Next-generation models to predict cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms. This project aims to address the need for improved predictions of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) harmful algal blooms. Accurate predictions of blooms with computer models are important to support management strategies to prevent their occurrence. This project is expected to generate new knowledge of strain-level variation in cyanobacteria that leads to toxic blooms. This project will lead to new knowledge of the significance ....Next-generation models to predict cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms. This project aims to address the need for improved predictions of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) harmful algal blooms. Accurate predictions of blooms with computer models are important to support management strategies to prevent their occurrence. This project is expected to generate new knowledge of strain-level variation in cyanobacteria that leads to toxic blooms. This project will lead to new knowledge of the significance of strain-level variation in cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms, how strains influence toxin production and models for prediction of bloom and toxins. The project will generate significant benefits for water security for the purposes human consumption and recreation, and ecosystem health.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing the historical frequency and intensity of Australian droughts: A multi-species dendrochronological approach. Drought directly and indirectly impacts every Australian. Severe droughts devastate rural communities, lead to increased water restrictions and bushfire activity, slows the national economy and threatens diverse ecosystems. Our research will improve understanding of where, when, and how intensely droughts have occurred across eastern Australia in the past. The results will ....Reconstructing the historical frequency and intensity of Australian droughts: A multi-species dendrochronological approach. Drought directly and indirectly impacts every Australian. Severe droughts devastate rural communities, lead to increased water restrictions and bushfire activity, slows the national economy and threatens diverse ecosystems. Our research will improve understanding of where, when, and how intensely droughts have occurred across eastern Australia in the past. The results will provide unique insights into the processes that generate Australian droughts and how future droughts might be anticipated. The results will provide farmers, hydrologists, and policy-makers with better data on long-term variability in water supplies to improve local, regional, and national water planning initiatives and infrastructure development.Read moreRead less
Turning water into carbon: a synthesis of plant water-use efficiency from leaf to globe. The efficiency with which plants use water to gain carbon is a fundamental aspect of plant growth that has been frequently measured but is poorly understood. Using our new theory to draw together major datasets, the project will make a dramatic advance in our ability to understand and predict this key aspect of ecosystem function.
Identifying how a non-stationary environment affects species persistence. This project aims to achieve the first application of new ecological theory that accounts for environmental change and species’ ability to respond to that change, using caddisflies that lay eggs on rocks in rivers as a case study. Long-term change in climate has always occurred but is often not accounted for when estimating future population sizes and extinction risk in species. Outcomes will include new knowledge on chang ....Identifying how a non-stationary environment affects species persistence. This project aims to achieve the first application of new ecological theory that accounts for environmental change and species’ ability to respond to that change, using caddisflies that lay eggs on rocks in rivers as a case study. Long-term change in climate has always occurred but is often not accounted for when estimating future population sizes and extinction risk in species. Outcomes will include new knowledge on changing habitat availability, species’ ability to move in the landscape and successfully lay and hatch eggs, while creating a general template for use in other species. This will lead to significant benefits for conservation efforts worldwide, via the template’s inclusion in accepted extinction assessment protocols.Read moreRead less
Species redundancy in response to multiple disturbances. This project aims to elucidate how the context within which disturbances occur affects food web linkages and how these map to responses in ecosystem function. There is a critical need to test the common assumption in environmental management that high biodiversity makes ecosystems resilient to disturbances. Studies that merely observe biodiversity change after disturbance cannot identify ecological processes connecting high diversity and e ....Species redundancy in response to multiple disturbances. This project aims to elucidate how the context within which disturbances occur affects food web linkages and how these map to responses in ecosystem function. There is a critical need to test the common assumption in environmental management that high biodiversity makes ecosystems resilient to disturbances. Studies that merely observe biodiversity change after disturbance cannot identify ecological processes connecting high diversity and ecosystem function, making experiments that manipulate identical disturbances in ecosystems with different biodiversity essential. This project will use field experiments that manipulate disturbances in streams replicated in low and high biodiversity regions and across gradients of chronic background stress to show how biodiversity sustains functional ecosystems, and how much diversity can be lost before ecosystems collapse.Read moreRead less
Enhancing nutrient retention in soils through management of microbial biomass. Soil microbial-processes are generally studied in relation to mineralisation of nutrients but rarely for their potential to retain nutrients and reduce nutrient leaching. We hypothesise that management of microbial immobilisation will enhance nutrient retention in nutrient enriched soils during seasonal rains. This hypothesis will be tested under strongly seasonal environments of southwest Australia where nutrient lea ....Enhancing nutrient retention in soils through management of microbial biomass. Soil microbial-processes are generally studied in relation to mineralisation of nutrients but rarely for their potential to retain nutrients and reduce nutrient leaching. We hypothesise that management of microbial immobilisation will enhance nutrient retention in nutrient enriched soils during seasonal rains. This hypothesis will be tested under strongly seasonal environments of southwest Australia where nutrient leaching from soils degrades quality of surface and groundwater. We will first investigate pathways and conditions leading to microbial immobilisation. We will then explore the regulation of substrate and nutrient conditions to promote such retention, and subsequently develop management interventions based on microbially-mediated nutrient retention.Read moreRead less
How arid zone wetlands persist: linking ecological dynamics with hydrological regimes . This project will investigate how aquatic food webs assemble and persist in mound springs, relict streams and river pools in the Australian arid zone. Knowing how aquatic systems respond to wet and dry phases is the first step towards ‘climate proofing ’ these systems against future extreme events.
Toxic cyanobacterial blooms in a carbon dioxide (CO2)-rich world: assessing the impacts of global climate change. Cyanobacterial blooms in Australia cost the country over $150 million every year because of their impacts on water quality and animal and human health. The frequency, distribution and intensity of these blooms are all expected to increase worldwide as global climate change impacts increase over the next century. This project will provide much needed information of the severity of imp ....Toxic cyanobacterial blooms in a carbon dioxide (CO2)-rich world: assessing the impacts of global climate change. Cyanobacterial blooms in Australia cost the country over $150 million every year because of their impacts on water quality and animal and human health. The frequency, distribution and intensity of these blooms are all expected to increase worldwide as global climate change impacts increase over the next century. This project will provide much needed information of the severity of impacts on cyanobacteria commonly causing blooms in Australian aquatic ecosystems. This information will be important to authorities responsible for managing our precious water resources.Read moreRead less
Dispersal and species coexistence across patchy landscapes. Millions of dollars are spent rehabilitating degraded river ecosystems in the absence of knowing whether and how species will be able to disperse to and re-populate repaired sections. This research will provide definitive information allowing restoration efforts to be targeted properly in streams surrounded by, and serving, agricultural areas.
Species coexistence in the real world. This project aims to discover how similar species co-exist without weaker competitors going extinct. Hypotheses offer explanations for stable coexistence in the presence of competition, but logistic barriers mean field tests are almost completely lacking. Recent research on competition and dispersal presents an opportunity to deliver tests using riverine species, leading to experiments at landscape scales. The research will quantify the role of environmenta ....Species coexistence in the real world. This project aims to discover how similar species co-exist without weaker competitors going extinct. Hypotheses offer explanations for stable coexistence in the presence of competition, but logistic barriers mean field tests are almost completely lacking. Recent research on competition and dispersal presents an opportunity to deliver tests using riverine species, leading to experiments at landscape scales. The research will quantify the role of environmental variability and dispersal in permitting stable coexistence of species, thus filling a major knowledge gap. The project expects to provide fresh avenues for research into the causes of species losses – particularly for the 70 per cent that are invertebrates.Read moreRead less