Rivers, journalists and turtles focus of new grants
Claudia Doman
3 July 2014: The impact of river networks on fishes and other aquatic creatures, the exodus of experienced journalists from Australian newsrooms and the decline of turtle populations in the Murray-Darling river system will be investigated by º£½ÇÉäÇø researchers thanks to new funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The º£½ÇÉäÇø received an ARC Linkage Project grant of more than $260,000 to examine the genetic variation of aquatic species within river systems. Two University researchers also received funding through their collaboration in projects with colleagues from other institutions.
Peter Unmack, landscape geneticist at the University's Institute for Applied Ecology, leads a research team that received $269,692 to investigate the impact of rivers and their branches, called tributaries, on how animals and their relatives move in these rivers both in wet and dry regions of Australia.
They will also explore if this makes a difference in the genetic variability of the species.
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UC's Dr Peter Unmack (left) and field assistant Matthew Young conducting some research at the Maranoa River in Queensland. Photo: Gary Moores |
"We are very excited about receiving this grant because we will be able to look at how these rivers and climate have changed over the past 100,000 years and how that affects current day genetic relations between populations in river systems," Dr Unmack said.
"Think of comparing a river with a single long channel with no tributaries, to one that has lots of them and whether having more of these tributaries means you have more genetic variability," he said.
"Then we ask how does dryness influence that by comparing rivers with different climates, then we ask how were these rivers different in the past. Some had wetter periods and some had drier periods that may have left signatures in the patterns we see today."
The study will help identify conservation priorities which are essential in maintaining the health of Australian aquatic ecosystems.
The team led by Dr Unmack includes IAE's senior research fellow in biodiversity Dr Bernd Gruber, assistant professor of environmental science Dr Duanne White, Distinguished Professor Arthur Georges and Dr Andrzej Kilian from Diversity Arrays Technology, a partner organisation in the study.
Professor Georges is also part of a team of researchers who received $435,280 to identify and quantify causes of decline in turtles along the Murray-Darling river system in order to develop practical management options to stop this decrease.
This will be the first time in which cutting-edge genetic and ecological techniques will combine with a citizen-based science program, involving Indigenous groups and non-government organisations in a river-wide study of turtles. The grant will be administered by the University of Western Sydney.
Meanwhile, º£½ÇÉäÇø professor of journalism Matthew Ricketson will work with researchers from La Trobe University to study the role of mass redundancies, forced career changes and the digital reinvention of Australian journalism at a time of industry restructure and technological change.
The project, funded by a $270,756 ARC Linkage Project grant, aims to provide the first in-depth account of the complex interplay between economic, technological, workplace and career pressures reshaping professional journalism.
"We want to track what happens to the careers of more than 1,000 journalists that were made redundant in 2012 over the next three years, and what does this exodus of experience means for Australian journalism," Professor Ricketson said.
Partner organisations in this grant include the Australian Broadcasting Organisation, the National Library of Australia and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.