Earth & Environmental Sciences
Michael Bird
- Distinguished Professor
- michael.bird@jcu.edu.au
Colin MacGregor
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- colin.macgregor@jcu.edu.au
John Carranza
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- john.carranza@jcu.edu.au
Jasmine Jaffres
- Adjunct Senior Research Fellow
- jasmine.jaffres@jcu.edu.au
Michael Bradley
- Senior Research Fellow
- michael.bradley@jcu.edu.au
Kevin Parnell
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- kevin.parnell@jcu.edu.au
David King
- Adjunct Professor
- david.king@jcu.edu.au
Putu Mustika
- Lecturer and Course Coordinator (JCU-NUV Program)
- putu.liza@jcu.edu.au
David Yellowlees
- JCU Professor
- david.yellowlees@jcu.edu.au
Melanie Finch
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer
- melanie.finch@jcu.edu.au
A national facility for the analysis of pyrogenic carbon (Old ID 23352)
Michael Bird
01 Jan 2018 - 31 Dec 2018
This project will develop a National Facility for Pyrogenic Carbon Analysis. Pyrogenic carbon (biochar, soot, charcoal, black carbon) is a poorly constrained, slow-cycling terrestrial carbon pool with significant carbon sequestration potential. It is also an important source of palaeoenvironmental and geochronological information. We will expand newly developed hydrogen pyrolysis analytical capability to provide high throughput, robust, measurement of the abundance and isotope (13C, 14C) composition of pyrogenic carbon in soils and sediments. The facility will advance multiple research agendas at nine participating institutions across palaeoecology, geomorphology, geochronology, archaeology and carbon cycle/ sequestration science
Validation of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Methods in Banana and Mango Tree Crops Across Tropical Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia (Old ID 21116)
Paul Nelson
01 Jul 2013 - 30 Apr 2017
Banana and mango are the most intensive horticultural crops in tropical Australia. Conventional management practices have depleted soil organic C and produced high N20 emissions. This project will trial soil management innovations in Qld precision agriculture and new forms of N fertiliser.
The Mua Island Garden Project: Reconstructing plant management practices in Western Torres Strait (Old ID 27527)
Cassandra Rowe
23 Mar 2022 - 31 Dec 2022
Food security in the face of climate change is a challenge for remote Indigenous communities in Australia, especially for Torres Strait Islander communities. Key to meeting this challenge is developing environmentally/culturally sustainable horticultural initiatives that build on traditional gardening practices adapted to hilly granite terrains of western Torres Strait. The Project thus brings together archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence with existing horticultural understandings of the Mualgal community to: 1. Understand how a western Torres Strait community developed and crafted their horticultural world over hundreds and perhaps thousands of years to accommodate the demands of wet and dry season climate extremes and hilly terrain; and, 2. Develop data and research into plant management in ways that are responsive to the contemporary aspirations and resources of a local Torres Strait Islander community.
The Wandering Falklands: Insights from New Geologic and Fossil Discoveries (Old ID 27745)
Eric Roberts
01 Jun 2022 - 30 Mar 2023
This project seeks to shed new light on the enduring geological mystery of where and how the Falkland Islands fit back into the plate-tectonic jig-saw puzzle of ancient Gondwana, while at same time unravelling new information about the evolutionary origins of early jawed fish from the southern hemisphere, whose humble beginnings may be linked to islands. To achieve this, we propose to spend two weeks collecting new Devonian fish fossils and searching for the presence of elusive (unmapped) volcanic rocks along the wave-cut beaches and platforms of Pebble Island and northern end of West Falkland.
Strengthening Livelihoods for Food Security Amongst Cocoa and Oil Palm Farming Communities in Papua New Guinea (Old ID 21641)
Paul Nelson
01 Jul 2014 - 28 Feb 2019
This project addresses rising food insecurity amongst smallholder cocoa and oil palm households in Papua New Guinea. The capacity of these households to grow or buy food is declining due to increasing populations and decreasing per-capita income in oil palm-growing communities and the spread of coco pod borer in cocoa-growing areas. The project objectives are to i) assess food security status in these communities, ii) determine the key factors influencing food security, iii) enhance food and livelihood security through strengthening food production and diversifying incomes, and iv) strengthen household and institutional capacity to address food and livelihood security.
Pyrogenic Carbon Sequestration in Australian Soils (Old ID 26923)
Michael Bird
01 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2023
Pyrogenic Carbon (PyC; 'charcoal') is a porrly understood component of the global carbon cycle. It is important because it is resistant to degradation and hence has potential soil carbon sequestration benefits. This project applies a new technique (hydrogen pyrolysis) in combination with spectroscopic techniques to quantify PyC in a pan-Australian soil sample set, collected using uiniform stratified sampling and preparation protocols. This will enable the mapping of soil PyC stocks in relation to environmental and soil variables across Australia. The results will enable the understanding of the controls on PyC sequestration potential in Australian soils and contriobute to ongoing efforts to quantify soil stocks and dynamics globally.
Geology and ore genesis of the Dover Castle Sn + polymetallic ore field, North Queensland (Old ID 26398)
Carl Spandler
01 Apr 2019 - 28 Oct 2019
Recent exploration work in the Dover Castle mining district in North Queensland has defined economically significant polymetallic (Sn-W-Zn-Ag-Pb-In) resources. Geological understanding of how these diverse metal associations occur at economic levels is currently poor, as is the knowledge of potential for further minerlisation at depth. This project will provide crucial baseline geological data, including geochronology, mineralogy, geochemistry, and igneous and hydrothermal alternation characterisation, to better understand the origin of the mineralisation, and the geological controls on its location. This project outcomes will allow more focussed mineral exploration targeting to improve the probability of discovery of further economically significant resources.
Geological Services, Geita Gold Mine (Old ID 19263)
Paul Dirks
01 Apr 2011 - 31 Dec 2017
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)
Michael Bird
01 Jan 2014 - 31 Dec 2016
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.
Development of in situ Sr isotope analyses in shark vertebrae (Old ID 27633)
Brandon Mahan
01 Jan 2022 - 31 Mar 2023
Accurately ageing sharks underpins sustainable harvest and population recovery. The conventional ageing technique consists of counting growth bands in vertebrae, however, this approach suffers errors associated with over- and under-counting due to misidentifying periodic features and in-complete. More recently, element-to-element ratios have been explored as complementary tools for determining age and migratory, and in this context Mn:Ca shows promise as an age-specific fingerprint, and Sr:Ca has shown promise as one of the most prominent indicators of fresh/estuarial vs. marine environment (along with Ba:Ca), because marine environments typically have significantly higher Sr (and lower Ba) concentrations. This means that Sr:Ca—alongside Mn:Ca and Ba:Ca—can potentially be used as an annual marker, in particular for female sharks that annually return to freshwater environments to pup. It is well-known from fish otoliths (a calcified part of the inner ear) that marine and freshwater environments display distinct Sr isotope signatures (87Sr/86Sr ratios), and that fresh vs marine signatures can be readily distinguished at requisite length-scales (e.g. 50 microns) using in situ (“in place”, i.e. non-destructively) laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (or LA-MC-ICP-MS). Moreover, it is well-established that 87Sr/86Sr ratios can be determined in situ in bio-apatite (calcium phosphate or bone, such as that in fish vertebrae), and 87Sr/86Sr ratios in bio-apatite can be used to determine sub-annual mobility. And yet to date, Sr isotopes have never been investigated in shark vertebrae towards these ends. This study will combine in situ elemental compositions and 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the vertebrae of sharks to determine their ultimate viability as complementary ageing, environmental and migratory reconstruction tools.
Organic matter, sodicity and soil structure
- 1998
- Oxford University Press
- Researchers:Paul Nelson
Seafloor morphology and acoustic facies of the George V Land shelf
- 2003
- Researchers:Rob Beaman
Title:
PhD, James Cook University
End Date:
01 Jan 2010
End Date:
01 Jan 2003
Start Date:
01 Jan 2020
End Date:
01 Jan 2025
Start Date:
01 Jan 2023
End Date:
01 Jan 2025
Title:
JCU Distinguished Professor
Start Date:
01 Jan 2010
Start Date:
01 Jan 2012
End Date:
01 Jan 2012
Start Date:
01 Jan 2019
Title:
Malayalam
Title:
English
Title:
Tamil