On the importance of sex in plants: determining which biotic and environmental factors favour sexual versus clonal reproduction. This project will use plants to provide novel tests of the idea that sex helps species escape from their parasites and pathogens, and that sexual species are faster to adapt to changed environmental conditions than are clonal species. The findings will help predict how plants will respond to future changes in climate and parasite pressure.
Sex, Sperm and Society. Insights into the evolutionary potential of sexual conflict in insects: a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Social insects are biologically and economically important species. Honeybees or stingless bees are used for crop pollination and honey production and invasive ants or termites are severe pest species causing economic damage. Part of the biological success of social insects is based on the capability to produce colonies with many workers although colonie ....Sex, Sperm and Society. Insights into the evolutionary potential of sexual conflict in insects: a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Social insects are biologically and economically important species. Honeybees or stingless bees are used for crop pollination and honey production and invasive ants or termites are severe pest species causing economic damage. Part of the biological success of social insects is based on the capability to produce colonies with many workers although colonies typically contain only one or very few reproductives. Consequently, colony success is bound to queen fertility and studying social insect reproduction can therefore optimize breeding regimes of species of interest or offer new possibilities to control pest species. Detailed information on sperm form and function will provide pioneering insights into the complexity of sexual reproduction.Read moreRead less
Buffering the ecosystem impact of invasive cane toads. This project aims to address the devastating ecological problems caused by invasive species, by developing a novel approach that does not rely upon eradicating the invader through training vulnerable native predators not to eat toxic cane toads. Expected outcomes of this project include building a broad coalition of conservation-focused groups, from private land-owners and local businesses through to Indigenous groups and government and non- ....Buffering the ecosystem impact of invasive cane toads. This project aims to address the devastating ecological problems caused by invasive species, by developing a novel approach that does not rely upon eradicating the invader through training vulnerable native predators not to eat toxic cane toads. Expected outcomes of this project include building a broad coalition of conservation-focused groups, from private land-owners and local businesses through to Indigenous groups and government and non-government agencies across the entire Kimberley region. It will also result in the evaluation of methods for deployment of taste-aversion at a landscape scale. This should provide significant benefits by conserving vulnerable fauna and building a powerful network within a region of high biodiversity in tropical Australia.Read moreRead less
Comparative studies of invasive plants: a leaf carbon strategy approach. Invasion of communities by exotic plants is a significant threat to biodiversity globally. This proposal is to strengthen collaborative links between the Plant Invasion Research Laboratories of Leishman in Australia and Richardson in South Africa. Their current research seeks to understand strategies of invasive plants in novel environments using the framework of leaf carbon strategies. Australian plants invasive in South A ....Comparative studies of invasive plants: a leaf carbon strategy approach. Invasion of communities by exotic plants is a significant threat to biodiversity globally. This proposal is to strengthen collaborative links between the Plant Invasion Research Laboratories of Leishman in Australia and Richardson in South Africa. Their current research seeks to understand strategies of invasive plants in novel environments using the framework of leaf carbon strategies. Australian plants invasive in South Africa and South African plants invasive in Australia provide an ideal model system. This collaborative research will enable better prediction of potential invaders, as well as providing important input for models of plant, ecosystem and biosphere responses to global change incorporating invasion dynamics.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100884
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,691.00
Summary
Do novel diets reshape wildlife microbiomes and resilience to stressors? This project aims to investigate how bacteria can assist wildlife in adapting to the accelerating threat of environmental change. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary approach this project expects to identify interactions between environmental change and the diet, microbial communities and stress resilience of wildlife, using the threatened Grey-headed flying fox as a model system. Expected outcomes include detailed under ....Do novel diets reshape wildlife microbiomes and resilience to stressors? This project aims to investigate how bacteria can assist wildlife in adapting to the accelerating threat of environmental change. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary approach this project expects to identify interactions between environmental change and the diet, microbial communities and stress resilience of wildlife, using the threatened Grey-headed flying fox as a model system. Expected outcomes include detailed understanding of the role of microbial communities in shaping wildlife adaptations and development of ecological interventions to enhance wildlife resilience in Australia and globally. Such outcomes may reveal opportunities for management strategies that safeguard threatened species and reduce human-wildlife conflicts.Read moreRead less
Discovering how termites use vibrations to make foraging decisions. Termites are pests affecting one third of Australian homes. The annual cost of treatment and damage repair is over $20 billion worldwide. Yet, little is known about how termites make foraging decisions based on vibrations. This project will study the key features in vibration signals produced by termites to unlock the secrets of their foraging behaviour.
Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantif ....Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantify the interactive impact of temperature and nutrition on immune function, disease resistance and host-plant quality of plague locusts; and to explore the combined effects of temperature, habitat and Green Guard, in combination with candidate microbes or pathogens, on the behaviour and collective movement of locusts. It is anticipated that this will have implications for management and control strategies.Read moreRead less
Epidemiology of pathogens in wildlife populations: significance for conservation, human health and livestock. Recent research shows that pathogens may play a central role in wildlife population dynamics. Emergent disease problems in humans and livestock may result from reservoir infections in wildlife. However, methods to determine the impact of pathogens on populations, as distinct from individuals within populations, are poorly developed, as are models necessary to evaluate alternative control ....Epidemiology of pathogens in wildlife populations: significance for conservation, human health and livestock. Recent research shows that pathogens may play a central role in wildlife population dynamics. Emergent disease problems in humans and livestock may result from reservoir infections in wildlife. However, methods to determine the impact of pathogens on populations, as distinct from individuals within populations, are poorly developed, as are models necessary to evaluate alternative control strategies for pathogens, particularly where reservoir hosts are involved. This project will develop these methods using four case studies: chyridiomycosis in frogs, Hendra virus in bats, Newcastle disease in wild birds and arboviruses in kangaroos and other macropods.Read moreRead less
Quantifying condition-dependence in sexual selection. This research centres on testing evolutionary models of sexual selection. The project has relevance for understanding the role of mutations in reducing the fitness of populations and hence has implications for the conservation of endangered species and for human health. The research also investigates how investment in one trait, such as horns, will take resources away from another, like muscle. This has implications for animal production. The ....Quantifying condition-dependence in sexual selection. This research centres on testing evolutionary models of sexual selection. The project has relevance for understanding the role of mutations in reducing the fitness of populations and hence has implications for the conservation of endangered species and for human health. The research also investigates how investment in one trait, such as horns, will take resources away from another, like muscle. This has implications for animal production. The project utilises pest species as research models and will hence provide further understanding of pest life-history, knowledge critical to the success of control programmes. Australian science will further benefit through the research fellow's established collaborations with international scientists.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL0992270
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,080,000.00
Summary
Nutritional Dynamics: from Genes to Individuals to Ecosystems. Understanding how ecosystems function from the perspective of nutritional interactions between individual organisms will contribute to an environmentally sustainable Australia, with particular benefits to rural communities in arid/semi-arid regions. Research on human and animal nutrition, obesity and ageing will provide essential knowledge for promoting and maintaining good health and designing novel treatments for metabolic disorder ....Nutritional Dynamics: from Genes to Individuals to Ecosystems. Understanding how ecosystems function from the perspective of nutritional interactions between individual organisms will contribute to an environmentally sustainable Australia, with particular benefits to rural communities in arid/semi-arid regions. Research on human and animal nutrition, obesity and ageing will provide essential knowledge for promoting and maintaining good health and designing novel treatments for metabolic disorders. New ways of controlling locusts and other pest insects will arise and contribute to safeguarding Australia. New diet optimisation technologies will help transform Australian food production industries. The project will foster creative, innovative science that spans molecular biology to ecosystem dynamics.Read moreRead less