Behavioural resilience to climatic variability. Despite Australian biota being adapted to high natural climate variability, modern climate change is leading to population collapses and shifts into novel ecosystems. This Project, which studies a unique native mammal in the Pilbara, aims to uncover whether changes in behaviour are effective for dealing with environmental extremes and unpredictable climatic conditions. It will integrate laboratory- and field-based investigations to examine behaviou ....Behavioural resilience to climatic variability. Despite Australian biota being adapted to high natural climate variability, modern climate change is leading to population collapses and shifts into novel ecosystems. This Project, which studies a unique native mammal in the Pilbara, aims to uncover whether changes in behaviour are effective for dealing with environmental extremes and unpredictable climatic conditions. It will integrate laboratory- and field-based investigations to examine behavioural responses to climatic variability and establish how these responses influence individual fitness and future population resilience. This research will advance knowledge on climate-driven behavioural adaptation and improve understanding of how species will cope with Australia’s changing climate.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE210100028
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes ....Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes include understanding past global environmental change on multiple time scales, the deep biosphere, plate tectonics, formation and distribution of resources, and generation of hazards. These outcomes are paramount to Australia’s national science and research priorities, and societal and economic prosperity.Read moreRead less
Modern human origins and early behavioural complexity in Australia and Southeast Asia. This project tackles a fundamental issue in world prehistory: how and when did humans first cross from Southeast Asia into Australia. Three new archaeological excavations using novel methods of analysis will assess the nature of behavioural complexity and human evolution at the time when Australia was first colonised over 45,000 years ago.
Reconstructing changes in atmospheric circulation over the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere during the past 3000 years. The climate of the mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere is of global significance and yet past changes have proved difficult to reconstruct due to the dearth of records. Working across the Southern Ocean region using tree rings, lake sediments and ice cores, the project will produce the first comprehensive reconstruction spanning the last 3000 years.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100067
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program:
This project is for a 5-year membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program, the world’s largest collaborative research program in earth and ocean sciences addressing international priorities. The program conducts seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes to study the history and current activity of the Earth, recorded in sed ....Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. Australian membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program:
This project is for a 5-year membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program, the world’s largest collaborative research program in earth and ocean sciences addressing international priorities. The program conducts seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes to study the history and current activity of the Earth, recorded in sediments and rocks below the seafloor. The program’s aims include understanding past global environments on multiple time scales, the deep biosphere, plate tectonics, occurrence and distribution of resources, and generation of hazards. Several multinational expeditions are scheduled and planned in our marine jurisdiction and within the Australasian region. Read moreRead less
Unravelling how aquatic coastal networks regulate nitrogen removal . The aim of this project is to determine the nitrogen removal pathways of the coastal zone using a number of innovative field and modelling approaches. Little is known about how the complex coastal landscape controls trade-offs that maximise nitrogen removal but minimise nitrous oxide (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions. The outcomes of this study will significantly advance our understanding of the coastal zone in regional and g ....Unravelling how aquatic coastal networks regulate nitrogen removal . The aim of this project is to determine the nitrogen removal pathways of the coastal zone using a number of innovative field and modelling approaches. Little is known about how the complex coastal landscape controls trade-offs that maximise nitrogen removal but minimise nitrous oxide (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions. The outcomes of this study will significantly advance our understanding of the coastal zone in regional and global nitrogen budgets. This will provide significant benefits such as a new science-based quantitative framework to facilitate best practice management to reduce terrestrial nitrogen loads and associated downstream impacts such as eutrophication, and reduce nitrous oxide emissions and associated global warming.
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Ancient Ecology: Changes in penguin diet over ~30,000 years in Antarctica. This project proposes the first direct study of ancient ecology using a combination of second-generation DNA sequencing and targeted gene recovery. The food web of the Antarctic Ocean is a classic textbook example of energy and nutrient cycling in the marine environment. Although a great deal is known about the current status of this food web, understanding how this complex set of predator / prey relationships have change ....Ancient Ecology: Changes in penguin diet over ~30,000 years in Antarctica. This project proposes the first direct study of ancient ecology using a combination of second-generation DNA sequencing and targeted gene recovery. The food web of the Antarctic Ocean is a classic textbook example of energy and nutrient cycling in the marine environment. Although a great deal is known about the current status of this food web, understanding how this complex set of predator / prey relationships have changed over long periods of time is vital to understanding the nature of the system itself. The project intends to track changes in the diet of Adélie penguins from serially preserved ancient fecal (guano) remains dating back approximately 30,000 years. These remains are known to contain microscopic remnants of penguin prey.Read moreRead less
Geodetic determination of the amount and spatial-scale of land subsidence and/or uplift in Australia. Heights can change with time, although most users assume that they are static quantities. Geodetic techniques will be employed to produce a vertical velocity model to make time-varying heights consistent and also to correct sea level change estimates at tide-gauges installed on land, that is either sinking or rising.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100078
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$440,000.00
Summary
Controls on the severity of past environmental crises. This project aims to investigate how the rate of volcanic volatile emissions controlled the severity of past environmental crises. Catastrophic mass extinctions and major oceanic anoxia events are principally caused by the emplacement of gigantic volcanic eruptions but the volume of magma does not correlate with environmental severity. This project couples high-precision age and volatile emission measurements to model distinct climatic pertu ....Controls on the severity of past environmental crises. This project aims to investigate how the rate of volcanic volatile emissions controlled the severity of past environmental crises. Catastrophic mass extinctions and major oceanic anoxia events are principally caused by the emplacement of gigantic volcanic eruptions but the volume of magma does not correlate with environmental severity. This project couples high-precision age and volatile emission measurements to model distinct climatic perturbations over Earth’s last 540 million years. The intended outcome is to find a root cause for severity of past environmental crises, with past emission rates to be used as tools to model possible future climatic crises and provide a new fundamental understanding of Earth’s magmatic engine.Read moreRead less
Geodetic and hydrogeological investigations of groundwater abstraction from confined aquifers: elastic response, heights, and sea level change. Parts of Perth are subsiding by as much as 5 millimetres (mm) per year, thus accelerating sea level rise relative to the land from 3 mm per year to 8 mm per year. The subsidence is most likely due to increased groundwater abstraction. This project aims to extend subsidence mapping in time and space using satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar, calibrat ....Geodetic and hydrogeological investigations of groundwater abstraction from confined aquifers: elastic response, heights, and sea level change. Parts of Perth are subsiding by as much as 5 millimetres (mm) per year, thus accelerating sea level rise relative to the land from 3 mm per year to 8 mm per year. The subsidence is most likely due to increased groundwater abstraction. This project aims to extend subsidence mapping in time and space using satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar, calibrated by complementary geodetic techniques, and coupled with new hydrogeological inputs from the Western Australian Department of Water. The research aims to provide science-based information to planners and managers on coastal vulnerability and determine the land response to groundwater abstraction. This will also allow for the correction of sea level change measurements from tide gauges.Read moreRead less