Australian plague locust population genetics and migratory behaviour. The project will allow improved monitoring and forecasting of locusts in Australia and thereby help prevent locust outbreaks. Benefits will arise directly through greater effectiveness in reducing locust damage to crops, and indirectly to Australian rural industry generally through the economic benefits of reduced losses and locust control costs. Environmental and social benefits will also arise from reduced, better targeted u ....Australian plague locust population genetics and migratory behaviour. The project will allow improved monitoring and forecasting of locusts in Australia and thereby help prevent locust outbreaks. Benefits will arise directly through greater effectiveness in reducing locust damage to crops, and indirectly to Australian rural industry generally through the economic benefits of reduced losses and locust control costs. Environmental and social benefits will also arise from reduced, better targeted use of chemical insecticides. This in turn can produce secondary economic benefits, e.g. through enhanced growth and profitability of the organic beef industry within the main locust-outbreak area. Read moreRead less
Anatomy of a biodiversity hotspot: investigating the evolutionary and ecological basis of high plant diversity in southwestern Australia. Southwestern Australia - Australia's only global biodiversity hotspot - has an exceptionally rich flora but has suffered extensive habitat loss, so many rare plants are threatened with extinction. Further, this region is expected to suffer severely under projected climate change scenarios, lending urgency to efforts to describe and understand the regions plant ....Anatomy of a biodiversity hotspot: investigating the evolutionary and ecological basis of high plant diversity in southwestern Australia. Southwestern Australia - Australia's only global biodiversity hotspot - has an exceptionally rich flora but has suffered extensive habitat loss, so many rare plants are threatened with extinction. Further, this region is expected to suffer severely under projected climate change scenarios, lending urgency to efforts to describe and understand the regions plant biodiversity. This project will provide the first description and analysis of an important but hitherto little-known aspect of biodiversity, the evolutionary structure of ecological communities. This will enhance our understanding of how communities are assembled, providing a stronger scientific basis for sustainable management of the southwest's biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Breeding for resistance: Diagnostic toolkit for predicting variation in plant defence compounds in Eucalyptus. Pulp and timber from plantations are important for Australia's economic and environmental future. However, we must ensure that these plantations are grown sustainably. One area of concern is the current reliance on pesticides to control herbivores of plantation eucalypts. The work proposed here aims to use existing ecological findings together with early access to the genome of Eucal ....Breeding for resistance: Diagnostic toolkit for predicting variation in plant defence compounds in Eucalyptus. Pulp and timber from plantations are important for Australia's economic and environmental future. However, we must ensure that these plantations are grown sustainably. One area of concern is the current reliance on pesticides to control herbivores of plantation eucalypts. The work proposed here aims to use existing ecological findings together with early access to the genome of Eucalyptus to develop ways of using the natural resistance of Eucalyptus as an alternative to chemical pesticides. The work will also help us to understand how eucalypts produce the distinctive odours that are so characteristic of Australian landscapes.Read moreRead less
Understanding when biocontrol and enemy release affect plant populations. This project aims to determine when introduced species escape from their natural enemies, and when biocontrol efforts succeed. Enemy release and biocontrol are key to our understanding and management of invasions. However there has never been a broad quantitative assessment of the circumstances under which biocontrol and enemy release affect introduced populations. This project will use a combination of meta-analyses and i ....Understanding when biocontrol and enemy release affect plant populations. This project aims to determine when introduced species escape from their natural enemies, and when biocontrol efforts succeed. Enemy release and biocontrol are key to our understanding and management of invasions. However there has never been a broad quantitative assessment of the circumstances under which biocontrol and enemy release affect introduced populations. This project will use a combination of meta-analyses and international field studies to address this knowledge gap. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that facilitate biological invasions, and improved success of biocontrol agents.Read moreRead less
New multi-scale seed dispersal models for improved regional weed management. This project will exploit recent advances in ecological and atmospheric modelling with the aim to build improved models of seed dispersal across landscapes to anticipate weed spread. Damaging invasive plants are rapidly transforming landscapes and altering ecosystem function worldwide. The speed and direction of weed spread determines the success or failure of costly containment and control actions, however we lack the ....New multi-scale seed dispersal models for improved regional weed management. This project will exploit recent advances in ecological and atmospheric modelling with the aim to build improved models of seed dispersal across landscapes to anticipate weed spread. Damaging invasive plants are rapidly transforming landscapes and altering ecosystem function worldwide. The speed and direction of weed spread determines the success or failure of costly containment and control actions, however we lack the ability to adequately predict spread. New models that combine micrometeorological measurements, within-canopy turbulence and topographic variation in wind flows will be designed to better predict where dispersal will occur. In this project, these improved predictions are planned to be combined with decision models to direct the management of invasive species across entire landscapes.Read moreRead less