[Aqualist] ARC Success for 2013/2014 n Quaternary Research

[Simon Haberle]

Dear all,

Congratulations to all those who were successful in this years ARC Discovery and Fellowship rounds. There are 14 Discovery projects in total related to Quaternary research (including 7 in Archaeology). There are 5 Future Fellowship awards (2 in Archaeology), 2 DECRA awards (both Archaeology) and one Discovery Indigenous Award. Please let me know I missed your grant in the published list (this year published without project titles strangely and unhelpfully enough)…. Apologies to those I have missed….

Hopefully those who were not successful this year will consider applying again next year…

Cheers, Simon

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DISCOVERY PROJECTS

The Australian National University

DP140102059
Abram, Dr Nerilie J; Mulvaney, Dr Robert; Curran, Dr Mark; Treble, Dr Pauline C
Total: $480,000.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
Water resource management is one of the greatest challenges facing sustainable agriculture and urban populations across southern Australia. Key players driving catastrophic droughts in southern Australia are the tropical Indian Ocean Dipole and polar Southern Annual Mode climate systems, which affect moisture availability and transport pathways. This collaborative research project draws together a uniquely-skilled research team to develop targeted coral, ice and cave reconstructions of these climate systems and their impacts on Australian rainfall through the last millennium. This fundamental new knowledge of the drivers of Australian rainfall variability will aid improved predictability of future changes in our valuable water resources.

DP140103591
Haberle, Prof Simon G; Kershaw, Em/Prof Arnold P; Connor, Dr Simon E; van der Kaars, Dr Willem A; Perry, A/Prof George L
Total: $365,000.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
How have interactions between climatic change, human activities and other disturbances over thousands of years shaped the landscapes we know today in Australia? Existing lines of evidence from palaeoecological and archaeological sources point to significant changes to biodiversity, vegetation cover, and fire frequency since the arrival of people into Australia sometime between 50000 to 40000 yr BP. The extent to which humans influenced or overrode natural processes through time remains unclear. High-resolution, multi-proxy data in an innovative vegetation and megafaunal reconstruction will provide the first quantitative assessment of the response of Australian tropical savannas to a range of natural and anthropogenic influences.

DP140101393
Yu, Dr Jimin; Elderfield, Prof Henry
Total: $303,000.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
The history of ocean circulation at the intermediate water depth remains controversial, limiting our understanding of the interplay of ocean circulation, climate changes, and the global carbon cycle. This project aims to generate trace elemental and isotopic records for 10 key locations in the Atlantic Ocean, which constrain physicochemical properties of water masses at unprecedented temporal resolution during the last glacial maximum and the subsequent deglaciation. This multi-proxy approach will reconcile controversy and pin down the evolution of mid-depth Atlantic circulation in the past, and thereby substantially improve our understanding of the climate system.

DP140100384
Bellwood, Prof Peter S; Hung, Dr Hsiao-chun; Piper, Dr Philip J
Total: $401,320.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
The Southeast Asian Neolithic (2500 to 500 BC) was a time of powerful linguistic and biological expansion, especially amongst those early agricultural societies that surrounded the South China Sea. This project will concentrate on: reconstructing the landscapes of Neolithic settlement, greatly different from the vast lowland alluvial landscapes that feed such concentrated populations today; reconstructing the economy of Neolithic food production, especially the archaeological histories of the major crops and domestic animals; and, reconstructing and comparing the material culture of the initial Neolithic, with its immense network of population expansion involving China, Southeast Asia and Oceania.


Griffith University

DP140101405
Lambert, Prof David M; Westaway, Dr Michael C; Willerslev, Prof Eske; Matisoo-Smith, Prof Elizabeth (Lisa) A; Millar, Dr Craig D
Total: $394,717.00
ANTHROPOLOGY
Project Summary
The earliest known inhabitants of Australia lived more than 42,000 years ago on the shores of Lake Mungo. This project will present data that show it is feasible to recover complete genomes of some early Australians, in addition to the sex and mitochondrial genomes of others. These data will provide a new understanding of the robust and gracile morphologies of these people, as well as the dispersal patterns of modern humans out of Africa. Ideas about Australia’s First People have been central to the development of theories about the origin of modern humans generally, and therefore this study will be of international significance.


