How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries s ....How climate-resilient are our temperate fisheries species? This project assesses the resilience of our temperate fisheries species to climate change. Using natural warming hotspots and volcanic CO2 vents we study populations of fisheries species that are already pre-adapted to future climate, and therefore could act as key populations for replenishment of future fisheries stocks. An innovative and interdisciplinary approach combines the ecology, genetics, behaviour, and physiology of fisheries species to evaluate their climate resilience. An advanced food web model will be developed to forecast changes to fisheries production in a future world. This provides a much-improved forecast of climate adaptation and managing future biodiversity and fisheries species through resilient genes and populations.Read moreRead less
Dynamic social systems and adolescent alcohol/tobacco use: A new cusp catastrophe model. This research will substantially improve our understanding of the development of adolescent high-risk behaviours. It will directly inform multimodal prevention strategies by demonstrating how substance use, peer factors, and parent relationships unfold over time. This is much needed because most prevention strategies are too simplistic to address complex precursors to alcohol/tobacco use. The research wil ....Dynamic social systems and adolescent alcohol/tobacco use: A new cusp catastrophe model. This research will substantially improve our understanding of the development of adolescent high-risk behaviours. It will directly inform multimodal prevention strategies by demonstrating how substance use, peer factors, and parent relationships unfold over time. This is much needed because most prevention strategies are too simplistic to address complex precursors to alcohol/tobacco use. The research will benefit health researchers in and beyond Australia who seek to understand behaviours that do not adhere to conventional assumptions. Collaboration with researchers from leading national and international centres will enhance Australia's research reputation and will attract postgraduates and researchers to Australia.Read moreRead less
A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to addre ....A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to address fundamental issues in visual working memory.Read moreRead less
Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in c ....Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in complex dynamic systems. The expected outcomes include an improved capacity for researchers, managers, and policy makers to understand complex organisational, economic, and health systems. This will provide immediate societal benefits by informing the development and deployment of targeted interventions in such systems.Read moreRead less
Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of geneti ....Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of genetic variation. Recent advances in multivariate genetic analysis have demonstrated that a substantial proportion of a phenotype described by quantitative traits has very little genetic variance associated with it, and will therefore tend to be subjected to evolutionary limitsRead moreRead less
Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will ....Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will be investigated with flux tower and remotely sensed data. The project expects to generate new knowledge of how Australian tropical rainforests are responding to climate change. The expected outcome is an enhanced capacity to understand and manage a highly valued component of the Australian forest estate.Read moreRead less
CoopEcoSafe: a new cooperative, green and safe driving system. Road transport plays a vital role in our economy but generates huge costs in road trauma and greenhouse gases. Eco-driving has been trialed as a cost-effective approach to reducing fuel consumption, but little research has examined its effects on safety. This research brings together disciplines of road safety, psychology and engineering to address the fundamental question: how can mobility be greener while being safer? It develops: ....CoopEcoSafe: a new cooperative, green and safe driving system. Road transport plays a vital role in our economy but generates huge costs in road trauma and greenhouse gases. Eco-driving has been trialed as a cost-effective approach to reducing fuel consumption, but little research has examined its effects on safety. This research brings together disciplines of road safety, psychology and engineering to address the fundamental question: how can mobility be greener while being safer? It develops: a new theoretical model that optimises environmental and safety outcomes; new persuasive in-vehicle Human Machine Interface supported by cooperative Intelligent Transport System; and, comprehensive benefits evaluation. This research will bring major improvements to both road safety and energy use. Read moreRead less
Zooplankton: the missing link in modelling the ocean carbon cycle. What is arguably the biggest gap in our ability to close the ocean carbon cycle, and thus improve future forecasts of carbon sequestration and fisheries? The answer is our modelling of zooplankton, the most abundant animals on Earth. This project aims to build a next-generation ecosystem model that resolves zooplankton groups, their traits and key processes, generating novel insights into carbon sequestration and fisheries. Expec ....Zooplankton: the missing link in modelling the ocean carbon cycle. What is arguably the biggest gap in our ability to close the ocean carbon cycle, and thus improve future forecasts of carbon sequestration and fisheries? The answer is our modelling of zooplankton, the most abundant animals on Earth. This project aims to build a next-generation ecosystem model that resolves zooplankton groups, their traits and key processes, generating novel insights into carbon sequestration and fisheries. Expected outcomes include new methods for zooplankton modelling, leading to a paradigm shift in how we model carbon cycling. This should provide significant benefits, including vastly improved estimates of carbon sequestration and fisheries production, vital for carbon budgets and food security in Australia and globally.Read moreRead less
Sex is important in adaptation to environmental change. Aims: This project will use novel experiments with the aim of determining the potential for plasticity to be adaptive with sexual selection and how non-genetic effects transfer across generations by establishing genomic mechanisms. Significance: Plasticity (or acclimation) is often hailed as the saviour for species in the face of rapid climate change, but it is problematic if it is not adaptive in nature. Expected outcomes: Expected outcome ....Sex is important in adaptation to environmental change. Aims: This project will use novel experiments with the aim of determining the potential for plasticity to be adaptive with sexual selection and how non-genetic effects transfer across generations by establishing genomic mechanisms. Significance: Plasticity (or acclimation) is often hailed as the saviour for species in the face of rapid climate change, but it is problematic if it is not adaptive in nature. Expected outcomes: Expected outcomes include an enhanced ability to predict adaptation of fish under environmental change. Benefits: This project will provide significant benefits to Australian and international communities that rely on fish for nutrition, economic and social values, through an improved evidence base to inform management.Read moreRead less
Evolutionary models and biodiscovery tools from neurotoxic snake venoms. This project aims to identify the selection pressures that shape snake venom neurotoxins and how they interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and to elucidate their biodiscovery potential. This project aims to test these important toxins on model systems that represent natural prey items in order to determine the molecular and functional evolution of neurotoxic peptides. Expected outcomes include substantial contri ....Evolutionary models and biodiscovery tools from neurotoxic snake venoms. This project aims to identify the selection pressures that shape snake venom neurotoxins and how they interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and to elucidate their biodiscovery potential. This project aims to test these important toxins on model systems that represent natural prey items in order to determine the molecular and functional evolution of neurotoxic peptides. Expected outcomes include substantial contributions to the body of evolutionary biology knowledge, while also having the applied benefit of discovering novel compounds with potential for use in drug design and discovery. These outcomes will benefit Australian science and society by elucidating fundamental processes while revealing biodisovery resources.Read moreRead less