Pelagic ecosystem linkages in a changing Southern Ocean. Our study, which aims to better describe and understand the ecology of the vast Ocean to the south of Australia, will provide the information that will assist in managing this region in an era of change. Many species are of significant conservation concern, others are recovering from previous harvesting, some are being harvested and all will be affected by a changing climate. Understanding the ecosystem linkages and the way in which the p ....Pelagic ecosystem linkages in a changing Southern Ocean. Our study, which aims to better describe and understand the ecology of the vast Ocean to the south of Australia, will provide the information that will assist in managing this region in an era of change. Many species are of significant conservation concern, others are recovering from previous harvesting, some are being harvested and all will be affected by a changing climate. Understanding the ecosystem linkages and the way in which the physical environment affects the distribution and abundance of key ecosystem components will allow us to better manage the system and to predict the effects of future climate change. Read moreRead less
Machine Assisted, Multi-scale Spatial and Temporal Observation and Modeling of Marine Benthic Habitats. The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) science plans include sampling campaigns reliant on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Facility data and designed to address the issues of marine biodiversity quantification and assurance. The proposed research will directly enhance the effectiveness of these programs by speeding labour-intensive analyses, aggregating the results, and searching f ....Machine Assisted, Multi-scale Spatial and Temporal Observation and Modeling of Marine Benthic Habitats. The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) science plans include sampling campaigns reliant on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Facility data and designed to address the issues of marine biodiversity quantification and assurance. The proposed research will directly enhance the effectiveness of these programs by speeding labour-intensive analyses, aggregating the results, and searching for ecological patterns on a national scale that would be difficult to identify using traditional approaches tuned to process-scale studies. Australian society stands to benefit by virtue of improved large-scale models of ecosystem function and reduced cost for conducting marine ecosystem investigations.Read moreRead less
Towards operational monitoring of key climate parameters from synthetic aperture radar. Agricultural productivity is a major contributor to the Australian economy, but is experiencing significant stress in response to climate change. Moreover, soil moisture controls vegetation dynamics that contribute to carbon storage, atmospheric processes leading to severe weather, and runoff generation processes leading to floods and runoff yield from urban water storage catchments. Consequently, high reso ....Towards operational monitoring of key climate parameters from synthetic aperture radar. Agricultural productivity is a major contributor to the Australian economy, but is experiencing significant stress in response to climate change. Moreover, soil moisture controls vegetation dynamics that contribute to carbon storage, atmospheric processes leading to severe weather, and runoff generation processes leading to floods and runoff yield from urban water storage catchments. Consequently, high resolution time-series information on soil moisture and vegetation status from space represents a powerful tool for understanding climate change impacts on Australia. It is therefore imperative that products be developed specifically for the Australian environment to take full advantage of radar data from satellites.Read moreRead less