Research Projects
Survey of users of Cid Harbour regarding shark smart behaviours (Old ID 26325)
Amy Diedrich
29 Jan 2019 - 15 Dec 2019
Project will conduct surveys of tourists and recreational users in Airlie Beach to examine their activities and behaviours, knowledge and awareness of 'shark smart' behaviours. Surveys will also examine local and tourism industry knowledge and preceptions about the history of use and behaviour of tourists and recreational users in the Whitsundays. This project is a rapid response project that has arisen directly from community and industry concerns about recent shark incidents in the Whitsundays. The project team will work closely with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, tourism industry representatives, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and the Local Marine Advisory Committee. JCU is operating under a subcontract from BioPixel Oceans Foundation Limited which won the tender in mid-December 2018.
GBR Marine Park morphology mapping (Old ID 26709)
Rob Beaman
01 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2020
This research will generate the most accurate and up-to-date 3D depth model for the GBR Marine Park, at the 30 m pixel resolution, using all the available source bathymetry data. This fundamental dataset will then be used to derive morphology layers, as per the proposed structure of the National Seafloor GeoMorphology (NSGM) mapping scheme, being developed by Geoscience Australia.
Jaragun Wetland Restoration (Old ID 27070)
Nathan Waltham
30 Nov 2020 - 30 Nov 2021
A small wetland will be targeted for weed removal and replanting along Babinda Creek in this project. These restoration works will be monitored using a high-tech surveillance camera to live stream images from Jaragun’s website that track wetland restoration over time and its value to our birdlife. Overall, this project kick starts a struggling local community nestled in the heart of the wet tropics. This project is about creating green jobs and building a pathway for long term strategic investment into restoration and rehabilitation of the Russell River catchment.
Climate Vulnerability Index (Old ID 27096)
Scott Heron
01 Jul 2020 - 30 Jun 2021
Climate change is the fastest growing threat to World Heritage properties, many of which –natural, cultural and mixed – are already being impacted. The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) is a rapid assessment tool to identify key drivers of vulnerability, opportunities for response and priorities for action across all types of World Heritage properties. The CVI framework considers potential impacts, adaptive capacity, and economic, social and cultural consequences of climate change. Here we propose to apply phase 2 of the CVI process in the Wadden Sea World Heritage property. Continuation of previous project.
Habitat characterisation and biodiversity surveys in West Cape York Marine Park and Torres Strait Dugong Sanctuary. (Old ID 27402)
Alexandra Carter
01 Oct 2021 - 30 Jun 2024
Marine habitats of western Torres Strait and Cape York have long been identified as ecologically and culturally significant, supporting large areas of seagrass, high densities of dugongs and turtles, and traditional, commercial and recreational fisheries. These ecological values in the region have led to the establishment of the Torres Strait Dugong Sanctuary and the West Cape York Marine Park (WCYMP). Despite these values, benthic habitats including seagrasses, fish assemblages and the cultural significance of the region remain inadequately surveyed and documented. In this project we will: (1) Increase understanding of traditional knowledge and collaborate with Indigenous rangers and Traditional Owners to undertake marine park management. (2) Identify any changes/trends in the extent, health and diversity of seagrass meadows. (3) Provide a habitat map for the National Park, Habitat Protection and Special Purpose Zones in the southern region of West Cape York Marine Park. (4) conduct a pilot study of fish diversity.
PNG & Pacific Island Nations Feeds Review. (Old ID 27717)
Leo Nankervis
24 Jun 2022 - 31 Oct 2023
Review the barriers to expansion of tilapia aquaculture for development in PNG, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste, with special reference to feeds and fingerlings.
Reconstructing past grounded ice extent over time around Wilkes Land margin, East Antarctica, using animal genomes (Old ID 27730)
Sally Lau
01 Jun 2022 - 31 Dec 2023
The marine-based margins of the Antarctic Ice Sheet are vulnerable to collapse based on current trajectories in temperature rise. A deep uncertainty remains on whether the marine-based margin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) (ie, Wilkes Land) is sensitive to climate change. This project applies an innovative, genomic approach to reconstruct past configurations of the marine-based EAIS to inform its future stability.
Development of a novel wound healing agent (Old ID 28948)
Norelle Daly
01 Apr 2023 - 30 Mar 2024
Ancient traditional medicines, while often not mechanistically well characterised, can be incredibly useful in directing the development of new therapeutics and treatments. Inspired by traditional remedies for wound healing, our Cairns based team (Daly, Widi, Wilson and Smout) has shown that two plant-derived glycosides can act synergistically to promote fibroblast cell proliferation. This in vitro bioactivity correlates strongly with potent in vivo activity in a mouse model of wound healing based on our previous studies with an unrelated parasite-derived peptide. Our research question is whether glycosides acting synergistically can be used in the design of a novel wound healing treatment, and we now aim to carry out in vivo studies on our plant-derived compounds to begin to answer this question.
Continental-Scale Threatened Species Monitoring using an Acoustic Observatory (Old ID 29014)
Lin Schwarzkopf
19 Apr 2023 - 30 Dec 2025
Monitoring threatened species and biodiversity is the cornerstone of conservation. However, it is difficult to monitor land at the scale necessary to implement conservation actions for many species. Acoustic monitoring offers a potential solution, though large scale continuous monitoring of vocal threatened species, and of biodiversity more generally. Monitoring is needed to track the trajectories of species populations, determining whether they are endangered, and to plan and execute subsequent management actions. Monitoring is also needed to evaluate the success, or otherwise, of conservation activities. Our project leverages a large infrastructure project called the Australian Acoustic Observatory (Roe et al. 2021. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12:1802-8). The Observatory comprises 344 acoustic recorders, located at various types of nature reserves, and some grazing properties, all over Australia. The acoustic devices record environmental sound 24/7, and have done so since mid-2020, and will continue to monitor until 2025 or longer. This provides an amazing resource, but the data needs to be mined to provide information on threatened species presence and activity, to inform conservation. Acoustic monitoring is a relatively new approach to conservation, and projects are required to develop methods and tools to make sense of the huge data being collected. Thus far, we have established the A2O, and are presently conducting a project to do manual surveys (bird watching, camera trapping, live trapping, and active searching) at 6 sites over 2 years, confirming the high quality monitoring capacity of the Observatory by comparing species lists obtained using each method. We have manually detected 5 near threatened, vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species at only these 6 sites, but there is the potential to detect many more, by searching the acoustic data across all our sites, not just 6. However, this requires automated tools to analyse mass data to provide reports for land managers on threatened species to drive conservation actions. It is these activities that are the essence of our project.
Seagrass Monitoring in Wuthathi Sea Country (Old ID 31147)
Catherine Collier
04 Oct 2023 - 31 Dec 2025
Wuthathi land and sea country in far northern Cape York extends from Captain Billy landing south to Temple Bay and includes Shelburne Bay and Raine Island. JCU will work with Wuthathi rangers to continue to map coastal seagrass in Wuthathi and establish monitoring sites and methods. A range of techniques will be adopted, including airborne/spaceborne imagery (UAV drone and satellite) and transects for intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats and drop cameras in deeper subtidal waters. Wuthathi rangers will be trained in seagrass mapping and monitoring techniques to facilitate continued monitoring of seagrass habitats in Wuthathi sea country.