College of Science & Engineering
Sophia Love
- Doctor of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
- sophie.love@jcu.edu.au
Romain Vaucher
- Senior Lecturer, Sedimentology
- romain.vaucher@jcu.edu.au
Jenny Fisher
- Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching
- jenny.fisher@jcu.edu.au
Ambili Narayanan
- Doctor of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
- ambili.narayanan@my.jcu.edu.au
Sarfaraz Ali
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- sarfaraz.ali@jcu.edu.au
Mikaeylah Davidson
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- mikaeylah.davidson@jcu.edu.au
Liuxin Chen
- Lecturer
- liuxin.chen@jcu.edu.au
Rafael Cabral Carvalho
- Lecturer, Marine Geoscience
- rafael.cabralcarvalho@jcu.edu.au
Tom Lloyd
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Global Ecosystems
- tom.lloyd@jcu.edu.au
Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani
- Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering
- mohamadreza.chalakqazani@jcu.edu.au
Tackling Frog Disease (Old ID 22979)
Lin Schwarzkopf
01 Jan 2016 - 30 Sep 2024
Chytridiomycois is one of the most dramatic and important emerging infectious diseases in wildlife. It is caused by a fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd), which parasitizes the skin of amphibians. This highly contagious pathogen has been responsible for making frogs the most endangered vertebrates on earth. Remarkably, some populations that experienced drastic declines have recovered, and now appear to coexist with the fungus, but the nature of their recovery remains a mystery. There are a a range of possible complex and interacting reasons why frog populations may coexist with this disease, which could be evolutionary, behavioural, environmental, or ecological. We are examining possible reasons for coexistence, to find approaches to aid populations that persist but are not recovering.
A new functional approach to coral reefs (Old ID 26230)
David Bellwood
01 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2024
Around the world coral reefs are changing fast, challenging traditional scientific, management, and governance approaches. This project will address this challenge by implementing a new function, approach exploiting a unique combination of evolution ary and ecological methodologies. Expected outcomes include a global overview of ecosystem function and an in-depth understanding of how ecosystems change. This is likely to result in specific, and practical, management objectives by identifying crucial ecosystem functions that support reefs and the people who rely on them.
Assessment of Community Livelihood needs to support Australia’s Marine Resources Initiative in the Asia-Pacific Region (Old ID 27267)
Amy Diedrich
09 Jun 2021 - 30 Sep 2022
The global community has committed to increasing the economic benefit that Small Island Developing States and less developed countries derive from marine resources by 2030 (UN 2015). This commitment was reflected in the Prime Minister’s statement at the November 2020 ASEAN-Australia Summit where he announced the Marine Resources Initiative (MRI), and pledged to support maritime states in Southeast Asian countries to “develop their marine resources sustainably and address challenges through enhanced training, technical advice and cooperation” (https://www.pm.gov.au/media/investing-our-southeast-asian-partnerships). This project will conduct an assessment of coastal community livelihood needs to inform DFAT’s policy on maritime resource development and support the MRI in selected southeast Asian countries. The project will focus onWestern Philippines and Northern Indonesia and will culminate in recommendations on interventions to support coastal communities to develop their maritime resources sustainably. More broadly, this will contribute to supporting regional maritime states to achieve more equitable and sustainable maritime resource development.
Cu isotope characterization of waters in the Mt Windsor Sub-Province, NE QLD (Old ID 27379)
Brandon Mahan
14 Sep 2021 - 15 May 2022
Minotaur Operations has received funding through the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) for copper isotope characterisation of groundwater sampled from active bores in the immediate vicinity of its Windsor Project in NE Queensland. The Mount Windsor Subprovince terrane covers significant Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits and prospects, and VMS deposits in the district all contain New Economy Minerals including Cd, Cu, Au, In, Ag, and Zn. Building on existing JCU research findings, this collaborative project will characterize up to 50 water bores for major/trace elements and Cu isotopes, towards determining elemental/isotopic anomalies which may indicate mineralization and therefore aide Minotaur’s exploration program.
LEX/NG
Hillary Smith
25 Feb 2024 - 01 Oct 2024
Coral reefs face dual threats of climate change and local anthropogenic stressors, with losses of live corals often resulting in proliferated macroalgae (seaweeds). My previous National Geographic-funded research showed that a low-tech, simple approach of “sea-weeding” (i.e. removing seaweeds by hand) is effective in rehabilitating degraded, macroalgae-dominated reefs. Specifically, my 5-year research program resulted in a >600% increase in coral cover post-seaweed removal since 2018. These promising outcomes offer a cost-effective strategy for reef management, particularly for economically constrained island nations. However, the success of sea-weeding may be species-specific. On the studied reefs, Sargassum was the dominant genus of seaweed. Hence further research is required across diverse algal taxa to gauge the broader applicability of sea-weeding to improve coral reef resilience.
