Nanocomposite Mesoporous Materials for Gas Separations of Environmental Significance. The management of greenhouse and other acid gas emissions is vital to a sustainable future of both the economy and the ecosystem. This project will develop novel nano-materials for gas separation by tethering organic functional groups to the surface of porous inorganic supports. These materials offer the promise of combining the high selectivity and high capacity of liquid phase absorption systems with the rapi ....Nanocomposite Mesoporous Materials for Gas Separations of Environmental Significance. The management of greenhouse and other acid gas emissions is vital to a sustainable future of both the economy and the ecosystem. This project will develop novel nano-materials for gas separation by tethering organic functional groups to the surface of porous inorganic supports. These materials offer the promise of combining the high selectivity and high capacity of liquid phase absorption systems with the rapid transport rates of gas-solid adsorption systems. Success would open up several new possibilities for reengineering gas separation systems based on the use of these materials in solution, as solid phase adsorbents (pressure swing adsorption) and/or as permeselective gas membranes.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials. The Centre will consist of leading researchers from four Australian universities, four CSIRO divisions, and two US research centres. The vision is to position Australia as a world leader in nanomaterials science and technology. The Centre will involve nanoscale science for building functional nanostructures of materials at the molecular level. It aims to develop new methods and techniques for self-assembling and characterizing nanomaterials with tailorabl ....ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials. The Centre will consist of leading researchers from four Australian universities, four CSIRO divisions, and two US research centres. The vision is to position Australia as a world leader in nanomaterials science and technology. The Centre will involve nanoscale science for building functional nanostructures of materials at the molecular level. It aims to develop new methods and techniques for self-assembling and characterizing nanomaterials with tailorable properties. The outcomes will include leading-edge science, the development of human capital, and intellectual property in new materials and products for applications in clean energy, environmental, and health care industries.Read moreRead less
Improved methods for predicting species' distributions under environmental change. Understanding the impacts of climate change and invasive species on the distribution and persistence of species is an issue of global and national significance and concern. This project will provide tools essential for the effective management of Australia's ecosystems by delivering clear guidelines and practical methods that will substantially improve the modelling of future species distributions.
Robust prediction and decision strategies for managing extinction risks under climate change. Climate change is a principal threat to biodiversity and ecosystem health. The loss of ecosystem services from loss of species and ecosystem change may have serious social and economic repercussions. Unreliable predictions of climate change impacts and inefficient adaptation decisions result in wasted public resources and unnecessary loss of natural assets. In addition to direct benefits of efficient ad ....Robust prediction and decision strategies for managing extinction risks under climate change. Climate change is a principal threat to biodiversity and ecosystem health. The loss of ecosystem services from loss of species and ecosystem change may have serious social and economic repercussions. Unreliable predictions of climate change impacts and inefficient adaptation decisions result in wasted public resources and unnecessary loss of natural assets. In addition to direct benefits of efficient adaptation strategies for case-study ecosystems, techniques arising from this research will improve the way we respond to uncertain, but potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change. Bringing state-of-the-art modelling and formal decision methods to climate change adaptation is a central aim of this research.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561224
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$267,767.00
Summary
14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of sp ....14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of specific biomolecular compounds that unambiguously formed part of the original sample, and the isolation of these biomolecules for radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry. Here we request funds to establish Australia's first compound-specific radiocarbon dating facility, to obtain ages of high accuracy for key studies of climate and landscape change, evolutionary biology and archaeology.Read moreRead less
Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past ....Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past in this manner we can better understand current health issues linked to diet and how the environment and climate is changing.Read moreRead less
Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. ....Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. We will build a capacity for providing large-scale knowledge of vegetation condition and flow-on effects on biodiversity, which also will allow us to make informed assessments of the ecological consequences of some existing (climate change, drying) and imminent (biofuel plantings) drivers of change.Read moreRead less
ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to deter ....ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to determine how best to describe Australia's current biodiversity and the biological and environmental history leading up to the present. A major outcome will be the ability to predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity to assist management decisions across Australia, with lessons of global importance.Read moreRead less
Indigenous Weather: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander's perspectives on weather. This project aims to collect, synthesise and interpret Indigenous Australian knowledge on weather patterns, seasonal variations, environmental and climatic change. The development of an Indigenous weather knowledge data-base will be incorporated into the Bureau of Meteorology's external web page and will provide much needed infomation on Indigenous people's understanding of their enviroment.
Community Engagement for Localised Greenhouse Reduction: a local government demand-management model for business and household water, energy and waste reduction. New integrated community strategies are needed to deal with the imperative of reducing Australia's carbon footprint. With an explicit focus on enhancing community engagement for localised greenhouse reduction, this project will generate important analysis and policy prescriptions for demand reduction strategies. The development of endur ....Community Engagement for Localised Greenhouse Reduction: a local government demand-management model for business and household water, energy and waste reduction. New integrated community strategies are needed to deal with the imperative of reducing Australia's carbon footprint. With an explicit focus on enhancing community engagement for localised greenhouse reduction, this project will generate important analysis and policy prescriptions for demand reduction strategies. The development of enduring sustainable environment attitudinal and behavioural change is central to the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, which sees a clear role for governments, business and individuals in progressing ecologically sustainable development. The results will contribute to developing new place-based integrated eco-sustainability models for implementation by local/state governments.Read moreRead less