Area of Research Strength – Tropical Biology and Conservation
Overview
The Tropical Biology and Conservation Area of Research Strength brings together JCU research on the biology and sustainable use of tropical organisms and ecosystems. It focuses on terrestrial and freshwater environments but some of its work extends into marine ecosystems and estuarine environments at the interface of the marine and terrestrial realms.
Research produced within this AoRS makes important contributions to practical environmental management and community welfare in the region and beyond.
Contribution to the research effort in the Tropical Biology and Conservation is spread across two Schools and one applied research unit within the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology:
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the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research (ACTFR),
as well as the Amphibian Disease Ecology Group hosted within the Schools of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences and the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences.
Key Research Areas
Ecology and Conservation
A prime focus of the AoRS is the interaction of organisms and their environments at the individual population, community and ecosystem levels. This is exemplified by fundamental research on population and community ecology, ecophysiology of animals and plants, rarity and disturbance.
This theme also encompasses two large, multi-disciplinary programs that address major threats to tropical biodiversity: climate change and its impacts on the fauna of the tropics and the structure of tropical vegetation, and emerging infectious diseases in amphibian populations. Aspects of the genetic adaptation of organisms to rising temperatures are also investigated in the second research theme.
Evolutionary Biology, Genetics and Behaviour
The AoRS supports a major concentration of activity in the use of molecular genetic tools to understand evolution, ecology and behaviour, and to guide conservation of genetic diversity. This research theme is also linked to JCU’s Comparative Genomics Centre by way of Prof Crozier’s research program on the genetic basis of evolution in social insects.
Biodiversity and Systematics
Australia is a “megadiverse” continent, and the tropics of Australia harbour disproportionately large elements of the ancient evolutionary diversity as well as the richness of living species of this continent. Documenting and explaining the occurrence and distribution of biodiversity in tropical Australia is a fundamental and long-standing commitment of the School of Marine and Tropical Biology. It continues to be addressed using traditional and modern molecularly taxonomic tools, and set in the framework of biogeographic analyses.
Management of Tropical Ecosystems
Research in this theme aims to understand biological and physical processes that affect ecosystem function in the tropics, and to apply that knowledge in ecosystem management. It includes work on revegetation, the health of tropical rivers, water-quality indicators in freshwaters and estuaries, and the detection, biology and impacts of invasive species in marine and terrestrial systems.
Sustainable Agriculture and Agroecosystems
Research in this theme links basic ecological and biological science to sustainable land use in the tropics. Major projects address the development of new tree crops from native tropical species, the role of biodiversity in agroecosystem function, the management of tropical savannas in relation to fire and grazing, and soil science and improvement.