La Trobe University

DP140101049
Edwards, Dr Phillip C; Shewan, Dr Louise G; Webb, Dr John A
Total: $333,363.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
This project will advance theories on early sedentism by investigating Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan, settled by Natufian hunter-gatherers at 12,500 BC. This site is claimed as a pre-agrarian, sedentary village but archaeological indicators of sedentism remain ambiguous. This project will resolve the issue by applying new technologies to human skeletal remains from the site to establish the length and frequency of residential occupations. Wadi Hammeh 27 also exemplifies trends towards the dispersal of Natufian social interactions. They will be investigated by tracing the exchange of artefacts and materials between Wadi Hammeh 27 and small, seasonal Natufian sites because these links underlie theories about the advent of agriculture and settled life.


The University of Newcastle

DP140102659
Wroe, A/Prof Stephen W; Fiorenza, Dr Luca; Parr, Dr William C
Total: $339,204.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
Perhaps no other extinct species has excited scientific or popular imagination as has our closest cousin, the Neanderthal. Who were these people? Once presented as the archetypal brute, it is now increasingly clear that these powerful, large brained humans were capable of sophisticated behaviours and that most of us carry Neanderthal DNA. Yet many questions remain. One of the most persistent is why the distinctive drawn out, prognathous face? The project will address this question, applying and developing recent advances the applicants have made in digital reconstruction and modelling, maintaining Australian research at the leading edge in the fast growing fields of virtual reconstruction and comparative biomechanics.


The University of New England

DP140103194
Grave, A/Prof Peter R; Stark, Prof Miriam; Kealhofer, Prof Lisa K; Darith, Dr Ea
Total: $536,558.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
Khmer rulers based at Angkor (9th to 15th century CE) competed to control one of the largest and longest-lived of the pre modern agrarian polities of mainland Southeast Asia. Best known for the monuments, hydraulic works and transportation systems around its urban core, the political and economic control Angkorian elite exerted over the broader Khmer territory remains poorly understood. Through a program of provenancing and dating of Khmer stoneware and kilns (scaled to match the geo-political issues involved) this project will produce the first rigorous spatial, chronologically controlled reconstruction of wider core-hinterland relationships.


Southern Cross University

DP140100919
Joannes-Boyau, Dr Renaud; Scheffers, A/Prof Anja M
Total: $121,059.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
Knowledge of the timing and distribution of the human lineage is critical for developing and testing evolutionary hypotheses. Unfortunately, many existing chronologies are based on the dating of materials thought to be stratigraphically associated with the fossil, rather than the fossil itself. Significant, recent advances in dating methods allow for the accurate non-destructive direct dating of human remains. This project offers to establish a reliable and consistent chronology for modern human occurrences. This proposal is significant in addressing fundamental problems in our understanding of modern human expansion, by the application of newly-developed techniques that will allow for the reliable direct dating of key modern human fossils.


James Cook University

DP140104282
Dirks, Prof Paul H; Roberts, Dr Eric M; Spandler, Dr Carl; Berger, Prof Lee R; Blenkinsop, Prof Thomas G; Jinnah, Dr Zubair A
Total: $256,000.00
GEOLOGY
Project Summary
In August 2008 the remarkable Malapa fossil site was discovered with remains of the first and only fossils of Australopithecus sediba, a potential direct human ancestor. The fossils are in an exceptional state of preservation, and excavations will start in late 2013, creating a unique opportunity to develop a detailed understanding of the chemical, physical and biological factors that led to burial and fossilisation. This research will focus on the complex interplay between termites, sediment chemistry, landscape conditions and palaeo-climate as contributing factors to fossil preservation. The results will document the environment in which sediba lived and died, and assist future exploration for hominid fossils.


