Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100229
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$160,000.00
Summary
Time-of-flight mass spectrometer for analysis of complex mixtures in oils, ancient rocks, recent sediments, natural products and atmospheric aerosols. Research benefits will be:1. More effective remediation of petroleum spills through better understanding of degradation pathways, and ecotoxicological impact of spills.
2. Better understanding of the role of urban aerosols in human health impacts and climate change.
3. More effective development of finite petroleum resources by better understand ....Time-of-flight mass spectrometer for analysis of complex mixtures in oils, ancient rocks, recent sediments, natural products and atmospheric aerosols. Research benefits will be:1. More effective remediation of petroleum spills through better understanding of degradation pathways, and ecotoxicological impact of spills.
2. Better understanding of the role of urban aerosols in human health impacts and climate change.
3. More effective development of finite petroleum resources by better understanding of processes altering crude oil in the sub-surface.
4. Identification of natural products from algae, cyanobacteria, plants and mushrooms as new sources of pharmaceutical agents. 5. Improved knowledge of early evolution of life on Earth, helping maintain Australian scientists as world leaders in this field. 6. Greater understanding of the source and migration of petroleum in frontier areas.Read moreRead less
Exploring past climates, volcanic disasters and earthquakes in Australasia. This project aims to combine cutting-edge geochemical microanalysis of precisely dated cave deposits and corals to generate fundamental knowledge of Australasian earth hazards and environmental turning points over the past 500,000 years. These novel long-term perspectives of society’s most challenging environmental threats will provide the scientific basis required for informed decision-making and sustainable development ....Exploring past climates, volcanic disasters and earthquakes in Australasia. This project aims to combine cutting-edge geochemical microanalysis of precisely dated cave deposits and corals to generate fundamental knowledge of Australasian earth hazards and environmental turning points over the past 500,000 years. These novel long-term perspectives of society’s most challenging environmental threats will provide the scientific basis required for informed decision-making and sustainable development in Australasia.Read moreRead less
Australia's variable rainfall - how dry or wet can it really get? Australia’s rainfall is extremely variable, which means existing weather records are too short to calculate the true risk posed by droughts and floods. This project aims to quantify how naturally variable the rainfall coming from the Indo-Pacific mid-latitudes is, allowing recent rainfall extremes and future projections to be assessed in a long-term context. This project expects to produce new estimates of atmospheric moisture bud ....Australia's variable rainfall - how dry or wet can it really get? Australia’s rainfall is extremely variable, which means existing weather records are too short to calculate the true risk posed by droughts and floods. This project aims to quantify how naturally variable the rainfall coming from the Indo-Pacific mid-latitudes is, allowing recent rainfall extremes and future projections to be assessed in a long-term context. This project expects to produce new estimates of atmospheric moisture budgets between Australia and Antarctica based on a novel, 1000-year length reconstruction of moisture-bearing southern Indian Ocean storms. This new information is critically needed by water managers so that they can properly calculate (and ultimately prepare for) the worst of Australia’s rainfall-related risks.Read moreRead less
Equator to Pole: Reconstructing tropical and Antarctic climate variability over the last millennium and their impacts on southern Australian rainfall. Water resource management is one of the greatest challenges facing sustainable agriculture and urban populations across southern Australia. Key players driving catastrophic droughts in southern Australia are the tropical Indian Ocean Dipole and polar Southern Annual Mode climate systems, which affect moisture availability and transport pathways. T ....Equator to Pole: Reconstructing tropical and Antarctic climate variability over the last millennium and their impacts on southern Australian rainfall. Water resource management is one of the greatest challenges facing sustainable agriculture and urban populations across southern Australia. Key players driving catastrophic droughts in southern Australia are the tropical Indian Ocean Dipole and polar Southern Annual Mode climate systems, which affect moisture availability and transport pathways. This collaborative research project draws together a uniquely-skilled research team to develop targeted coral, ice and cave reconstructions of these climate systems and their impacts on Australian rainfall through the last millennium. This fundamental new knowledge of the drivers of Australian rainfall variability will aid improved predictability of future changes in our valuable water resources. Read moreRead less
Climate and natural hazards in Australasia: a comprehensive impact analysis of prehistoric droughts, great earthquakes, and the Toba super-eruption. Climate change, great earthquakes, and volcanic disasters pose untold risks for environmental, economic, and social harm in rapidly developing Australasia. This project's ground-breaking natural hazard risk analysis will showcase Australasia's research strengths and provide fundamental knowledge for visionary leadership in sustainable development.