[Aqualist] ARC Outcomes for 2018 DECRA, Discovery Indigenous, Discovery Projects and LIEF grants

[Simon Haberle]

Dear colleagues,

The ARC grant outcomes for 2018 are now available for Discovery Projects, Discovery Indigenous, DECRA and LIEF (round 1, see http://www.arc.gov.au).

I have compiled all grants awarded in the area of Quaternary research (including archaeology). Congratulations to all those who were successful. There are 7 DECRAS ($2.62M), 1 Discovery Indigenous ($0.5M), 14 Discovery ($4.91M) and 3 LIEF grants ($1.2M) funded, showing that there continues to be a significant investment in personnel, projects and infrastructure related to understanding our past through Quaternary research. This is in addition to the significant 7-year investment made in 2017 to two new ARC Centres of Excellence: ARC Centre of Excellence in Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (https://epicaustralia.org.au) and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes (http://www.climateextremes.org.au).

Apologies if I have missed someone (please let me know so I can add the grant to this list)


Regards, Simon Haberle


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DECRA


THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

A long-term history of mercury in Australasia (DE180100573). This project aims to investigate how natural levels of mercury have changed over time and how human activities have affected mercury atmospheric fluxes and deposition. Using state-of-the-art experimental approaches combining palaeontology and chemistry, the project seeks to build comprehensive knowledge about the flux and sources of mercury in the Southern Hemisphere, to address significant geospatial and temporal gaps in understanding mercury’s environmental impact. Expected outcomes are a more refined understanding of the global biochemical cycle of mercury and its exposure effects on human and wildlife populations. Potential benefits are better-informed international actions designed to reduce environmental and health risks from mercury pollution. ($369,075) (0399)
Dr Larissa Schneider


THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Strategic resources and human cooperation in the rise of social complexity in Arabian archaeology (DE180101288). This project will conduct the first systematic archaeological analysis of the behavioural strategies humans adapted following metal resource depletion and trade in southeastern Arabia. It will examine how social complexity in metal production records of several sites within Oman compares with other regions in Cyprus and Turkey. This will provide greater knowledge of how people settled this region and subsequently responded to dynamic environmental changes over the past 5,000 years. ($384,983) (2101)
Dr Joseph Lehner


UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

A pictorial and geochemical history of Great Barrier Reef changes (DE180100017). This project aims to determine the timing and associated drivers behind dramatic changes in coral communities on reef flat environments since European settlement. It will use Uranium-Thorium dating, palaeoecological and geochemical techniques, as well as spatial elevation surveys to determine the timing and cause of ecological transition for inshore coral communities. This project will contribute baseline knowledge on the timing and mechanisms associated with dramatic declines in coral cover on inshore reefs of the world heritage listed Great Barrier Reef, and provide a robust scientific foundation for effective monitoring. ($404,950) (0403)
Dr Tara Clark


THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Improving the seasonal prediction of Australian rainfall extremes (DE180100638). This project aims to investigate the predictability of Australian extreme rainfall using the latest Bureau of Meteorology seasonal prediction system and new re-analyses and climate models. Extreme rainfall events in Australia are often associated with loss of life and damage to infrastructure and the environment, but some impacts can be mitigated with improved forecasting. This project will analyse influences of climate change and climate variability on seasonal-scale predictability of extreme rainfall. This will increase our understanding of the processes behind extreme rainfall events and where predictability arises from, and this would result in improvements in forecasting. ($341,400) (0401)
Dr Andrew King


THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Palaeo-population genomics: studying adaptation using ancient human DNA (DE180100883). This project aims to apply state-of-the-art population and quantitative genetic techniques to a powerful new database of ancient human genomes - spanning from hunter gatherers and early farmers through to the Middle Ages. This will be used to build the first detailed portrait of human genetic adaptation through time. This record will capture the major socio-cultural transitions in human history, and reveal the genetic and environmental drivers that have shaped modern human genetic diversity and pathology. ($365,058) (0604)
Dr Christian Huber


THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Deep histories of occupational continuity and change in the coastal Pilbara (DE180100601). This project aims to use high-resolution methods to investigate the completeness of the archaeological record of human occupation in northwestern Australia (Pilbara region). It will show how this informs our understanding of human adaptation to a changing coastal environment over the past 50,000 years. This will have significant benefits, such as providing an improved understanding and better management of Australia’s unique cultural heritage. ($389,254) (2101)
Dr Ingrid Ward