DP140101319
Bird, Prof Michael I; Zhou, A/Prof Bin
Total: $306,666.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
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). This project 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.


The University of Adelaide

DP140104233
Cooper, Prof Alan; Taylor, Prof Jeremy F; Higham, Prof Thomas F; Orlando, A/Prof Ludovic; Reich, Prof David
Total: $450,000.00
GENETICS
Project Summary
This project will use ancient DNA from permafrost-preserved Steppe bison bones and bovid exome capture systems to build a detailed record of the genomic impacts of rapid climate and environmental change at the end of the Pleistocene (30 to 11 kyr). The project will analyse how ancestral genetic diversity is distributed amongst surviving bison populations, and the role of nuclear loci under selection and drift. It will create a novel temporal dataset of genomic adaptation and evolution, and will generate critical data for studies of evolutionary processes such as extinctions, speciation and conservation biology and management.


DP140103650
Donnellan, Prof Stephen C; Piper, Dr Philip J; Aplin, Dr Kenneth P
Total
$465,960.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
The emergence of agriculture, a key transformational event in human history, seems to have occurred significantly later in island SE Asia than surrounding regions. However, the early stages of agriculture may be archaeologically ‘invisible’ in the tropics due to simple material culture and housing. This project proposes to use the recent evolutionary history of agricultural  rodent pests, all of which emerged in situ from among a native rodent fauna, as a proxy for the origins and spread of agriculture, and its subsequent intensification. This project will use phylogeography and population genetics to infer the history of contemporary rodent populations, combined with archaeozoological and ancient DNA analyses of prehistoric samples to test our inferences.


University of Wollongong

DP140100354
Dosseto, Dr Anthony; Chivas, Prof Allan R; Vigier, Dr Nathalie; Lemarchand, Dr Damien
Total: $240,000.00
GEOCHEMISTRY
Project Summary
The abundance and distribution of Earth's water and soil resources are strongly influenced by the spatial and temporal variability of climatic parameters. Thus, there is a need to understand how climate change, whether of natural causes or induced by human activity, impacts fluvial and soil systems. This project will use novel isotopic techniques to study the links between climate variability, chemical weathering, which produces soil, and sediment transport, which affects fluvial systems and water resources. The composition of stable lithium, boron and calcium isotopes, and of radioactive uranium-series isotopes in sedimentary records will shed new light on our understanding of these processes.


FUTURE FELLOWSHIP

The University of Sydney

FT130101718
Alvarez-Mon, Dr Javier
Total: $623,187.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
The Elamite civilisation (circa. 4000 to 525 BCE) formed a remarkably rich but almost unexplored background to later Persian imperialism. This ancient Iranian culture, whose importance has never been recognised, is characterised by a remarkable longevity and an outstanding combination of highland and lowland artistic and cultural traditions. The aim of this project is to articulate the history of the art and culture of the Elamite civilisation for the first time based on analysis, interpretation and publication of its archaeological and artistic record.


The University of Queensland

FT130101702
Fairbairn, Dr Andrew S
Total: $750,080.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
Long distance trade in bulk foods, such as grain, is a key strategy for overcoming food insecurity in the modern urbanised world, yet we know relatively little of its history and role in the emergence and stability of the world’s first cities and states. Developing new archaeological techniques, this project explores the history of trade in bulk grain in southwest Asia from the Neolithic to Iron Age and its role in stimulating socio-economic change and mediating food insecurity in a period of rapid climatic and political change. In revolutionising our view of ancient food trade it will provide an example from the past to help inform contemporary debates about the efficacy of a key economic strategy in moderating fluctuations in food supply.


