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Resolving the blue-ringed octopus fauna of Australia: taxonomy, phylogeny and human health (Old ID 23007)
Despite renowned toxicity and human fatalates, knowledge of the blue-ringed octopuses (genus Hapalochlaena) remains poor. Their taxonomy requires through revision: four species are currently considered valid, yet preliminary investigations by the applicants identify a total of at least 15 species worldwide, of which over half occur in Australia. This project aims to use taxonomic and molecular tools to: (1) revise the genus; (2) identify and describe Australian species; (3) describe distributions, habitats and biology; (4) investigate phylogeny and biogeography; and (5) provide crucial identification and health hazard information to scientific and wider audiences.
Deriving ecologically relevant load targets to meet desire ecosystem condition for the Great Barrier Reef: a case study for seagrass meadows in the Burdekin region (Old ID 23153)
This project will derive ecologically relevant targets (ERTs) for water quality and sediment loads by: 1) defining seagrass desired state targets; 2) calculating water quality guidelines (light); and 3) calculating ERTs for terrestrially sourced sediment loads. Historical and new data collections will be used to derive ERTs via statistical models and eReefs (RECOM), and the seagrass sub-model in eReefs will be used to test ERTs. A framework for setting seagrass desired state will be developed for the entire GBR and water quality guidelines and sediment load ERTs will be quantitatively defined for the Burdekin basin where suspended sediments affect seagrass condition.
Earth and Environmental Science: Unpacking the Curriculum and Teachers’ Dispositions (Old ID 23510)
The Queensland Curriculum, Assessment & Reporting Authority have recently developed a new senior secondary syllabus, Earth and Environmental Science (EES), which is due for implementation in Queensland in 2019. This pilot study will critically analyse the new curriculum with a view to understand better the theoretical orientations that underpin it, and investigate senior secondary teachers’ attitudes, beliefs and values regarding the teaching of EES. A critical understanding of the EES curriculum is a necessary prerequisite for exploring how teachers navigate their own dispositions towards EES when enacting the new curriculum, and the impact of this on achieving its aims.
Elucidating gene pathways and their interactive networks, important in Multiple Sclerosis (Old ID 27273)
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, debilitating diseases affecting young adults in Western society, particularly women in their child-bearing years. While we know that there is both a genetic and environmental component to the disease, we still do not know the cause and there is no cure. My research is to uncover knowledge on the genetics of disease to pinpoint targeted treatments, ensuring fewer side effects, and the hope to prevent disease in the future. This grant would provide seed funding to help develop a ground-breaking method and provide preliminary knowledge to attract funding for a more intensive study.
Novel therapeutics for diabetes sourced from Northern Australian biota. (Old ID 27346)
he aim of this project is to develop lead diabetes drug candidates from hookworm saliva and build a package for multinational commercial investment. The project aims to deliver the following outcomes: 1. Screen a synthetic hookworm library (consisting of hundreds of hookworm proteins) for anti-inflammatory activity and express lead candidates using pharmaceutical industry standard techniques. 2. Assess efficacy of leads in mouse models of diet-induced T2D. 3. Understand the mechanism of lead drug action and prioritize candidates for progression into clinical development. 4. Set the scene for a burgeoning biotech industry in Northern Australia that is differentiated from those in the south, and indeed globally, by capitalizing on the unique biodiversity of the region and the therapeutic opportunities it presents.
Ecoacoustic data analysis (Old ID 27596)
It is now possible to collect and store vast amounts of environmental sound, or bioacoustic data. The promise of environmental recording is that it could allows us to monitor populations of vocal fauna (birds, mammals and amphibians), but there is so much data, it is not possible for expert human listeners to listen to and identify each species. Thus, artificial intelligence, or AI methods would be useful. However, ecologists also lack the large amounts of labelled data required to easily create convolutional neural networks typically used for such tasks. To develop new AI approaches for monitoring fauna, we require skilled people. This grant is intended to support a post-doctoral fellow to conduct this work.
Developing Partnerships Towards Quantifying the Impacts of Climate Change on the Ocean Ecosystem Economy of the Pacific (Old ID 29030)
This project will support the initial work of developing relationships with Pacific Island stakeholders and identifying opportunities for co-designing research based on climate changerelated priorities and needs of the Pacific Island Nations. In addition, this project aims to identify existing climate-related programs and initiatives in the Pacific that our team can build upon when designing our long-term research programs. The funding will be used for travel-related costs.
Geological Services, Geita Gold Mine (Old ID 19263)
The aim of the project is the development of new gold reserves from satellite pits and from the Kukuluma terrain, by building an integrated geological model for the entire tenement area. The area will be mapped, and a regional geological interpretation will be made as a basis for building a genetic model that will enable gold mineralization to be targeted, through ranking existing targets and generating new ones. A training strategy to improve the mine geology team will be implemented.
Palaeo-vegetation, biodiversity and early human dispersal through island Southeast Asia (Old ID 20779)
This study will use newly developed and fully validated isotope techniques to obtain robustly dated proxy records of vegetation change from the thick deposits of cave guano that occur extensively throughout island Southeast Asia (Sundaland). We will test the hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Period, there was a substantial contraction of the rainforest towards the equator into refugia. This led to the development of an open ‘savannah corridor’ connecting savanna north and south of the equator. The project will shed new light on the palaeoclimatology of the region and provide a major contribution to explaining modern biogeographic patterns across Sundaland, as well as the trajectories of early human dispersal through the region.
Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, Glush Weed (H,costata) Control in the Russell River Catchment Project (Old ID 21383)
Glush Weed is a highly invasive aquatic plant that forms dense stands which displace native flora and debilitate native fauna by altering their natural habitat. This monitoring framework assesses improvements to aquatic ecosystem health as a result of the control of Glus Weed in the Russell River catchment between 2014 and 2018. Outcomes include: documentation of the impacts of Glush Weed on Water quality and biotic communities, development of a baseline dataset for measuring future changes in condition and health of the waterway and, an assessment of changes in condition and health of waterways with reference to baseline datasets.