Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100203
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$700,000.00
Summary
Advanced Geochemical Facility for Climate and Environmental Change Research: a Western Australian/Indian Ocean focus. Research outcomes from this new facility will empower government bodies, resource industries, and indigenous stakeholders with key baseline information to ensure the sustainable and sensitive development of west Australia's unique coastal and offshore regions, across heavily populated and pristine environments. This includes projecting future impacts on local industries (eg. ener ....Advanced Geochemical Facility for Climate and Environmental Change Research: a Western Australian/Indian Ocean focus. Research outcomes from this new facility will empower government bodies, resource industries, and indigenous stakeholders with key baseline information to ensure the sustainable and sensitive development of west Australia's unique coastal and offshore regions, across heavily populated and pristine environments. This includes projecting future impacts on local industries (eg. energy, fisheries, tourism), rising shorelines with critical implications for existing and developing communities, and enhancing the resilience of habitats at risk. These are crucial to mitigate the impacts from environmental change that could severely affect our regional and national economies, as well as the style and quality of life of current and future generations.Read moreRead less
Optimizing the allocation of resources for defending marine protected areas against invasive species. The National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas contributes directly to the protection of marine biodiversity, and to Australia's international obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Non-indigenous species have potential to undermine native biodiversity in marine protected areas across Australia. By identifying the most effective strategies for dealing with pot ....Optimizing the allocation of resources for defending marine protected areas against invasive species. The National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas contributes directly to the protection of marine biodiversity, and to Australia's international obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Non-indigenous species have potential to undermine native biodiversity in marine protected areas across Australia. By identifying the most effective strategies for dealing with potential incursions of non-indigenous species in Victorian marine national parks and sanctuaries, the project will make a valuable contribution to the viability of local marine ecosystems and the maintenance of biodiversity. Furthermore, it will provide a template to aid similar decision-making in other marine protected areas around the country.Read moreRead less
Conservation planning: incorporating patch dynamics and climate change to achieve better outcomes. This research will make significant contributions to planning for An Environmentally Sustainable Australia. Key outcomes will include guidelines for including, for the first time, the patch dynamics of coral bleaching and pelagic productivity in conservation planning. By using an Australian icon, the Great Barrier Reef, as the case study for this research, the findings will be directly applicable a ....Conservation planning: incorporating patch dynamics and climate change to achieve better outcomes. This research will make significant contributions to planning for An Environmentally Sustainable Australia. Key outcomes will include guidelines for including, for the first time, the patch dynamics of coral bleaching and pelagic productivity in conservation planning. By using an Australian icon, the Great Barrier Reef, as the case study for this research, the findings will be directly applicable and implementable. Furthermore, this study will result in an understanding of the potential effect of climate change on patch dynamics, and will provide guidelines and theory for planning for such changes. This research will enable Australia to effectively protect its biodiversity and to relate this knowledge to its neighbours.Read moreRead less
Theory for global biodiversity conservation. Australia's biological diversity underpins much of our economic wealth - for example the remarkable diversity of coral reefs fuels a multibillion dollar tourism industry. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity "hotspots" of the world and Australia to deliver environmental sustainability. We will solve the problem of how much of any environmental budget should be spent on mo ....Theory for global biodiversity conservation. Australia's biological diversity underpins much of our economic wealth - for example the remarkable diversity of coral reefs fuels a multibillion dollar tourism industry. We will devise methods to make better decisions about where to invest conservation dollars amongst the biodiversity "hotspots" of the world and Australia to deliver environmental sustainability. We will solve the problem of how much of any environmental budget should be spent on monitoring conservation actions to make better and more cost-effective decisions. We will create new theory and freely available tools for building systems of marine reserves that allow for threats like coral bleaching and hurricanes.Read moreRead less
The quality of seagrass as a dugong food resource: the importance of the effects of season and water depth. Australia has international obligations to conserve dugongs (sea cows). Dugongs rely on seagrasses for food. Knowledge of the abundance and quality of seagrasses, and how these change in response to the environment, is vital if dugong conservation is to have the necessary scientific basis. Research has focussed on intertidal seagrass as food for dugongs. However, deepwater seagrasses ....The quality of seagrass as a dugong food resource: the importance of the effects of season and water depth. Australia has international obligations to conserve dugongs (sea cows). Dugongs rely on seagrasses for food. Knowledge of the abundance and quality of seagrasses, and how these change in response to the environment, is vital if dugong conservation is to have the necessary scientific basis. Research has focussed on intertidal seagrass as food for dugongs. However, deepwater seagrasses are a mainstay of most significant dugong populations, such as the population in Hervey Bay, Queensland. This research will provide information on the effect of season and water depth on the quality of seagrasses as dugong food.Read moreRead less
