Single-sample unmixing with machine learning: a rock magnetic frontier. Magnetic rock-forming minerals can record important information about Earth’s magnetic field and climatic changes. In rock magnetism, we seek to quantify magnetic property variations in geological materials. Existing quantification methods are limited and provide bulk characterisation of all magnetic particles in a material rather than diagnostic information concerning individual mineral components. This Project aims to deve ....Single-sample unmixing with machine learning: a rock magnetic frontier. Magnetic rock-forming minerals can record important information about Earth’s magnetic field and climatic changes. In rock magnetism, we seek to quantify magnetic property variations in geological materials. Existing quantification methods are limited and provide bulk characterisation of all magnetic particles in a material rather than diagnostic information concerning individual mineral components. This Project aims to develop a machine-learning framework to “unmix” and quantify each magnetic mineral component in single natural samples, and will unlock a new quantitative era in rock magnetism. It is expected to have impact beyond Earth science by enabling magnetic characterisation in physics, materials science, and industry.Read moreRead less
First-order reversal curve diagrams & quantitative environmental magnetism. The project intends to enable full quantitative separation of magnetic mineral mixtures in natural materials to unlock details of important environmental processes. Most efforts to understand ancient variations of Earth’s magnetic field using palaeomagnetism, or climate change using environmental magnetism, are complicated by the presence of mixed assemblages of magnetic rock-forming minerals. Understanding the recording ....First-order reversal curve diagrams & quantitative environmental magnetism. The project intends to enable full quantitative separation of magnetic mineral mixtures in natural materials to unlock details of important environmental processes. Most efforts to understand ancient variations of Earth’s magnetic field using palaeomagnetism, or climate change using environmental magnetism, are complicated by the presence of mixed assemblages of magnetic rock-forming minerals. Understanding the recording of palaeomagnetic information or decoding environmental processes requires separate quantification of each mineral component. The main aim of the project is to develop a method to unmix the magnetic components present in environmental and geological materials. The proposed approach is expected to unlock a new quantitative era in rock magnetism, and to have impacts in physics as well as Earth science.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing Australia’s fire history from cave stalagmites. Fire represents a major natural hazard, and its impact on Australian communities and ecosystems is increasing. Representing a world first, this project aims to calibrate the paleofire signal from stalagmites in shallow caves, and to construct annually resolved stalagmite records of paleofire frequency and intensity for the last millennia. The project aims to use stalagmites from south west Australia to determine the relationship betw ....Reconstructing Australia’s fire history from cave stalagmites. Fire represents a major natural hazard, and its impact on Australian communities and ecosystems is increasing. Representing a world first, this project aims to calibrate the paleofire signal from stalagmites in shallow caves, and to construct annually resolved stalagmite records of paleofire frequency and intensity for the last millennia. The project aims to use stalagmites from south west Australia to determine the relationship between fire and climate and assess the robustness of stalagmite hydroclimate proxies in fire-prone regions. This project expects to establish a new research field for speleothem science, enhancing capacity for the Australian Quaternary and speleothem research communities, as well as benefits to land managers.Read moreRead less
Understanding interglacial diversity. This project intends to improve our understanding of interglacial processes. Interglacials, the relatively brief warm intervals of Quaternary ice-age cycles, have varied significantly over the last 800 000 years in terms of their duration, timing, intensity and complexity. The reason for such diversity has eluded palaeoclimatologists for decades. This is because of the difficulty of dating marine and ice records, which best preserve interglacial histories. T ....Understanding interglacial diversity. This project intends to improve our understanding of interglacial processes. Interglacials, the relatively brief warm intervals of Quaternary ice-age cycles, have varied significantly over the last 800 000 years in terms of their duration, timing, intensity and complexity. The reason for such diversity has eluded palaeoclimatologists for decades. This is because of the difficulty of dating marine and ice records, which best preserve interglacial histories. The projects plans to compile precisely dated time series of past interglacials that can be linked directly to these records, allowing robust comparisons between interglacial properties and changes in Earth's astronomical parameters. This would advance palaeoclimate theory and provide a new perspective on the future evolution of the climate system.Read moreRead less
Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt ....Millennial climate change in southern Australia during the Last Glacial. Abrupt warming and cooling events were a persistent feature of Earth's most recent climate cycle. Surprisingly, little is known of how these events affected the climate of Australia. This project will produce precisely dated reconstructions of rainfall and temperature trends in southern Australia during these events. These new terrestrial and ocean data will be compared with model simulations to determine how rapidly abrupt climate perturbations in the Northern Hemisphere reached our region, and the processes by which this occurred. The results will advance theory on how abrupt climate change propagates globally and provide a long-awaited climatic context for capstone events in Australia's natural history.Read moreRead less
New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will al ....New insights on the forcing of Quaternary ice-age terminations. This project investigates the period when Earth's climate last experienced a major step change. Using novel techniques, it combines information from an exceptional archive of cave deposits and ocean sediments to precisely determine the timing of ice-age cycles. The results will provide the first robust test of hypotheses proposed to explain these cycles, leading to refinements in the astronomical theory of the ice ages. They will also provide an essential reference record of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet history, which will complement data from forthcoming Antarctic ice cores. Together, this will better contextualise current and projected greenhouse warming.Read moreRead less
A 140,000 year insight into the imprint of climate and humans on Australia. Before the arrival of Europeans, two events shaped Australia's current landscapes and biota more than any others: climate change during the glacial cycle and the arrival of humans on the continent. However, the full scale of these events is not well understood. High resolution analyses of two continuous 140 000 year old sediment deposits will be used in this project to fill this void and answer fundamental questions abou ....A 140,000 year insight into the imprint of climate and humans on Australia. Before the arrival of Europeans, two events shaped Australia's current landscapes and biota more than any others: climate change during the glacial cycle and the arrival of humans on the continent. However, the full scale of these events is not well understood. High resolution analyses of two continuous 140 000 year old sediment deposits will be used in this project to fill this void and answer fundamental questions about how current Australian environments came to be.Read moreRead less
East Australian climate extremes through the Holocene. The project aims to document climate variability in eastern Australia over the Holocene, the last 11,500 years. It seeks to develop Australia’s two highest-resolution Holocene climate records using novel techniques to infer past rainfall, temperature and evaporation. The project will combine the expertise of international drought and climate specialists with novel techniques developed by the Australian investigators to derive an unparalleled ....East Australian climate extremes through the Holocene. The project aims to document climate variability in eastern Australia over the Holocene, the last 11,500 years. It seeks to develop Australia’s two highest-resolution Holocene climate records using novel techniques to infer past rainfall, temperature and evaporation. The project will combine the expertise of international drought and climate specialists with novel techniques developed by the Australian investigators to derive an unparalleled record of drought duration, frequency and intensity. In particular, the project aims to determine the frequency, duration and causes of mega-droughts in eastern Australia, of which little is known. Expected project outcomes include improved decision making capacity for natural resource management, and planning.Read moreRead less
When the ice melts: a new perspective on the causes of Quaternary glacial terminations. The project will assemble an unprecedented palaeoclimate time series extending back to 1.2 million years ago that will allow marine and ice core records to be placed onto an absolute time scale. This will allow testing of fundamental hypotheses on why the Earth's climate shifts from glacial to interglacial states, with flow-on effects to climate models.
Establishing baseline ecological conditions for the Lower Lakes, South Australia: the applications of palaeoecology to sustainable resource management. The Lower Lakes of the Murray River are in a critical ecological state due to record low water levels. Management of these lakes needs to integrate water security demands with maintaining healthy ecosystem functions. Proposed management options such as allowing seawater incursion and the construction of a weir to impede freshwater flows are based ....Establishing baseline ecological conditions for the Lower Lakes, South Australia: the applications of palaeoecology to sustainable resource management. The Lower Lakes of the Murray River are in a critical ecological state due to record low water levels. Management of these lakes needs to integrate water security demands with maintaining healthy ecosystem functions. Proposed management options such as allowing seawater incursion and the construction of a weir to impede freshwater flows are based on assumptions about what the Lakes were like naturally (pre-European). This study will reconstruct environmental variability within the Lower Lakes over the past 7000 years, concentrating on salinity to document the extent of marine incursion, and pH to examine the impacts of acid sulphate release from exposed sediments during low flow events. Read moreRead less