Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354582
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation be ....Australia-NZ Network for Vegetation Function and Futures. Plants shape our landscapes and drive ecosystem processes from local to global scale. Plant species vary widely in quantitative functional traits. Global datasets about functional variation are emerging, with Australian and NZ leadership. A network would be supported in both Australia and NZ and with strong links elsewhere. It would target seven ambitious but achievable research developments. Each of them demands intensive conversation between separate disciplines. Networking across all seven strands will create a broader linkage, spanning across palaeobiology, ecosystem function, vegetation structure, global change, ecophysiology, phylogeny, genomics, ecoinformatics and evolutionary theory.Read moreRead less
Human Impact and Environmental Change in the Lower Yangtze Delta, China. Based upon a combination of sediment-based proxies of palaeoenvironmental conditions this project attempts to link existing models of geomorphological and climatic variability for the Yangtze Delta to cultural changes evident in archaeological and historical records. The Yangtze valley was the home of agriculture in Asia and hence for the beginnings of village life and Chinese culture. The delta region has prograded over 10 ....Human Impact and Environmental Change in the Lower Yangtze Delta, China. Based upon a combination of sediment-based proxies of palaeoenvironmental conditions this project attempts to link existing models of geomorphological and climatic variability for the Yangtze Delta to cultural changes evident in archaeological and historical records. The Yangtze valley was the home of agriculture in Asia and hence for the beginnings of village life and Chinese culture. The delta region has prograded over 100 km since the early Holocene and there is a well- preserved succession of Neolithic and modern cultures across its surface. The project investigates the relative impact of Holocene river migration, sealevel and climate change on societies, and also the relative impact of societies on vegetation, eutrophication and erosion while the region was converted to an anthropogenic landscape. The results will enable models of human-environmental interactions to be compared with those developed for
Europe, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.Read moreRead less