Water Scarcity and rural social hardship - can water markets alleviate the problem? Present review of water resources within catchments of the Murray-Darling Basin will result in reduced access to water for consumptive use with consequential significant socio-economic and community impacts. Water markets are seen as major instruments to assist farmers in managing this process and thereby minimize the impact within rural communities. However, research has identified several barriers to trade an ....Water Scarcity and rural social hardship - can water markets alleviate the problem? Present review of water resources within catchments of the Murray-Darling Basin will result in reduced access to water for consumptive use with consequential significant socio-economic and community impacts. Water markets are seen as major instruments to assist farmers in managing this process and thereby minimize the impact within rural communities. However, research has identified several barriers to trade and several future research needs. This project addresses five of these issues by providing insight into three community barriers to trade as well as a framework for ongoing monitoring, analyses and reporting of market outcomes and impacts to assist adaptive policy development.Read moreRead less
Adaptive ecotyping of the toxic cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii to predict its invasive capacity. We change the world while other organisms adapt to these new conditions. Cyanobacteria (blue green algae) increasingly dominate water bodies that were previously free of these harmful blooms. To minimise the spread of these algae, this project will study the genetic basis that determines how rapidly they can evolve and adapt to a changing planet.
Maximising the conservation of biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services: What to do, where and when. The economic wealth of Australia is underpinned by its remarkable biological diversity. However, land and water degradation are eroding Australia's natural asset base damaging industries such as tourism, fisheries, and forestry. Given limited funds for biodiversity conservation, we need to minimise the misallocation of resources by making wise investments. This research will result in ....Maximising the conservation of biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services: What to do, where and when. The economic wealth of Australia is underpinned by its remarkable biological diversity. However, land and water degradation are eroding Australia's natural asset base damaging industries such as tourism, fisheries, and forestry. Given limited funds for biodiversity conservation, we need to minimise the misallocation of resources by making wise investments. This research will result in frameworks and tools to ensure that we maximise the protection of biological diversity and the delivery of ecosystem services (such as clean water) that are important for human well-being. We will share the results of our research with decision makers, scientists, and the general public.Read moreRead less
Theory for global biodiversity conservation. Australia's biological diversity underpins much of our economic wealth - for example the remarkable diversity of coral reefs fuels a multibillion dollar tourism industry. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity "hotspots" of the world and Australia to deliver environmental sustainability. We will solve the problem of how much of any environmental budget should be spent on mo ....Theory for global biodiversity conservation. Australia's biological diversity underpins much of our economic wealth - for example the remarkable diversity of coral reefs fuels a multibillion dollar tourism industry. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity "hotspots" of the world and Australia to deliver environmental sustainability. We will solve the problem of how much of any environmental budget should be spent on monitoring conservation actions to make better and more cost-effective decisions. We will create new theory and freely available tools for building systems of marine reserves that allow for threats like coral bleaching and hurricanes.Read moreRead less
Determining global and regional conservation priorities for biodiversity hotspots. The economic wealth of both Australia and Israel is underpinned by biological diversity - for example the remarkable biological diversity of both countries fuels multimillion-dollar tourism industries. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity 'hotspots' of the Mediterranean ecosystems of the world. We will create and test new theory and to ....Determining global and regional conservation priorities for biodiversity hotspots. The economic wealth of both Australia and Israel is underpinned by biological diversity - for example the remarkable biological diversity of both countries fuels multimillion-dollar tourism industries. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity 'hotspots' of the Mediterranean ecosystems of the world. We will create and test new theory and tools for incorporating into decision making the effect of processes such as climate change and invasion by alien species, which will help reduce the huge detrimental impacts on social, economic, health and human-well being. We will share the results of our work with decision makers and with the public.Read moreRead less
Improving water market outcomes through a better understanding of market behaviour. The issue of water resources and their sustainable use is probably the most important issue facing the rural sector. The water reform process and its aim to secure water for the environment will cause economic and social pain and result in structural change within the irrigation sector. Properly functioning water markets will play an instrumental role in facilitating this process by providing water for the envir ....Improving water market outcomes through a better understanding of market behaviour. The issue of water resources and their sustainable use is probably the most important issue facing the rural sector. The water reform process and its aim to secure water for the environment will cause economic and social pain and result in structural change within the irrigation sector. Properly functioning water markets will play an instrumental role in facilitating this process by providing water for the environment and allowing water to move between competing resources. This study will enable policy makers and water managers to optimise the positive outcome of water markets and increase the likely success of programs to purchase environmental water.Read moreRead less
Influence of Marine Protected Areas on ecosystem resilience and ecological processes. Australia is implementing a national representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs). The aims of the MPAs include ensuring ecological viability, maintaining ecological processes, and protecting biodiversity. The ability of MPAs to achieve these aims, however, is based largely on theory rather than empirical evidence. Implementation of MPAs is often controversial as it may cause economic hardship to comm ....Influence of Marine Protected Areas on ecosystem resilience and ecological processes. Australia is implementing a national representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs). The aims of the MPAs include ensuring ecological viability, maintaining ecological processes, and protecting biodiversity. The ability of MPAs to achieve these aims, however, is based largely on theory rather than empirical evidence. Implementation of MPAs is often controversial as it may cause economic hardship to communities dependent on fishing. Our project will benefit environmental managers by determining if and how MPAs influence biodiversity, ecological processes, and ecosystem services and resilience. It will benefit the wider community by providing the rigorous scientific evidence in favour of MPAs that is demanded by stakeholders.Read moreRead less
Revolutionising water-quality monitoring in the information age. In today’s information age, automated low-cost sensors distributed in the environment have the potential to revolutionise the way we monitor and manage air, water and soil. This project aims to develop novel statistical methods to detect anomalies in the data generated from these in-situ sensors with computationally efficient modelling on river networks through space and time, with the applied goals of automating anomaly detection ....Revolutionising water-quality monitoring in the information age. In today’s information age, automated low-cost sensors distributed in the environment have the potential to revolutionise the way we monitor and manage air, water and soil. This project aims to develop novel statistical methods to detect anomalies in the data generated from these in-situ sensors with computationally efficient modelling on river networks through space and time, with the applied goals of automating anomaly detection in water-quality data and generating predictions of sediment and nutrient concentrations throughout river networks in near-real time. This will represent a fundamental increase in scientific knowledge, which will be immediately useful in the domains of aquatic science, environmental monitoring, and statistics.Read moreRead less