Research Projects
10,000 years of Indigenous fisheries informs future Great Barrier Reef (Old ID 26940)
Ariana Lambrides
19 Mar 2021 - 18 Mar 2024
This project aims to document the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in shaping the fish resources of the Great Barrier Reef over millennia. Using novel analyses of archaeological faunal remains, this project expects to generate new knowledge on how people’s actions transformed marine systems and modified fish communities. Expected outcomes include establishing pre‐ European baseline data essential for managing contemporary fish populations, and a long‐term perspective on human exploitation of a shifting Great Barrier Reef. Benefits include a framework for integrating Indigenous fisheries management into conservation agendas and foregrounding the deep human history of the Reef to support future social‐ecological resilience.
ARC Research Hub for Supercharging Tropical Aquaculture Through Genetic Solutions (Old ID 27374)
Dean Jerry
09 Sep 2021 - 31 Dec 2025
This project aims to integrate cutting edge genetic and genomic approaches into innovative aquaculture enterprises that farm in tropical northern Australia. It will deliver the requisite genetic knowledge to instigate world-leading and highly productive breeding programs for five species (barramundi, pearl oyster, prawn, grouper and marine seaweed), along with a novel understanding of the genetic basis of disease resistance and how the production environment interfaces with the bacterial microbiome, pathogens and water quality to cause disease. It will increase Australia's capacity to deliver advanced genetics outcomes to the aquaculture sector, while increasing productivity, international competitiveness, and lowered risk due to disease.
Constraining the relationship between mantle discontinuities and convection processes beneath the Australian Plate (Old ID 27407)
Lauren Waszek
17 May 2017 - 31 Aug 2023
Earth’s mantle is characterised by hot upwelling plumes and cold downgoing slabs, some of which are deflected at various depths in the upper mantle. The deflection shows some relationship to seismic discontinuities. which arise from mineral and compositional changes, but this is poorly understood. Consequently, the cause of deflection remains debated. The edges of the Australian tectonic plate display a range of subduction processes, providing an ideal natural laboratory. This project will establish any link between the behaviour of slabs and properties of mantle discontinuities, determine the influence of convection on discontinuities, and investigate correlations between deep and shallow structures.
Characterising Mary River flood sediment deposited in Hervey Bay. (Old ID 27627)
Zoe Bainbridge
29 Apr 2022 - 30 Jun 2022
Analysis of recently deposited sediments in seagrass meadows offshore from the Mary River.
Improving the resilience of existing housing to severe wind events (Old ID 21317)
John Ginger
01 Jan 2014 - 30 Jun 2017
Australian houses built prior to the mid 1980s do not offer the same level of performance and protection during windstorms as houses constructed to contemporary building standards. This project will develop the evidence base for risk mitigation by devising simple practical and economic upgrading options for existing houses. The primary objective of this project is to develop cost-effective strategies for mitigating damage to housing from severe windstorms across Australia. Outputs from this project will target a range of users from policy development through to homeowners and builders on recommended actions to improve resilience of existing housing.
Is satellite technology telling the truth? Perspectives from a coral reef. (Old ID 22464)
Karen Joyce
01 Dec 2015 - 31 Dec 2017
The aim of this project is to investigate fine scale yet synoptic variability in water surface temperature on a coral reef. As temperature plays a major in the health of coral ecosystems, understanding its spatial and temporal variability will aid predictions and monitoring of thermally driven impacts such as coral bleaching. Imagery obtained from an Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) will provide the critical link between in-situ observations and satellite data, allowing remote sensing to be used at scales appropriate to thermal and hydrodynamic drivers on the reef.
Discovery of novel biomarkers for Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) infection related cancers. (Old ID 22491)
Denise Doolan
18 Jan 2016 - 25 Aug 2016
To screen a newly-developed and proprietary EBV protein microarray representing all proteins in the EBV proteome against samples from EBV-associated disorders in order to develop a diagnostic biomarker of disease risk.
Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Radiation Study for ESCO Pacific (Old ID 22962)
Ahmad Zahedi
29 Aug 2016 - 21 Oct 2016
To investigate the current Australian and International Guidelines and allowable EMF radiation limits to provide the regulatory context to ESCO Pacific for their planned solar farm as well as measure the current baseline EMF radiation levels around existing power lines, various locations on the site of intended solar farm as well as in-home EMF radiation measurements in selected surrounding residential properties to assess EMF emission compliance.
Fire and Environmental Change in Northern Australia during the Late Holocene (Old ID 23372)
Emma Rehn
01 Jul 2017 - 30 Jun 2019
This project addresses the lack of palaeoenvironmental and palaeofire records available for northern Australia. I will analyse both micro-(<125µm) and macroscopic (>125µm) charcoal from sediment cores collected from lacustrine sites in Cape York and Arnhem Land. I will also analyse modern charcoal collected in fire traps placed during fieldwork to create a modern analogue. Collaboration with AINSE/ANSTO will result in a high-resolution chronology for each site, with implications for the wider region.
2017 Eastern Cape York Shoreline Environmental Surveys (Old ID 23402)
Norm Duke
07 Apr 2017 - 22 Dec 2017
The aim of this project is to conduct shoreline surveys along Australia's east coast from Cairns to Cape York during 2017. These works will involve a number of activities focused on monitoring the character and condition of shoreline habitats and estuaries, as well as partnering with local indigenous custodians, filming in aerial surveys plus field investigations and mapping. This work compliments extent mapping undertaken by the Qld Herbarium in that both extent and condition are required to assess the status of mangrove ecosystems. This project will evaluate and combine spatial and condition monitoring coupled with identification of drivers of change for all key instances of change.