Innovative systematic conservation planning for Indigenous Land and Sea Country: Torres Strait as a case study. Australia’s Indigenous communities have responsibilities for managing their Land and Sea Country in partnership with governments. Much of Australia’s globally significant biodiversity occurs in Indigenous country. Effective management requires plans to be developed using both western science and Traditional Knowledge to enable local communities to protect both their culture and biodive ....Innovative systematic conservation planning for Indigenous Land and Sea Country: Torres Strait as a case study. Australia’s Indigenous communities have responsibilities for managing their Land and Sea Country in partnership with governments. Much of Australia’s globally significant biodiversity occurs in Indigenous country. Effective management requires plans to be developed using both western science and Traditional Knowledge to enable local communities to protect both their culture and biodiversity. This project will develop innovative scientific tools to assist Indigenous communities and governments to design and implement systematic conservation planning initiatives ‘on country’, using Torres Strait as a case study. The tools that are developed will have general relevance to Australian Indigenous communities and developing countries. Read moreRead less
Environmental management of coral reef resilience. The primary aim of this project is to provide the scientific evidence needed to effectively manage and protect reef resilience within the GBR Marine Park. We will develop and apply scientific tools for understanding the large-scale effect of multiple physical environmental stresses on coral populations. Furthermore, we will determine how fish communities influence the potential for coral reefs to remain healthy in the face of global change. Cent ....Environmental management of coral reef resilience. The primary aim of this project is to provide the scientific evidence needed to effectively manage and protect reef resilience within the GBR Marine Park. We will develop and apply scientific tools for understanding the large-scale effect of multiple physical environmental stresses on coral populations. Furthermore, we will determine how fish communities influence the potential for coral reefs to remain healthy in the face of global change. Central to this work will be an evaluation of the potential of No-Take Zones, a contemporary management tool, to promote resilience and the ability of coral reefs to cope with environmental change.Read moreRead less
Effectiveness of temperate Australian marine protected areas as tools for biodiversity conservation and informing fisheries management. The effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity protection and informing fisheries management will be investigated at a continental scale for the first time. Communities of fishes, invertebrates and plants at >100 sites within MPAs in WA, NSW and Tasmania will be studied from prior to fisheries protection, with changes over time compared with ....Effectiveness of temperate Australian marine protected areas as tools for biodiversity conservation and informing fisheries management. The effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity protection and informing fisheries management will be investigated at a continental scale for the first time. Communities of fishes, invertebrates and plants at >100 sites within MPAs in WA, NSW and Tasmania will be studied from prior to fisheries protection, with changes over time compared with changes at fished reference sites. This study represents a human predator exclusion experiment with a scale sufficiently large to distinguish general patterns from among site specific and species specific variability. It will provide management authorities with information crucial to determining MPA number, size and configuration.Read moreRead less
Network structure, connectivity and wildlife disease. Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife pose threats to human health (75% of human emerging diseases are zoonotic). They also threaten biodiversity and livestock. Changes in connectivity between wildlife individuals and populations are occurring because of human activities, including globalisation, climate change and habitat destruction. Understanding how these changes in connectivity affect wildlife disease dynamics is crucial for the deve ....Network structure, connectivity and wildlife disease. Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife pose threats to human health (75% of human emerging diseases are zoonotic). They also threaten biodiversity and livestock. Changes in connectivity between wildlife individuals and populations are occurring because of human activities, including globalisation, climate change and habitat destruction. Understanding how these changes in connectivity affect wildlife disease dynamics is crucial for the development of better strategies to manage their impacts. The project will also build Australia's wider capacity to manage outbreaks of infectious diseases.Read moreRead less
Larval Dispersal And The Design Of Marine Reserve Networks: Benefits Within And Beyond Boundaries. Most marine organisms produce tiny offspring that are dispersed unknown distances by oceanic currents. Our present strategies to manage marine resources lack this vital piece of information. This study will apply two revolutionary techniques that finally enable us to determine how far marine larvae travel. Using the team that developed these techniques, field studies will for the first time measure ....Larval Dispersal And The Design Of Marine Reserve Networks: Benefits Within And Beyond Boundaries. Most marine organisms produce tiny offspring that are dispersed unknown distances by oceanic currents. Our present strategies to manage marine resources lack this vital piece of information. This study will apply two revolutionary techniques that finally enable us to determine how far marine larvae travel. Using the team that developed these techniques, field studies will for the first time measure both retention of fish larvae within marine protected areas and dispersal of larvae to adjacent fished areas on coral reefs. This information can be directly applied to optimize the size of reserves and their spacing in marine protected area networks.Read moreRead less