Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100180
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
An Australian fluid-inclusion facility for climate-change science. Understanding past temperature and rainfall changes is essential for improving climate projections. The proposed facility will generate new palaeotemperature and palaeorainfall information from cave deposits, leading to a better understanding of natural climate variability and change.
Are subterranean estuaries a source or sink of greenhouse gases? The aim of this project is to investigate the role of subterranean estuaries and submarine groundwater discharge on the marine cycle of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The expected outcome of this project is a better understanding of the role of coastal environments as a net source or sink of greenhouse gases.
The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment. Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation tem ....The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment. Clumped-isotope geochemistry, a novel method for measuring the temperature of formation of carbonate minerals, will be applied to terrestrial materials (soil carbonates, lake deposits and speleothems) from Australia and New Zealand. The method relates the abundance or 'clumping' of rare isotopes (for example, carbon dioxide of mass 47 as carbon-13, oxygen-18, oxygen-16) extracted from carbonates to their formation temperature and is independent of the oxygen-18:oxygen-16 value of the host water from which the mineral precipitated. The materials to be investigated span the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and will provide robust past temperature estimates and the delta-oxygen-18 values of waters, thereby permitting hydrological balances (for example, precipitation/evaporation) to be constructed. 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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Sea-level rise as a driver for arsenic mobilisation: unravelling the fundamental hydro-geochemical controls. This project will reveal the effects of rising sea-levels on arsenic mobilisation in vulnerable coastal lowlands. By resolving coupled interactions between tides and geochemistry, this project will provide the necessary knowledge platform to underpin management responses to protect sensitive estuarine and coastal waters.
Australian dust: its response to, and role in, climate change. Atmospheric dust plumes can affect global climate, but the impact of Australian dust on climate is poorly known even though it is a major dust source. This project will study the magnetism of dust deposits in marine sediments to understand how Australian dust influences climate in order to better predict the influence of humans on future climate.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101733
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
The mangrove carbon pump: Resolving the contribution of underground respiration to mangrove greenhouse gas and carbon budgets. Mangroves are considered an important global carbon sink. However, there is an imbalance of about 50 per cent in mangrove carbon budgets. This project will resolve whether advective pore water exchange and associated underground respiration represents the missing component of mangrove carbon and greenhouse gas budgets. This innovative project will examine the previously ....The mangrove carbon pump: Resolving the contribution of underground respiration to mangrove greenhouse gas and carbon budgets. Mangroves are considered an important global carbon sink. However, there is an imbalance of about 50 per cent in mangrove carbon budgets. This project will resolve whether advective pore water exchange and associated underground respiration represents the missing component of mangrove carbon and greenhouse gas budgets. This innovative project will examine the previously overlooked concept that crab burrow flushing is a major driver of biogeochemical reactions in mangroves. It will use a combination of new experimental and modelling approaches and will contribute to closing a significant gap in our understanding of the coastal carbon cycle.Read moreRead less
Water and soil resource response to past global environmental changes. The abundance and distribution of Earth's water and soil resources are strongly influenced by the spatial and temporal variability of climatic parameters. Thus, there is a need to understand how climate change, whether of natural causes or induced by human activity, impacts fluvial and soil systems. This project will use novel isotopic techniques to study the links between climate variability, chemical weathering, which produ ....Water and soil resource response to past global environmental changes. The abundance and distribution of Earth's water and soil resources are strongly influenced by the spatial and temporal variability of climatic parameters. Thus, there is a need to understand how climate change, whether of natural causes or induced by human activity, impacts fluvial and soil systems. This project will use novel isotopic techniques to study the links between climate variability, chemical weathering, which produces soil, and sediment transport, which affects fluvial systems and water resources. The composition of stable lithium, boron and calcium isotopes, and of radioactive uranium-series isotopes in sedimentary records will shed new light on our understanding of these processes.Read moreRead less
Untangling metabolism and greenhouse gas production in intermittent streams. Freshwater streams are disproportionately large producers of greenhouse gases. Identifying the factors controlling their greenhouse gas production is critical as stream function is increasingly altered by both changing rainfall patterns and human pollution. This project aims to resolve the factors controlling stream greenhouse gas production. It will apply an unprecedented combination of continuous stream function and i ....Untangling metabolism and greenhouse gas production in intermittent streams. Freshwater streams are disproportionately large producers of greenhouse gases. Identifying the factors controlling their greenhouse gas production is critical as stream function is increasingly altered by both changing rainfall patterns and human pollution. This project aims to resolve the factors controlling stream greenhouse gas production. It will apply an unprecedented combination of continuous stream function and intensive isotope measurements to perennially flowing and intermittent streams in disturbed and undisturbed landscapes. This project is significant because it will quantify the changing role of streams in greenhouse gas emissions. Outcomes will provide critical information for managing Australia’s freshwater resources. Read moreRead less
Were abrupt changes in the Precambrian global carbon cycle the trigger for animal appearance and radiation on Earth? The origin of complex life and the properties that allow that life to be sustained on this planet are recorded within the geologic record. This project will reveal the role that severe perturbations of the global carbon cycle and climate had in triggering the step-wise change to animal life after billions of years of only single cell organisms.