SCHOOL OF TROPICAL BIOLOGY
Tropical Plant Sciences
Plant physiology and metabolism
Sodium metabolism in C4 and CAM plants.Carbon fixation in CAM plants.
Herbicide resistance in crop plants.
Plant ecology and ecophysiology
Revegetation of mining leases.Fire ecology.
Ecosystem dynamics of humid tropical rainforests.
Ecosystem dynamics of tropical savannas.
Plant and ecosystem responses to high CO2 concentrations.
Regenerative properties of rainforest trees.
Plant-soil relationships in Australian rainforests.
Ecology of tropical lichens.
Effects of irrigation discharge on wetlands.
Nutrition and growth of rainforest trees in plantations and natural forests.
Plant Systematics and Population Biology
Pollination and reproductive studies of rainforest taxa.Reproductive biology of selected sedges.
Inter and intra-specific relations in Australian Vigna spp.
Phylogenetic studies in tropical families and genera.
Systematic studies in Ficus, Dendrobium, Livistonia.
Tropical crops and pastures
Role of silicon in sugarcane nutrition.Soil processes in tropical savannas.
Soils and land use in the humid tropics.
Competitive and allelopathic effects in grass-legume pastures.
Sustainable land use in tropical savannas.
Land use and land degradation.
Role of natural products as soil amendments.
Establishment of tropical pastures.
Mulches in tropical crop production.
Soil microbes and tea production.
Drainage systems in sugarcane lands.
Ripeners for sugarcane.
Ecology of woody weeds.
Agroecology of tropical legumes with special reference to the Desmanthus gene pool.
Crop, soil and water management options for sustainable sugarcane production.
Role of companion crops in alleviating adverse effects of sugarcane monoculture.
Pasture plants for Australian and Indonesian savannas.
Marine and freshwater plant biology
Water quality in a highly turbid tropical reservoir.Cytology, genetics and plant breeding
Genetic diversity of selected rainforest plants.
Breeding systems, genetic diversity and cytogenetics of tropical grasses and legumes.
Plant pathology
Sugarcane ratoon stunting disease.Zoology and Tropical Ecology
Research conducted by staff and postgraduate students encompasses a broad spectrum of projects on tropical animals inhabiting a variety of terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. Emphasis has been placed on research into whole animals, e.g. their ecology, ecophysiology, evolution and behaviour and the ecosystems containing them, but opportunities also exist for investigations at the sub-organism level in certain fields, such as nutritional physiology and DNA techniques for determining genetic relationships.
Particular research strengths lie in the following subject and topic areas:
Animal Behaviour
Social behaviour in birds.Dragonfly behaviour.
Behavioural organisation in social insects.
Animal Ecology
The structure and distribution of rainforest and savanna faunal communities.Autecological studies on tropical marsupials and rodents.
Ecology of tropical bird communities.
Ecology of reptiles and amphibians.
Ecophysiology
Ecophysiology of vertebrates especially reptiles.
Entomology
Insect/plant interactions.Seasonality in tropical insects.
Freshwater Biology
Ecology of tropical streams and wetlands.Biology of tropical frogs and fish.
Ecological interactions of introduced species with native freshwater communities.
Taxonomy of tropical freshwater insects.
Population dynamics and dispersal of cane toads.
Ecology of mosquito and snail vectors of disease.
Development of biological monitoring for aquatic ecosystems.
Parasitology
Evolutionary relationships among parasites.Ecology of parasites in local amphibians.
Parasite systematics and genetics.
Tropical Biodiversity
Determinants of biodiversity in tropical rainforest communities (freshwater fauna, terrestrial invertebrates and vertebrates).Taxonomy and systematics of rainforest species.
Wildlife Conservation and Management
Effects of vegetation structure and fragmentation on small mammal communities.Classification of tropical wetlands.
Monitoring and survey methodology; environmental impact assessment.
Population studies towards conservation and management of threatened species.
Population genetics of endangered species.
Evolutionary Biology
Ecological, behavioural and genetic influences on geographic variation and natural selection.The function, ecology and evolution of animal colour patterns and vision.