The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) invites you to participate in a short survey about your
interaction with the ARDC and use of our national research infrastructure and services. The survey will take
approximately 5 minutes and is anonymous. It’s open to anyone who uses our digital research infrastructure
services including Reasearch Link Australia.
We will use the information you provide to improve the national research infrastructure and services we
deliver and to report on user satisfaction to the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research
Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) program.
Please take a few minutes to provide your input. The survey closes COB Friday 29 May 2026.
Complete the 5 min survey now by clicking on the link below.
Spatial scale of influence of riparian and catchment land use on stream ecosystem health. Human activities at the landscape scale comprise one of the greatest threats to the ecological integrity of river ecosystems. Government and community groups across Australia are making significant efforts in riparian protection and rehabilitation in an attempt to improve the health of degraded waterways but are hampered in their goal to maximise the environmental gains for every dollar or unit effort inve ....Spatial scale of influence of riparian and catchment land use on stream ecosystem health. Human activities at the landscape scale comprise one of the greatest threats to the ecological integrity of river ecosystems. Government and community groups across Australia are making significant efforts in riparian protection and rehabilitation in an attempt to improve the health of degraded waterways but are hampered in their goal to maximise the environmental gains for every dollar or unit effort invested. The proposed research on understanding the spatial scale of influence of land use and the aggregative effects on stream ecosystems will provide a robust framework to assess various options and optimise benefits from management actions. Read moreRead less
Transformations of catchment nutrients in southeast Queensland. Human activity in catchments throughout southeast Queensland has increased nutrient loads in receiving waters. However, until recently there has been a lack of accurate quantification of these loads, and little understanding of their role in stimulating algal blooms. This proposal will examine the links between catchment nutrient inputs to waterways, their transformations and effects on stimulating algal growth in freshwater systems ....Transformations of catchment nutrients in southeast Queensland. Human activity in catchments throughout southeast Queensland has increased nutrient loads in receiving waters. However, until recently there has been a lack of accurate quantification of these loads, and little understanding of their role in stimulating algal blooms. This proposal will examine the links between catchment nutrient inputs to waterways, their transformations and effects on stimulating algal growth in freshwater systems. The outcomes from this research will be information on how catchment nutrients are affecting water quality, thus providing a vehicle for targeting management strategies designed to reduce nutrient loads.Read moreRead less
Restoring functional links between riparian zones and streams by enhancing structural retention. This project aims to test whether structural retention, whereby plant detritus (logs, bark, leaves) is trapped and retained within river channels, can offset the impacts caused by widespread clearance of vegetation along river banks, a widespread problem in Australia and the world. Theoretically, retention is a major environmental driver of ecosystem change in rivers, but this has rarely been tested, ....Restoring functional links between riparian zones and streams by enhancing structural retention. This project aims to test whether structural retention, whereby plant detritus (logs, bark, leaves) is trapped and retained within river channels, can offset the impacts caused by widespread clearance of vegetation along river banks, a widespread problem in Australia and the world. Theoretically, retention is a major environmental driver of ecosystem change in rivers, but this has rarely been tested, particularly in a restoration context. The aim of this project is to show that increasing retention results in higher species diversity, thus providing managers with a relatively straightforward method for improving the environmental conditions of rivers, while simultaneously testing three hypotheses about rectifying ecosystem degradation caused by human impacts.Read moreRead less
Testing the importance of large-scale climate factors to plant community assembly following land-use change. This project will examine the native plant species and functional diversity of Australia's rain forest communities to create a predictive framework of how plant communities recover following deforestation. Such a framework is key to focusing conservation efforts in degraded and multi-use landscapes.
Influence of Marine Protected Areas on ecosystem resilience and ecological processes. Australia is implementing a national representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs). The aims of the MPAs include ensuring ecological viability, maintaining ecological processes, and protecting biodiversity. The ability of MPAs to achieve these aims, however, is based largely on theory rather than empirical evidence. Implementation of MPAs is often controversial as it may cause economic hardship to comm ....Influence of Marine Protected Areas on ecosystem resilience and ecological processes. Australia is implementing a national representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs). The aims of the MPAs include ensuring ecological viability, maintaining ecological processes, and protecting biodiversity. The ability of MPAs to achieve these aims, however, is based largely on theory rather than empirical evidence. Implementation of MPAs is often controversial as it may cause economic hardship to communities dependent on fishing. Our project will benefit environmental managers by determining if and how MPAs influence biodiversity, ecological processes, and ecosystem services and resilience. It will benefit the wider community by providing the rigorous scientific evidence in favour of MPAs that is demanded by stakeholders.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100429
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$367,000.00
Summary
Unravelling nickel biopathways in tropical hyperaccumulator plants. This project aims to unravel the ways in which hyperaccumulators work. Hyperaccumulators are plants that have the remarkable ability to concentrate up to six per cent nickel in their leaves and up to 25 per cent in their sap. These plants can be used in phytomining – a new technology to recover nickel from mining waste or contaminated land by growing and harvesting these plants and extracting nickel from their biomass. This proj ....Unravelling nickel biopathways in tropical hyperaccumulator plants. This project aims to unravel the ways in which hyperaccumulators work. Hyperaccumulators are plants that have the remarkable ability to concentrate up to six per cent nickel in their leaves and up to 25 per cent in their sap. These plants can be used in phytomining – a new technology to recover nickel from mining waste or contaminated land by growing and harvesting these plants and extracting nickel from their biomass. This project seeks to understand how the plants accumulate nickel by using tracers and synchrotron techniques to follow the pathways of nickel from the soil into the plants. This knowledge may help us to optimise agronomic processes affecting nickel uptake to enable successful phytomining.Read moreRead less