Tag Archive: Australian Research Council

How my CLEX Undergraduate Scholarship set me up for success

September 22, 2021 8:49 am Published by Comments Off on How my CLEX Undergraduate Scholarship set me up for success

Mathilde Ritman describes her journey as a second-year undergraduate student into a CLEX research project with Linden Ashcroft. It led to a publication, a massive learning curve in coding, stints with the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO, and opened a path to a career in climate science.

Research brief: Groundwater’s essential role in preserving plant transpiration during drought

September 17, 2021 11:13 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Groundwater’s essential role in preserving plant transpiration during drought

CLEX researchers and colleagues used a land-surface model that considered groundwater dynamics to explain how groundwater sustains transpiration and eases plant heat pressure during the heatwaves that occurred during the Millennium Drought and the 2017-2019 severe drought over southeast Australia.

Australian bushfires spawn massive phytoplankton bloom

September 16, 2021 8:26 am Published by Comments Off on Australian bushfires spawn massive phytoplankton bloom

The Australian bushfires of the 2019/2020 summer had far-reaching effects. It has now been revealed in new research published in Nature that the smoke produced a phytoplankton bloom larger in area than all of Australia, thousands of kilometres away in the Southern Ocean between New Zealand and South America.

Research brief: Sunny days power shallow Marine heatwaves

September 9, 2021 12:41 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Sunny days power shallow Marine heatwaves

Coral bleaching events have been reported over the Great Barrier Reef during La Niña events and the neutral phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, when large-scale sea-surface temperatures may be cooler than normal. How does this occur?

Research brief: How Arctic primary production will alter with climate change

September 8, 2021 4:42 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How Arctic primary production will alter with climate change

Predicting how much primary production will further increase in the Arctic Ocean in coming decades depends on the interplay between the increase in light for primary producers, as the sea ice extent and thickness decrease, and the availability of food in the form of nutrients, such as nitrate, phosphate, and silica.

Research brief: Climate change to cost Pacific tuna fisheries millions

September 8, 2021 4:09 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Climate change to cost Pacific tuna fisheries millions

Using model simulations of the movement of tuna distributions across the tropical Pacific subject to projected ocean changes, the researchers found that without strong mitigation efforts, tuna distributions are likely to shift away from island fishing zones.

IPCC AR6 Working Group 1 report: conclusions on the evolving risk of drought

September 7, 2021 3:58 pm Published by Comments Off on IPCC AR6 Working Group 1 report: conclusions on the evolving risk of drought

Drought is a major risk to Australia with extended periods of drought affecting our social, economic and environmental systems. The newly released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contains significant new assessments of the science and future projections of drought.

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: What does it mean for Tasmania?

September 7, 2021 12:17 pm Published by Comments Off on The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: What does it mean for Tasmania?

To better understand the implications of the latest climate science for Tasmania, this brief combines information from the IPCC AR6 WG1 report, with regional assessments that contributed to the UTAS Blueprint for a climate-positive Tasmania, and expertise from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX). The regional information is based on Tasmania-specific downscaled modelling undertaken by Climate Futures for Tasmania. 

Research brief: Why Melbourne’s worst storms come in lines

September 3, 2021 8:51 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Why Melbourne’s worst storms come in lines

It has long been suggested in the literature, and discussed casually by meteorologists, that rainfall in Melbourne often occurs as lines of precipitation. However, this had yet to be quantified. CLEX researchers analysed 15 years of radar data from the Australian Radar Archive, using an objective method to identify and track these ‘linear systems’ based on radar reflectivity, size, and shape characteristics.