The Flinders University of South Australia

FT130101728
Prideaux, Dr Gavin J
Total: $727,300.00
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
Project Summary
Australia’s biota is a product of its unique heritage, tectonic history and most especially its climate. Over the past five million years it has been beset by a series of intense climatic shifts driven by a combination of global and regional factors. This project will be the first to track faunal responses to environmental changes across this critical interval. It will establish the dynamics of the origin of the modern southern vertebrate fauna, analysing changes in diversity, diet and community structure. By exploring associations between phases of faunal turnover and key climatic transitions, it will bring a Southern Hemisphere perspective to evolutionary models of Cenozoic faunal change largely generated to date from Northern Hemisphere data.


The University of Adelaide

FT130100195
Arnold, Dr Lee J
Total: $755,320.00
GEOLOGY
Project Summary
The causes of megafaunal extinction in Australia continue to be fiercely debated owing to chronological gaps in the palaeontological record, poorly constrained palaeoenvironmental histories and limited data on long-term faunal responses to climate change prior to human arrival. This project will utilise and advance new luminescence dating methods to provide unparalleled reconstructions of faunal turnover and environmental change over millennial to million year timescales. The chronologies generated through this work will provide a crucial new perspective on the ongoing megafaunal debate and will be used to test key assumptions underpinning anthropogenic- and climate-driven extinction hypotheses on local, regional and continental scales.


The University of Melbourne

FT130100801
Hellstrom, Dr John C
Total: $755,320.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
Projections of global climate change over the next century are so negative we must look to the Pliocene Epoch, more than 2.5 million years ago, for past analogues. Nonetheless, more recent episodes of rapid global warming during the late Pleistocene might approximate those expected for coming decades. This project will study past Australian regional temperature and rainfall responses to these events, on a high-resolution absolute timescale. The necessary analytical technologies are new, meaning a study of this scope could not previously be attempted, and they will be further developed under this project. Outputs will include spatial patterns and lead/lag relationships which can be used to supplement climate model predictions for Australia.


DECRA's

University of Wollongong

DE140100254
Aubert, Dr Maxime
Total: $395,205.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
Recent research revealed that humans were producing rock paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi at least 39 thousand years ago (and possibly up to 46 thousand years ago). The rock art, therefore, is essentially contemporaneous with the earliest cave art in Europe and may be the world's oldest, given the arrival of Homo sapiens in Australia at least 50 thousand years ago. This project will further investigate the early rock art of Sulawesi as well as other key Indonesian islands located along likely migration routes from Borneo to New Guinea. The results will have major implications for our understanding of the cultural behaviour and dispersal of the earliest modern humans to colonise Southeast Asia and Australia.


La Trobe University

DE140101095
Crook, Dr Penelope J
Total: $326,489.00
ARCHAEOLOGY
Project Summary
This project will explore Sydney's history as a marketplace, in a broad-ranging examination of consumer cultures, archaeological relics and trade catalogues from the colonial era. It will build on pioneering new methods to explore the cost, quality and value of thousands of objects of domestic material culture found on archaeological sites in Sydney. It will employ emerging digital technologies to analyse distinctive trends in colonial Australian advertising and the promotion of domestic goods, along with the prices of thousands of goods sold by colonial retailers. The resulting analyses will underwrite new transnational histories of empire, commerce and the social impact of mass consumption at the height of the British empire.


DISCOVERY INDIGENOUS AWARD

The University of Melbourne

IN140100050
Fletcher, Dr Michael-Shawn
Total: $400,000.00
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GEOSCIENCE
Project Summary
El Niño events starve southeast Australia of rainfall, resulting in droughts and wildfires. El Niño activity is projected to amplify as global temperatures rise, heralding a serious threat to Australia's water security and the incidence and magnitude of wildfires. The key to understanding the potential effects of future changes in El Niño activity lies in the past. El Niño activity has varied substantially over the last 12,000 years. This project will reconstruct the response of southeast Australian climate, vegetation and fire activity to changes in El Niño activity over this period using lake sediments located in El Niño sensitive locations in Tasmania.