Aquifers as climate logs: untangling replenishment mechanisms (DE180101518). This project aims to develop methods that use environmental tracers to provide detailed information about groundwater ages and relate the age structure of groundwater systems to past climatic conditions. The impacts of climate change on groundwater resources is an important question in hydrogeological studies. The age of groundwater within an aquifer represents a detailed log of past recharge events. The project will generate methods for assessing the past history of groundwater resources, and provide insight into the viability of groundwater in the future. This will improve understanding of how groundwater resources will behave under a changing climate. ($364,200) (0406)
Dr James McCallum

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DISCOVERY INDIGENOUS


THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Using genetics to reconstruct the peopling and diversification of Sahul (IN180100017). The genetic history of the peopling of Sahul - the landmass connecting Australia with New Guinea at the time of colonisation - remains largely unknown. A recent landmark study has revealed that people first arrived on Sahul ~50 thousand years ago, and have remained largely genetically isolated from subsequent migrations thereafter. However, we still know very little about the route(s) taken into Sahul, or how adaptation has shaped the enormous diversity now observed across Indigenous Australians and Papuans. Our interdisciplinary team will answer these questions by applying powerful phylogenetic and population genetic tools to the largest genetic dataset yet analysed from populations across Australia, New Guinea, and Island South East Asia. ($512,688) (0603)
Dr Raymond Tobler; Prof Murray Cox; Dr Francois-Xavier Ricaut; Dr Wolfgang Haak; Dr Fernando Racimo; Assoc Prof Herawati Sudoyo


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DISCOVERY PROJECTS


THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Exploring past climates, volcanic disasters and earthquakes in Australasia (DP180103762). This project aims to combine cutting-edge geochemical microanalysis of precisely dated cave deposits and corals to generate fundamental knowledge of Australasian earth hazards and environmental turning points over the past 500,000 years. These novel long-term perspectives of society’s most challenging environmental threats will provide the scientific basis required for informed decision-making and sustainable development in Australasia. ($458,418) (0406)
Assoc Prof Michael Gagan


THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Dawn of the age of mammals in Australia: foundations for an island biota (DP180100792). This project aims to fill a profound gap in knowledge about the origins of the modern fauna on the island continent Australia. It will augment Australia’s national natural heritage, enhance international research collaboration, and provide critical baseline data for complementary research in biology, geology, geography and climatology. End users of this project include primary, secondary, tertiary and public education sectors and environment and heritage protection agencies. ($347,126) (0403)
Prof Michael Archer; Prof Suzanne Hand; Dr Robin Beck

New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion (DP180100048). There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently underestimated or missing in climate models. The expected outcomes include a better understanding of the non-linear responses in the climate system. This should provide significant benefits, such as an assessment of whether the smooth climate changes currently projected through to year 2100 are misleading. ($431,462) (0406)
Assoc Prof Katrin Meissner; Dr Laurie Menviel; Dr Fortunat Joos


THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Resolving the Maya climate-collapse hypothesis (DP180101986). This project aims to test the climate-collapse theory by developing detailed records of climate and social change from Maya cities that did not collapse, and in doing so identify why some cities were more resilient to the impact of climatic variability than others. Catastrophic climate variability is often invoked to explain the historic collapse of large low-density urban centres in the global tropics. The collapse of the Maya civilisation of Central America after the 8th century AD is the archetypal social collapse yet, despite robust evidence for drought across Central America, archaeological evidence suggests a heterogenous social response. This project will reveal what social, material, or environmental properties facilitated resiliency in historic urban centres confronting climatic variability. ($208,846) (2101)
Dr Dan Penny; Dr Duncan Cook; Prof Timothy Beach; Prof Sheryl Beach; Prof Elizabeth Graham; Assoc Prof David McGee; Dr Quan Hua


MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

Rediscovering Aboriginal dispersal pathways (DP180102188). This project aims to use cutting-edge and transdisciplinary tools in partnership with Aboriginal people to rediscover deliberate prehistoric plant dispersal pathways along the Australian east coast. By working on three unrelated species with similar disjunct distributions, expected outcomes include detecting significant ‘cultural’ vegetation patterns that will challenge current assumptions about 'natural' plant distributions. New associations between plant biogeography and deliberate Aboriginal manipulation of Australian environments will benefit cultural heritage, land management and restoration initiatives. ($191,374) (0502)
Dr Emilie-Jane Ens; Dr Margaret Raven; Dr Maurizio Rossetto; Dr Philip Clarke


THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE

Flooding in Australia – are we properly prepared for how bad it can get? (DP180102522). This project aims to investigate how floods have varied over the past 2000 years. Floods are a recurrent and natural part of Australia’s hydroclimate and are influenced strongly by climate variability. However, these influences are not yet completely understood or accounted for. This project will use novel insights from 2000 years of climate reconstructions to generate new knowledge about how bad flooding can get and what causes flood frequency to change over time. A decision-making framework that allows for all the uncertainties associated with managing floods will also be developed. This will provide a critical evaluation of the accuracy of existing flood estimates, and also the reliability of infrastructure and policy based on those estimates. ($333,267) (0406)
Assoc Prof Anthony Kiem; Dr Tessa Vance; Prof George Kuczera; Dr Jason Roberts


MONASH UNIVERSITY

The role of vegetated foreshores in stabilising Australia's shorelines (DP180103444). This project aims to improve Australia's capacity to predict shoreline position with sea level rise, identify the role of vegetation in foreshore stabilisation and determine thresholds for shoreline retreat by quantifying the links between biological, geomorphological and sedimentary processes and shoreline position. Sea level rise and potential increases in storminess are predicted to lead to severe impacts and there is an immediate and critical need to understand and accurately predict the functioning, dynamics, and distribution of Australia's coastal zones. Expected outcomes of this interdisciplinary project include an integrated modelling framework crucial for planning and management of sea level rise responses in Australia. ($323,415) (0501)
Dr Ruth Reef; Assoc Prof David Kennedy; Dr Vanessa Wong; Prof Tom Spencer; Dr Susan Brooks; Dr Iris Moeller

Archaeology of a Torres Strait reef island community (DP180102724). This archaeology project aims to document the long-term development of socioeconomic strategies by Indigenous Australians to live sustainably on small, drought-prone, tropical reef islands. It uses Tudu in central Torres Strait as a case study. This project will produce new and innovative insights into how Torres Strait Islander reef island communities built cultural and community resilience to environmental stress. It will broaden Australian archaeological knowledge of continental rocky islands to include recently formed reef islands. ($291,745) (2101)
Prof Ian McNiven


THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

High resolution timeframe for hominin evolution in the Turkana Basin, Kenya (DP180101412). This project aims to establish a high-resolution timeframe for hominin evolution in the famed Omo-Turkana Basin, Kenya. The Basin hosts a vast array of hominin fossils that cover more than four million years of human evolution, and interbedded volcanic deposits within the Basin sediments has provided much of our current constraints on the timing of hominin evolution. However critical knowledge gaps remain. Using new instrumentation and dating methods, this project will provide an ultra-precise chronological framework for the basin. This is critical for transforming our understanding of hominin evolution and migration, under changing climatic and environmental conditions. ($414,204) (0403)
Prof David Phillips; Prof Andrew Gleadow; Prof Janet Hergt; Professor Barry Kohn; Dr Erin Matchan; Em Prof Ian McDougall; Prof Meave Leakey


UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA

The Southern Ocean's response to abrupt climate change (DP180102357). This project aims to determine how the Southern Ocean responds to abrupt climate change, through geochemical analysis of marine sediment cores. Rapid warming events of the last ice age provide an analogue to human-caused warming. Experiments using ocean climate models will evaluate the drivers and consequences of the biogeochemical response of different sectors and zones of the Southern Ocean. The intended outcome is a better understanding of how and why climate change impacts ocean productivity in the ecologically significant Southern Ocean. This will lead to better representations of carbon feedbacks in climate models and more robust projections of future climate change. ($385,650) (0406)
Assoc Prof Zanna Chase; Assoc Prof Katrin Meissner; Dr Helen Bostock; Assoc Prof Elisabeth Sikes; Assistant Prof Haojia Ren


THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Reconstructing mechanisms of range contraction to avert species extinctions (DP180102392). This project aims to integrate biotic information from fossils and ancient DNA of vertebrates into computational models to establish ecological processes that drive the structure and dynamics of geographical ranges and regulate the severity of species extinction rates from global change. This approach is likely to improve theory on dynamic species borders and expected outcomes include providing a framework for better allocating resources for endangered species in Australia and beyond. This will have significant benefits, such as providing the first mechanistic explanations for the principal drivers of mega-fauna extinctions during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. ($496,136) (0699)
Dr Damien Fordham; Assoc Prof Jeremy Austin; Assoc Prof David Nogues-Bravo; Prof Carsten Rahbek; Prof Mark Lomolino


THE FLINDERS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Extricating extinction histories at Lake Callabonna’s megafauna necropolis (DP180101913). This project aims to determine the nature, timing and causes of megafaunal extinction in arid Australia using an extensive fossil necropolis at Lake Callabonna. An approach combining geochronology, morphology and histology studies will be used to generate novel understanding of both the life and death of Australia’s most iconic megafaunal species. Expected outcomes of the project include generating critical new insights into the globally significant megafauna extinction debate, and enhancing institutional and international collaborations in palaeoecological research. By providing a deep time perspective on Australia’s extinction dynamics, this project will benefit future conservation management strategies. ($416,584) (0403)
Assoc Prof Trevor Worthy; Dr Lee Arnold; Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Tura


THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

Re-evaluating forager-farmer plant use in Anatolia’s neolithic transition (DP180104055). This project aims to apply new techniques of archaeological residue analysis to artefacts, sediments, tools and skeletal remains from early Turkish forager-farmer and critically evaluate the role of crops and wild plant foods in the earliest development of farming outside southwest Asia’s Fertile Crescent. Results will allow a new understanding of how cropping came to dominate ancient economies and evaluate the validity of existing methods and understandings of this phenomenon. Drawing on and developing international collaborations, the project will enhance Australia's visibility in agricultural origins research, increase research capacity in this field and develop cultural, education and economic opportunities with and in Turkey. ($198,291) (2101)
Dr Alison Crowther; Assoc Prof Andrew Fairbairn; Prof Douglas Baird

U/Th dating of coral mortality and recovery rates in the Great Barrier Reef (DP180102526). This project aims to use high-efficiency U-Th geochronology and palaeoecology to identify past coral mortality events and community changes in the inshore Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and quantify subsequent recovery rates across a water quality gradient. These records will then be linked to natural and human impacts, especially since European settlement. The project outcomes will improve understanding of past disturbances and recovery rates in the GBR ecosystem and help focus management in the face of increased human pressure and environmental changes. ($416,584) (0403)
Prof Jian-xin Zhao; Dr George Roff; Dr Laurence McCook


LIEF


THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Mass spectrometry for next generation isotope analysis of silicate minerals (LE180100185). This proposal aims to establish a facility for mass spectrometry and sample preparation to enhance Australian capacity to analyse the stable isotope composition of silicate minerals. The project seeks to implement innovations that will greatly enhance the use of stable isotopes in silicate minerals by increasing analytical throughput and reducing cost. This will provide better understanding of the trajectories of environmental change, formation of mineral deposits and identifying trade networks in prehistoric societies. ($464,531) (0402)
Dr Jonathan Tyler; Prof Martin Hand; Prof Michael Bird; Prof Enzo Lombi; Dr Ian Moffat; Assoc Prof Patrick Moss; Assoc Prof Christopher Clark; Dr Garry Davidson; Prof Peter Gell; Dr Rian Dutch; Prof Bronwyn Gillanders; Dr John Tibby; Dr Thomas Raimondo; Dr Christian Reepmeyer; Assoc Prof Andrew Fairbairn


JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY

A national facility for the analysis of pyrogenic carbon (LE180100053). This project aims to develop a national facility for pyrogenic carbon analysis. Pyrogenic carbon is a poorly constrained, slow-cycling terrestrial carbon pool with significant carbon sequestration potential. The project expects to expand the newly developed hydrogen pyrolysis analytical capability to provide high throughput, robust measurement of the abundance and isotope composition of pyrogenic carbon in soils and sediments. This will provide significant benefit, such as the ability to make significant advances in areas as diverse as geochronology, archaeology, palaeoecology, soil science geomorphology and carbon cycle/sequestration science. ($358,031) (0402)
Prof Michael Bird; Prof Sean Ulm; Dr Timothy Cohen; Prof Richard Roberts; Prof Zenobia Jacobs; Prof Lindsay Hutley; Prof Balwant Singh; Dr Hamish McGowan; Assoc Prof Patrick Moss; Dr Jessica Reeves; Prof Simon Haberle; Prof Susan O'Connor; Assoc Prof Scott Mooney; Prof Chris Turney; Dr Michael-Shawn Fletcher


GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

Genomic library infrastructure for ancient environmental samples (LE180100121). This project aims to enable automated genome recovery from diverse environmental samples, without contamination risk. For more than 100 years, environmental scientists have studied diverse organism / environment interactions using a variety of conceptual and technical tools. Recently, studies of ancient and historical DNA have come to complement these tools and to occupy a significant place in environmental studies conducted over serial time. The project’s addition to the existing dual Ancient DNA complex facility at Griffith University will comprise two liquid handling workstations, each being housed in separate, self-contained, ancient DNA laboratories. The new facility will enable many researchers to have unprecedented access to an ancient DNA facility and a high level of technical support. ($384,671) (1002)
Prof David Lambert; Prof Zhihong Xu; Prof Jonathon Olley; Assoc Prof Rebecca Ford; Assoc Prof Adam Brumm; Dr Gilbert Price; Prof Leslie Christidis; Dr Subashchandran Sankarasubramanian; Prof Jizheng He