ARC success for EI researchers

The Australian Research Council (ARC) grants have just been unveiled today and it's good news for Environment Institute researchers!

Congratulations to EI researchers who have secured ARC funding in the November 1st announcement.

Professor Ivan Nagelkerken, Professor Corey Bradshaw and Professor Bronwyn Gillanders have an ARC grant for their project looking into the effect of invasions and ocean warming on fisheries. The grant is part of the Discovery Projects scheme and is worth $374,500.

The full summary is given below:

The effect of native invasions on Australian fisheries species. This project aims to forecast climate-related changes in the diversity, distribution and abundance of fisheries species. In a changing world where many people depend on oceans for food and livelihood, predicting the future distribution of fisheries species is a challenge. Native invasions and ocean warming are stressing inshore fisheries species, but rigorous empirical data and models that can reliably forecast these effects are lacking. This project intends to reveal the drivers of successful native invasions, evaluate their effect on fish diversity and productivity, and develop holistic models that forecast their effects on inshore fisheries species’ near-future distribution and stocks.

Professor Frank Grutzner has also been awarded a Fellowship:

The birth and death of mammalian sex chromosomes. This project aims to unravel the molecular mechanisms that underlie the transition from autosome to sex chromosome and progressive sex chromosome differentiation in mammals. Monotremes are the only mammalian species with a sex chromosome system that consists of ten sex chromosomes in platypus and nine in echidna. This project will analyse the genetic and epigenetic composition and organisation of the monotreme autosomes that evolved into sex chromosomes in other mammals and compare individual platypus and echidna sex chromosomes to discover how sex chromosomes come to be, differentiate and ultimately are replaced by new sex chromosomes.

and an ARC Discovery grant:

This project aims to investigate the role of non-coding RNAs in mammalian sex chromosome biology and reproduction. Non-protein coding RNAs are a major regulatory mechanism in eukaryotic genomes; they can bind other RNAs or chromatin modifying complexes. However, the evolutionary trajectory and function of non-coding RNAs in sex chromosome biology and sexual development is largely unknown. This project will study non-coding RNAs in Australian mammals to try to answer fundamental questions about how non-coding RNAs function in mammalian sexual development.

Researchers Dr Lee Arnold; Adjunct Professor Nigel Spooner; Associate Professor Gavin Prideaux; Professor Robert Hill; Professor Alan Collins; Associate Professor Jeremy Austin; Dr John Tibby; Dr Trevor Worthy; Professor Patrick Hesp; Dr Rachel Popelka-Filcoff and Dr Mark Hutchinson have been successful in securing a Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant:

A regional optical dating facility in Australia. This project aims to establish an open access, end-user friendly optical dating facility in Australia. This will address shortcomings in the capacity and geographical coverage of the existing national geochronology infrastructure and enable Australian researchers to reconstruct past records of climate change, human evolution, ecological vulnerabilities, natural and man-made hazards and environmental disturbance over historical to near-million-year timeframes. This project is expected to increase commercial demand for geoscience services and lead to better understanding of Australia’s natural heritage and its long-term vulnerabilities.

For all of the outcomes please visit the ARC funding announcement page.