia benefits from training researchers and technicians in new, break-through biotechnology and from applying this knowledge to relevant, cutting-edge questions in highly publicized research fields. This project contains both these ingredients. Our model species (a lizard) has a relatively high level of offspring malformations (ca 15%), which makes it much more likely to detect their underlying genetic mechanism. Furthermore, we can also assess how these animals survive and reproduce in relation to how quickly they age, which can be measured by assessing the shortening of telomeres per unit time. Thus, this collaboration provides an opportunity to train Australian researchers and in that process generate very high profile research.Read moreRead less
Influence of energy intake on reproduction. Understanding reproduction is fundamentally important to ecology and conservation. Despite intensive research, the processes that regulate energy acquisition and allocation for reproduction are still unclear for most animal species. Many of the obstacles to progress in this field of research are logistical, reflecting the complexity and temporal overlap of significant components of energy allocation pathways. Our proposed study avoids many of these l ....Influence of energy intake on reproduction. Understanding reproduction is fundamentally important to ecology and conservation. Despite intensive research, the processes that regulate energy acquisition and allocation for reproduction are still unclear for most animal species. Many of the obstacles to progress in this field of research are logistical, reflecting the complexity and temporal overlap of significant components of energy allocation pathways. Our proposed study avoids many of these logistical difficulties by focusing on animals (snakes) that display clear temporal partitioning between successive segments of the reproductive cascade (i.e., vitellogenesis, ovulation, embryogenesis); and by adopting a simple but novel method (based on stable isotope analysis) to tease apart the relationship between energy acquisition and energy expenditure in different phases of the animal's life-history.Read moreRead less
The major histocompatibility complex and scent-mediated mate choice in a Procellariiform, Gould's petrel. In Australia, there are 25 species of Procellariiformes listed as threatened or endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Formulating comprehensive conservation plans for endangered species requires a good understanding of the species' breeding biology yet virtually nothing is known about the mechanisms involved in mate choice in the procellariiforms ....The major histocompatibility complex and scent-mediated mate choice in a Procellariiform, Gould's petrel. In Australia, there are 25 species of Procellariiformes listed as threatened or endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Formulating comprehensive conservation plans for endangered species requires a good understanding of the species' breeding biology yet virtually nothing is known about the mechanisms involved in mate choice in the procellariiforms. A better understanding of the traits these long-lived birds use when choosing their lifelong breeding partner could greatly benefit conservation strategies designed to protect them. This could be particularly beneficial where translocation is an option because birds being translocated could be assessed for compatibility prior to translocation.Read moreRead less
Response style heterogeneity in empirical marketing research. This study aims to improve the validity of empirical studies by accounting for different ways in which respondents answer questionnaires (response styles) while analysing the data. Response styles have been shown to depend on the cultural background of respondents. This work therefore is of particular importance in Australia given the large number of cultural backgrounds residents come from. The proposed method will be empirically tes ....Response style heterogeneity in empirical marketing research. This study aims to improve the validity of empirical studies by accounting for different ways in which respondents answer questionnaires (response styles) while analysing the data. Response styles have been shown to depend on the cultural background of respondents. This work therefore is of particular importance in Australia given the large number of cultural backgrounds residents come from. The proposed method will be empirically tested in the context of surveys investigating sustainable tourism, public acceptance of alternative water sources and volunteering, three areas which are central to maintaining Australia's environmental sustainability and providing social and environmental services which are not covered by the commercial sector.Read moreRead less
The evolutionary effect of the domestication process in a model organism. A significant proportion of research in the field of evolutionary biology, focuses on captive populations of laboratory-bred animals. Little is known about the impact of the domestication process on these species, raising questions about the relevance of such studies. The Australian zebra finch is the avian model species of choice in evolutionary biology laboratories in Europe and the USA and the focus of many high profile ....The evolutionary effect of the domestication process in a model organism. A significant proportion of research in the field of evolutionary biology, focuses on captive populations of laboratory-bred animals. Little is known about the impact of the domestication process on these species, raising questions about the relevance of such studies. The Australian zebra finch is the avian model species of choice in evolutionary biology laboratories in Europe and the USA and the focus of many high profile publications. Our investigation into the affect of domestication on the evolutionary biology of this key model species will have a high international impact, raising the profile of Australian research, in addition to providing fundamental knowledge across several areas of reproductive biology.Read moreRead less
Social Capital and Sustainable Development: An International Study. A collaborative international study of social capital and sustainability in local communities will address the following objectives: 1. to characterize the properties of networks that generate social capital and of network formation; and 2. to analyze the mechanisms by which social capital contributes to sustainable development. The project will involve intensive comparative case studies of five communities, three in Canada and ....Social Capital and Sustainable Development: An International Study. A collaborative international study of social capital and sustainability in local communities will address the following objectives: 1. to characterize the properties of networks that generate social capital and of network formation; and 2. to analyze the mechanisms by which social capital contributes to sustainable development. The project will involve intensive comparative case studies of five communities, three in Canada and two in Australia. Within each case community, an intensive qualitative and quantitative analysis will be conducted of the theorized mechanisms for the development of social capital and its mobilization for reconciliation of the ecological, economic and social imperatives required for sustainable development.
Read moreRead less