Student Research Topics

• Root nodulation, mycorrhizal associations and plant growth in mined environments

• Effects of water, air and soil pollution on flora and fauna

• Seedbank studies - regeneration potential of desirable species and weeds

• Seed biology and establishment of plants associated with Brigalow communities

• Establishment of riparian vegetation in erratic rainfall environments - ecological limits for riparian species

• Increasing species diversity in rehabilitation areas – manipulating the balance between trees, shrubs, forbs and grasses.

• Weed management - Site surveys, literature review and Climate modelling

• Sustainable grazing on rehabilitated sites (intensities, practicalities, native grasses etc.)

• Functional analysis of rehabilitated environments – setting criteria and improving ecosystem functions

Contacts:

Peter Erskine, David Doley, Laurence Rossato & Melina Gillespie

• Plants and metal toxicity: Responses and tolerance of Australian native species to heavy metals

• Assessing the germination potential of Australian native plant species on metalliferous mine wastes

• Screening Australia's plant biodiversity for heavy metal excluders

• Phytostabilisation of landscapes contaminated with heavy metals

• Remediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals using Australian plant biodiversity and synthetic materials

• Establishment of a spatial metallophyte database covering Australia and New Caledonia

Contacts:

Laurence Rossato, David Doley Melina Gillespie & Alex Pudmenzky

• Root adaptive strategy and molecular mechanisms in heavy metal tolerance

• Beneficial interactions among multiple plant species for combating multiple stresses in mined land

• Database development of stress tolerance  in plant species in relation to mined land rehabilitation

• Identification of new bioaccumulator/hyperaccumulators of exotic and native species for land remediation

• Foliar surface reactions and leaf metabolism of particulate pollutants in the sorroundings of emission sources

• Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in seed and grains and impacts on wildlife and stock animal health

Contacts:

• Soil/Plant nutrient relations - A glasshouse study

• Soil/Plant water relations and vegetation water use - field studies/modelling (using local and average climate data, riparian vs. upland species)

• Glasshouse study on Acacia harpophylla and mine spoils under differing water regimes

• Nutrient uptake and transport strategies of native species in soils with physical-chemical constraints from mining activities

• Root colonisation of multispecies in the profile of remade land for sustainable physiological functions of aboveground in relation to the distribution of physical-chemical constraints.

• Root growth requirements in tailing media

Contacts:

  Rehabilitation Strategies

• Restauration of carbon sequestration capacity of mined land - a benchmark for assessing the success of revegetation

• Soil carbon cycling in the brigalow bioregion – the effect of land clearing and land use change (pdf)

• Developments of guidelines for rehabilitating mined land for botanical parks in densly populated regions of developing countries

Contacts:

• Compaction and species establishment success

• Compaction and stability of managed landforms

• Understanding parameters affecting erosion

• Quantification and off-site transport of eroded material (space-time)

• Biosolids as a mulching agent – effect on subsurface hydrology and chemistry

• Assessment and management of salinity problems in the oil industry

• Salinity and its effect on mechanical properties of substrates

• Heavy metal remediation from soils

• Chemical speciation of solid wastes using conventional and synchrotron based X-ray techniques

• Risk based contaminant assessment of mined land using integrated health and environmetal approaches

Contacts:

• Leaching tests as a possibility to detect and understand environmental problems

• Geochemical and hydraulic characterisation of ash material and development of methods and strategies for rehabilitation

• Acid mine drainage (hydrology, geochemistry, remediation)

• Application of hydro-geochemical modeling techniques to the study of mine-related pollution    

• Source, mobility and bioavailability of heavy metals and arsenic in mine environment 

• Salinity issues in coal mining and petroleum industry

• Natural attenuation of contaminant in abandoned mines

• Application of tracers in contaminant sources studies

• Mine related sediments and stream pollution

• Contaminant pathway studies from mine sites

• Environmental management of cyanide at gold mines

• Effects of contaminants from mining on biota

Contacts:

• Mining noise characterisation and separation using computational methods

• Image processing for environmental applications

• Remote sensing for vegetation assessment and classification

• Measuring rehabilitation success via image analysis

• Automated solutions for environmental laboratory measurements using PC interfaces

• Environmental scenario planning software tool

• Modelling effects of atmospheric pollutants on crops and vegetation

Contacts: