Sprigg Geobiology Centre

The Sprigg Geobiology Centre (SGC) undertakes research at the interface of life and Earth, as well as developing the understanding of how geobiological systems sustain society and can be best managed.

Please see the below resources for further information on our research.

• The man with the gold bug
• SA fossils give an exceptional view of the past
  Some of the world's most unique fossil collections gathered from the Flinders Ranges and Kangaroo Island are now housed at the SA Museum.
• Naracoorte's fossil caves

Project funding

The Sprigg Geobiology Centre secured almost $1 million dollars in HERDC funding in 2015.

Australian Research Council Future Fellows

• Cesca McInerney
• Lee Arnold

Australian Research Council Discovery projects

John Tibby leads an ARC Discovery project “A 140,000 year insight into the imprint of climate and humans on Australia” (2015-2017). Juraj Farkas is a work-package leader of a large EU funded project BASE-LiNE Earth (www.baseline-earth.eu) that aims to reconstruct chemical and isotope evolution of seawater over geological timescale using new metal isotope proxies.

Jonathan Tyler is a co-investigator on ARC Discovery Project “The application of clumped isotope thermometry to the terrestrial environment” (2014-2017). AINSE currently support: Jonathan Tyler, Georgina Falster, Martin Ankor, Andrew Chapman. Have previously supported several honours and PhD students. BP, CSIRO & PIRSA fund the Great Australian Bight Research Program supporting co-investigators David McKirdy, Tony Hall and PhD student Alex Corrick. Alex Corrick has been awarded the Bernold M. “Bruno” Hanson Memorial Environmental Grant through the AAPG Grants-In-Aid program.

Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation

Jonathan Tyler, John Tibby, Cameron Barr, Cesca McInerney are working with the Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in the geochemical characterisation and dating of lake sediments.

Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South Australia

Liz Reed, Lee Arnold, Nigel Spooner, John Tibby, Cesca McInerney, Jon Tyler and Juraj Farkas are working together with DEWNR to examine environmental change associated with megafaunal extinction at Naracoorte Caves .

Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, Queensland

Sprigg Centre members (John Tibby, Cameron Barr, Cesca McInerney, Jon Tyler) are working on a variety of projects with the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation (Qld). These include the nature and causes of natural climate variation in south-east Queensland, the impact of humans on ancient and modern wetlands and diatom-based assessment of stream and spring health.

Environment Protection Authority

John Tibby, Cameron Barr and Jon Tyler are working with the Environment Protection Authority, South Australia to determine whether diatoms can be used to refine water quality assessments of South Australian streams.

Great Australian Bight Research Program

David McKirdy and Tony Hall are working on the Great Australian Bight Research Program in conjunction with BP, CSIRO, SARDI & Flinders University (primary partners). Theme 5 is tasked to investigate natural hydrocarbon seeps in the GAB as well as more distantly derived bitumens stranding on the South Australian coastline. This continues a long history of geochemical research into these natural bitumen strandings initiated by Sprigg & Woolley (Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 86, 67-103, 1963).

Nature Foundation, South Australia

Jonathan Tyler and Lee Arnold are working with the Nature Foundation, South Australia, to investigate the Quaternary environments at and around Lake Torrens, South Australia.

Santos

Juraj Farkas is working with Santos to apply new and traditional isotope proxies to better constrain the stratigraphy and paleo-depositional environment of the Mesoproterozoic McArthur Basin in NT, Australia.

Our International Partners Include

British Geological Survey – investigation of oxygen and silicon isotopes in lake waters and biominerals; analysis of leaf carbon and oxygen isotopes.

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology – investigation of sediment cores to reconstruct late Holocene climate from freshwater lakes in coastal Antarctica

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Zuccarello, F. (2015). Muons in air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory: mean number in highly inclined events. Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 91(3), 032003-032001-032003-032012. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.91.032003

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Cronin, J. (2016). Testing hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies with air showers measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. Physical Review Letters, 117(19), 192001-192001-192001-192009. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.192001

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . De Jong, S. J. (2016). Prototype muon detectors for the AMIGA component of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(2), P02012-02011-P02012-02027. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/02/P02012

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . De Souza, V. (2016). Energy estimation of cosmic rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Physical Review D, 93(12), 122005-122001-122005-122015. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.122005

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Pierre Auger, C. (2016). Measurement of the radiation energy in the radio signal of extensive air showers as a universal sstimator of cosmic-ray energy. Physical Review Letters, 116(24), 241101-241101-241101-241109. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241101

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . De Mauro, G. (2016). Nanosecond-level time synchronization of autonomous radio detector stations for extensive air showers. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(1), P01018-01011-P01018-01031. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/01/P01018

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . De Mello Neto, J. R. T. (2015). Improved limit to the diffuse flux of ultrahigh energy neutrinos from the Pierre Auger observatory. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 91(9), 092008-092001-092008-092014. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.91.092008

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . et al. (2015). Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4 × 10¹? eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2015(8), 049-041-049-023. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2015/08/049

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Dallier, R. (2016). Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 93(7), 072006-072001-072006-072016. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.072006

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . D'Amico, S. (2016). Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the ‘ankle’ in the cosmic-ray spectrum. Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, 762, 288-295. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2016.09.039

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Samarai, I. A., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Zuccarello, F. (2015). Searches for anisotropies in the arrival directions of the highest energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger observatory. Astrophysical Journal, 804(1), 15-11-15-18. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/804/1/15

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Samarai, I. A. L., Albuquerque, I. F. M., . . . Zuccarello, F. (2015). Large scale distribution of ultra high energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger observatory with zenith angles up to 80°. Astrophysical Journal, 802(2), 111-111-111-111. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/802/2/111

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Al Samarai, I., Albuquerque, I. F. M., Allekotte, I., . . . Zuccarello, F. (2016). Search for ultrarelativistic magnetic monopoles with the Pierre Auger observatory. Physical Review D, 94(8), 082002-082001-082002-082012. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.94.082002

Arnold, L. J., & Demuro, M. (2015). Insights into TT-OSL signal stability from single-grain analyses of known-age deposits at Atapuerca, Spain. Quaternary Geochronology, 30(B), 472-478. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2015.02.005

Arnold, L. J., Demuro, M., Parés, J. M., Pérez-González, A., Arsuaga, J. L., Bermúdez de Castro, J. M., & Carbonell, E. (2015). Evaluating the suitability of extended-range luminescence dating techniques over early and Middle Pleistocene timescales: published datasets and case studies from Atapuerca, Spain. Quaternary International, 389(C), 167-190. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.010

Arnold, L. J., Duval, M., Demuro, M., Spooner, N. A., Santonja, M., & Pérez-González, A. (2016). OSL dating of individual quartz ‘supergrains’ from the Ancient Middle Palaeolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada, Spain. Quaternary Geochronology, 36(C), 78-101. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2016.07.003

Baczynski, A. A., McInerney, F. A., Wing, S. L., Kraus, M. J., Bloch, J. I., & Secord, R. (2017). Constraining paleohydrologic change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in the continental interior of North America. PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY, 465, 237-246. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.10.030

Baczynski, A. A., McInerney, F. A., Wing, S. L., Kraus, M. J., Morse, P. E., Bloch, J. I., . . . Freeman, K. H. (2016). Distortion of carbon isotope excursion in bulk soil organic matter during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 128(9), 1352-1366. doi:10.1130/B31389.1

Bissett, A., Fitzgerald, A., Meintjes, T., Mele, P. M., Reith, F., Dennis, P. G., . . . Ferrari, B. C. (2016). Introducing BASE: the Biomes of Australian Soil Environments soil microbial diversity database. GigaScience, 5(1), 1-11. doi:10.1186/s13742-016-0126-5

Bush, R. T., & McInerney, F. A. (2015). Influence of temperature and C? abundance on n-alkane chain length distributions across the central USA. Organic Geochemistry, 79(C), 65-73. doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2014.12.003

Campbell, S. G., Reith, F., Etschmann, B., Brugger, J., Martinez-Criado, G., Gordon, R. A., & Southam, G. (2015). Surface transformations of platinum grains from Fifield, New South Wales, Australia. American Mineralogist, 100(5-6), 1236-1243. doi:10.2138/am-2015-4905

Cernusak, L. A., Barbour, M. M., Arndt, S. K., Cheesman, A. W., English, N. B., Feild, T. S., . . . Farquhar, G. D. (2016). Stable isotopes in leaf water of terrestrial plants. Plant, Cell & Environment, 39(5), 1087-1102. doi:10.1111/pce.12703

Chang, J. C., Shulmeister, J., Woodward, C., Steinberger, L., Tibby, J., & Barr, C. (2015). A chironomid-inferred summer temperature reconstruction from subtropical Australia during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the last deglaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 122(C), 282-292. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.06.006

Craw, D., Kerr, G., Reith, F., & Falconer, D. (2015). Pleistocene paleodrainage and placer gold redistribution, western Southland, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 58(2), 137-153. doi:10.1080/00288306.2015.1007462

Cunningham, L., Tibby, J., Forrester, S., Barr, C., & Skjemstad, J. (2016). Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy as a Potential Tool for Reconstructing Lake Salinity. Water (Switzerland), 8(11). doi:10.3390/w8110479

Curry, M., Reed, E. H., & Bourne, S. (2016). Thylacoleo carnifex and the Naracoorte Caves. Australian Age of Dinosaurs: The annual publication of the Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History., (13), 40-51. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.02.014

Demuro, M., Arnold, L. J., Pare s, J. M., & Sala, R. (2015). Extended-range luminescence chronologies suggest potentially complex bone accumulation histories at the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site of Huéscar-1 (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain). Quaternary International, 389(C), 191-212. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.035

Duval, M., Arnold, L. J., Guilarte, V., Demuro, M., Santonja, M., & Pérez-González, A. (2017). Electron spin resonance dating of optically bleached quartz grains from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada (Spain) using the multiple centres approach. Quaternary Geochronology, 37, 82-96. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2016.09.006

Duval, M., Arnold, L. J., Parà s, J. M., & Hoffmann, D. L. (2015). The Jaramillo Subchron and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in continental records from a multidisciplinary perspective. Quaternary International, 389(C), 1-6. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.018

Etschmann, B., Brugger, J., Fairbrother, L., Grosse, C., Nies, D. H., Martinez-Criado, G., & Reith, F. (2016). Applying the Midas touch: differing toxicity of mobile gold and platinum complexes drives biomineralization in the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans. Chemical Geology, 438(C), 103-111. doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2016.05.024

Gray, J., Reed, & McDowell, M. (2015). Agamid (Reptilia: Squamata) assemblages from South Australia suggest differences between Pleistocene and modern distributions that reflect climate change Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting. Dallas, Texas, USA. Gray, J., Reed, E. H., Hutchinson, M., Jones, M., & McDowell, M. (2016). Agamid lizard fossils from South Australian caves and their implications for environmental change during the Quaternary Palaeo Down Under 2 (Vol. 117, pp. 71-71). University of Adelaide Hornsby, NSW: Geological Society of Australia. Grealy, A., Macken, A., Allentoft, M., Rawlence, N., Reed, E. H., & Bunce, M. (2016). An assessment of ancient DNA preservation in Holocene-Pleistocene fossil bone excavated from the world heritage Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(1), 33-45. doi:10.1002/jqs.2830

Hamm, G., Mitchell, P., Arnold, L. J., Prideaux, G. J., Questiaux, D., Spooner, N. A., . . . Johnston, D. (2016). Cultural innovation and megafauna interaction in the early settlement of arid Australia. Nature, 539(7628), 280-297. doi:10.1038/nature20125

IceCube, c., Pierre Auger, c., Telescope Array, c., Aartsen, M. G., Abraham, K., Ackermann, M., . . . Golup, G. (2016). Search for correlations between the arrival directions of IceCube neutrino events and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016(1), 037-031-037-034. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2016/01/037

Kiem, A. S., Johnson, F., Westra, S., van Dijk, A., Evans, J. P., O Donnell, A., . . . Mehrotra, R. (2016). Natural hazards in Australia: droughts. Climatic Change, 139(1), 37-54. doi:10.1007/s10584-016-1798-7

Li, K., Etschmann, B., Rae, N., Reith, F., Ryan, C. G., Kirkham, R., . . . Brugger, J. (2016). Ore petrography using megapixel X-ray imaging: rapid insights into element distribution and mobilization in complex Pt and U-Ge-Cu ores. Economic Geology, 111(2), 487-501. doi:10.2113/econgeo.111.2.487

Moss, P., Tibby, J., Shapland, F., Fairfax, R., Stewart, P., Barr, C., . . . Sloss, C. (2016). Patterned fen formation and development from the Great Sandy Region, south-east Queensland, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research, 67(6), 816-827. doi:10.1071/MF14359

Nursey-Bray, M., Fergie, D., Arbon, V., Rigney, L. I., Palmer, R., Tibby, J., . . . Stuart, A. (2015). Indigenous adaptation to climate change: the Arabana. In J. P. Palutikof, S. L. Boulter, J. Barnett & D. Rissik (Eds.), Applied studies in climate adaptation (Vol. 1, pp. 316-325). West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Ollé, A., Vergès, J. M., Rodríguez-Álvarez, X. P., Cáceres, I., Angelucci, D. E., Vallverdú, J., . . . López-Ortega, E. (2016). The Middle Pleistocene site of La Cansaladeta (Tarragona, Spain): stratigraphic and archaeological succession. Quaternary International, 393(C), 137-157. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.053

Rea, M. A., Zammit, C. M., & Reith, F. (2016). Bacterial biofilms on gold grains-implications for geomicrobial transformations of gold. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 92(6), fiw082-081-fiw082-012. doi:10.1093/femsec/fiw082

Reed, E. H. (2015). Priests, parties and palaeontologists: a potted history of the Naracoorte Caves Reflections: The 22nd State History Conference. Robe, South Australia. Reed, E. H. (2015). Site formation processes and their influence on chronological records from cave deposits: examples from Naracoorte Caves 4th Asia Pacific Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating Conference. University of Adelaide. Reed, E. H. (2015, 2015/07/27/). Underground archives: Naracoorte's fossil caves and their record of deep time, from http://escience.realviewdigital.com/?iid=122820#folio=1 Reed, E. H. (2016). The mystery photographer and the unknown engraving: new information on the first photographs of the Naracoorte Caves. Journal of the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association, 103, 5-10. doi:10.1128/AEM.01856-15

Reith, F., Zammit, C. M., Shar, S. S., Etschmann, B., Bottrill, R., Southam, G., . . . Brugger, J. (2016). Biological role in the transformation of platinum-group mineral grains. Nature Geoscience, 9(4), 294-298. doi:10.1038/ngeo2679

Rudd, R. C., Tyler, J. J., Tibby, J., Yokoyama, Y., Tavernier, I., Verleyen, E., . . . Takano, Y. (2016). A diatom-inferred record of lake variability during the last 900 years in Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(2), 114-125. doi:10.1002/jqs.2845

Smith, R. E., Tyler, J. J., Reeves, J., Blockley, S., & Jacobsen, G. E. (2015). First Holocene cryptotephras in mainland Australia reported from sediments at Lake Keilambete, Victoria, Australia. Quaternary Geochronology. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2016.08.007

Sniderman, J. M. K., Woodhead, J. D., Hellstrom, J., Jordan, G. J., Drysdale, R. N., Tyler, J. J., & Porch, N. (2016). Pliocene reversal of late Neogene aridification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(8), 1999-2004. doi:10.1073/pnas.1520188113

Ta, C., Brugger, J., Pring, A., Hocking, R. K., Lenehan, C. E., & Reith, F. (2015). Effect of manganese oxide minerals and complexes on gold mobilization and speciation. Chemical Geology, 407-408(C), 10-20. doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.04.016

The Pierre Auger, C., Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Al Samarai, I., . . . Coluccia, M. R. (2015). The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 798(C), 172-213. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2015.06.058

The Pierre Auger, C., Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Ahn, E. J., Samarai, I. A., . . . Zuccarello, F. (2015). Search for patterns by combining cosmic-ray energy and arrival directions at the Pierre Auger Observatory. European Physical Journal C, 75(6), 269-261-269-215. doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3471-0

Tibby, J., Barr, C., McInerney, F. A., Henderson, A. C. G., Leng, M. J., Greenway, M., . . . McNeil, V. (2016). Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the broad-leaved paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall. Global Change Biology, 22(10), 3474-3486. doi:10.1111/gcb.13277

Tyler, J. J., Jones, M., Arrowsmith, C., Allott, T., & Leng, M. J. (2015). Spatial patterns in the oxygen isotope composition of daily rainfall in the British Isles. Climate Dynamics, Online(5-6), 1-17. doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2945-y

Tyler, J. J., Mills, K., Barr, C., Sniderman, J. M. K., Gell, P. A., & Karoly, D. J. (2015). Identifying coherent patterns of environmental change between multiple, multivariate records: an application to four 1000-year diatom records from Victoria, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 119(C), 94-105. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.04.010

Yu, L., García, A., Chivas, A. R., Tibby, J., Kobayashi, T., & Haynes, D. (2015). Ecological change in fragile floodplain wetland ecosystems, natural vs human influence: The Macquarie Marshes of eastern Australia. Aquatic Botany, 120(Part A), 39-50. doi:10.1016/j.aquabot.2014.07.002

Zammit, C. M., Weiland, F., Brugger, J., Wade, B., Winderbaum, L. J., Nies, D. H., . . . Reith, F. (2016). Proteomic responses to gold(III)-toxicity in the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34. Metallomics, 8(11), 1204-1216. doi:10.1039/c6mt00142d