Many South Pacific island nations are facing increased seaweed abundance as reefs continue to degrade. The loss of corals is catastrophic, as reefs form an integral part of Pacific culture, providing a significant proportion of dietary protein through reef-associated fish. Additionally, coral reefs provide shoreline protection for low-lying islands, and losses of reefs could contribute to oceanic inundation. The PALA and PAPA voyage locations are ideal candidates for implementing sea-weeding as a low-cost restoration and management technique. However, these reefs are relatively unexplored, with little recent quantitative documentation of reef community composition. Indeed, even where surveys exist, the taxonomic resolution of seaweed communities is lacking (i.e., all algae are grouped together as “algae” rather than genus- or species-level observations). Hence, the primary objective of this project is to explore the distribution and diversity of reef communities around the tropical South Pacific. The data collected will form a baseline understanding over a large geographic area of w
Circular economy and feed management approaches for inclusive and sustainable development of marine aquaculture in Vietnam
Leo Nankervis
01 Jan 2024 - 31 Mar 2027
Marine aquaculture in Vietnam has traditionally used low value ‘trash’ fish as a feed source, due to its low cost, relative nutrient completeness and ready availability. Trash fish is generally considered a high risk input as it can be a vector for disease entry into farms, and is often associated with a high degree of uneaten feed entering the environment, resulting in eutrophication. Formulated feeds result in better feed conversion and nutrient utilisation than trash fish, with lower nutrient output into the environment per unit fish produced. This project investigates feed management for optimised feed conversion, growth and lower environmental impact for marine fish aquaculture.
Herbert River Blue Carbon investigation Waltham
Nathan Waltham
05 Mar 2024 - 13 Dec 2024
Working with landholders on floodplain to map out and identify suitable restoration project land suitable for environmental markets
Independent testing of solar panel cooling device (the B-Panel) (Old ID 23054)
Ahmad Zahedi
01 Aug 2016 - 31 Dec 2017
Provide independent testing of a solar panel modification claiming to boost average power output by 30%. Testing will help progress the concept and current prototype further towards commercialisation. Test a collaboration model for new, early stage start-ups being trailed by JCU and iNQ. Aims to explore how access to JCU's technical skills, equipment and technical mentoring plus guided linkage with local entrepreneurial activities at iNQ e.g. Involvement in Start-Up weekends and membership of iNQ plus access to one-on-one entrepreneurial assessment, mentoring and training activities at iNQ improves the chances of success for micro and SMEs in commercialisation ideas.
Improving the accuracy of weed killing robots with new image processing algorithms and near infra-red spectroscopy techniques (Old ID 23146)
Ron White
26 Jun 2017 - 18 Oct 2019
Automated weed species recognition remains a major obstacle to the development and industry acceptance of robotic weed control technology. Particular problems occur in rangeland applications, including high light variability and weed-camera distance variability, which cause camera dynamic range problems, image blurring, and occlusion by other plants. This project aims to develop robust image recognition systems combined with Near Infra-Red spectroscopic methods for these complex rangeland environments with special emphasis on the broad-acre grazing pastures in North Queensland. The developed imaging systems will be suitable for all weed killing applications with particular emphasis given to foliar spot-spraying and Herbicide Ballistic Technologies.
Genomics for Undiagnosed Infectious Disease Evaluation and Diagnosis in Northern Australia (Old ID 24759)
Matt Field
01 Jan 2018 - 31 Dec 2018
Diagnosis of scabies mostly relies on clinical symptoms as mites are extremely difficult to find in skin lesions of ordinary scabies (<20) which leads to under/misdiagnosis. This pilot project will address a long wanted need to develop a rapid diagnostic test for scabies. It is anticipated that this new DNA test will be highly sensitive and specific and will outperform standard microscopy. This will provide a powerful tool in scabies diagnosis particulary useful in clinical trials and epidemiologic studies.
Organic matter, sodicity and soil structure
- 1998
- Oxford University Press
- Researchers:Paul Nelson
Argument free clustering via boundary extraction for massive point-data Sets
- 2002
- Researchers:Ickjai Lee
Start Date:
01 Jan 2013
End Date:
01 Jan 2015
Start Date:
01 Jan 2022
End Date:
01 Jan 2026
Title:
Vietnamese
Start Date:
01 Jan 2009
End Date:
01 Jan 2011
Start Date:
01 Jan 2024
Start Date:
01 Jan 2024
Start Date:
01 Jan 2023