The key to protecting critically endangered turtles could lie in their barnacles.
While some people think barnacles growing on turtles is bad for them, Griffith University researcher Ryan Pearson said they could actually help protect the turtles, and shift conservation to where it’s needed most.
“The International Union for Conservation of Nature has recently added sea turtle sub-populations to their Red List assessments, allowing us to look into the level of effort versus conservation need in each sub-population for the first time.” he said.
In a new paper published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, the Australian Rivers Institute member has shown that conservation focused studies of isotopes – chemical signals which can identify what an animal has fed on or where it is living – in sea turtles have almost all been done in the lowest priority places around the world. That is, the sub-populations that are not considered threatened.
“This means
Category: Griffith University Feed
Biological threats to be detected by Griffith
Griffith University researchers have developed a system that can quickly detect airborne biological threats.
Professor Igor Agranovski, of the School of Engineering, has developed a system that collects aerosolised micro-organisms and finds the threats, such as fungi spores, viruses and bacteria. Such a system could be crucial to soldiers in the field or post-event investigations.
The researchers won contracts with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) through the Defence Innovation Fund to complete the prototyping of the system. It follows on from Professor Jin Song Dong’s contract in June to develop autonomous underwater vehicles.
Aerosolisation is when a physical substance is converted into particles small and light enough to be suspended and transmitted in the air. That could be through a spray, like and aerosol nebuliser, or through a natural process, like a sneeze or cough.
“I started my research in the area of bioaerosols in the year of 2000 in collaboration with colleagues from the
School of Environment celebrates 40 years of graduating students
Martin Taylor is doing his first mammal survey.
He’s an excited student in Griffith University’s brand new School of Australian Environmental Studies. As part of the environmental studies foundation program – the first in the country for a university – nothing was off limits.
Martin Taylor.
Dr Taylor set his traps in the forest. He had no idea what he would find.
What he discovered was cats and rats.
“That was the first message to me, that while the forest might be there, it’s highly degraded, this was not a natural forest,” he said.
“It was overrun with feral animals.”
It sparked a passion that has inspired the conversation biologist to go on to have an illustrious career stemming from his degree.
Dr Taylor graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Studies in 1977. This year the Griffith School of Environment celebrates graduating its 40th cohort of students.
Back then a career out of environmental science was unheard of. But Dr
Griffith Film School lecturer celebrates release of debut feature
Griffith Film School lecturer Priscilla Cameron is celebrating the Australian release of her debut feature film, The Butterfly Tree, which opened in cinemas this week.
Shot at Mount Tamborine, in the Gold Coast hinterland, and starring Melissa George and Ed Oxenbould, the film has made waves on the international movie scene.
Since its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, the film has been nominated for three Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards. It has also secured theatrical distribution in the US and UK.
“It’s my first feature, and it was done on a fairly low budget, so I’m really happy with the response,” Ms Cameron said.
“Getting selected for Toronto, which is one of the top five, A-list film festivals really put us on the map in terms of US studios and producers.
“It is also great to see the film get a wide theatrical release –
Millennials shunned by state election promises and policies
People under 35 have been largely overlooked during the Queensland state election campaign, according to a Griffith University expert on millennials and youth affairs.
Jerath Head, a research assistant with Griffith’s Policy Innovation Hub and the assistant editor of the Griffith Review, says the key issues that matter to younger voters haven’t received due attention in the lead-up to this weekend’s election.
“If you look at policies, in terms of the campaigns, there’s not really anything that resonates particularly with a lot of young people,” he said.
“A lot of it is directed at regions; there’s hardly any focus on employment and employability for young people.”
“Increasingly, these policies look at employment for older people and don’t necessarily address the specific issues of being younger.”
This sense of younger voters being left behind is not unique to this campaign, Head said; the under-35 demographic has historically been perceived to be treated as an afterthought too.
“Young
Griffith researchers have you covered – umbrellas to protect against dingoes on Fraser Island
The best way to shoo away a dingo might be carrying around an umbrella.
Griffith University researchers have studied the least invasive methods to keep the well-known Australian animal on Fraser Island at bay since spates of incidents from 2001 prompted calls for more effective management interventions.
PhD student Rob Appleby, of Griffith’s Environmental Futures Research Institute and a team of researchers recommend personal repellents such as sprays and carrying umbrellas.
The research, published in Pacific Conservation Biology, details a handful of methods.
Currently only electric fences are used, and although effective, Mr Appleby said this approach could not be applied everywhere.
Mr Appleby said portable electric fences, primarily used in the US for bears and wolves, were an available option but not as common in Australia yet.
Sticks are often used and suggested as a deterrent on the island. However, the paper highlights that among 160 serious dingo incident reports collected by Queensland Parks and
Research conference aims for a healthier Gold Coast
Gold Coast Health clinicians and researchers will partner with academics from Griffith, Bond and Southern Cross universities for a three-day conference aimed at delivering better health outcomes for the Gold Coast through strong research collaborations.
The inaugural Gold Coast Health Research Week Conference kicks off on 27 November with a pre-conference event hosted by the Menzies Health Institute Queensland at Griffith University at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
Across three days, conference attendees will participate in 10 themed sessions ranging in topic from changing service delivery, to building workforce capacity and supporting healthy habits, plus a range of workshops focused on building research capability and a public forum on dementia caregiving and technology.
Gold Coast Health’s Office for Research Governance and Development Acting Director Dr Greta Ridley said the health service had a strong and sustained focus on world class research to deliver improved patient care and health outcomes.
“We’ve developed a wonderful program
Griffith University establishes unique partnership with Microsoft Australia
A new partnership between Griffith University and Microsoft Australia will underscore a transformation of the education experience for students at Griffith.
The forward-looking collaboration, an Australian first, will combine technology and the tertiary sector in the creation of educational programs focused on making university graduates in a digital age future-ready.
Professor Debra Henly, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) and Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia, signed an Education Transformation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formally establish the partnership.
“This is a period of enormous change in tertiary education and in recognising this Griffith University was interested in setting up a partnership that keeps us at the cutting edge in this era of digital learning,” Professor Henly said.
“The challenges in preparing students for the next 40 years are immense. What the job market will look like in the future is inconceivable. Therefore graduates need to be resilient, agile and ready to be immersed in a
New book breaks down gender issues and employment in the 21st century
A new book co-edited by the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing’s Glenda Strachan, foundation member Kaye Broadbent and Geraldine Healy of Queen Mary University of London is shining a new light on the issues of gender and professions in the 21st century.
“The professions in Australia and internationally traditionally encompassed occupations which were male only, so things like medicine and law,” Professor Strachan said.
“We wanted to look at a range of professions in a range of locations and see how women were fairing when working in these professions.”
According to Strachan, the book Gender and the Professions: International and Contemporary Perspectives was prompted by previous research the co-editors was a lack of secure employment within a number of these professions with many relying on contracts or hourly wage.
“For example, the chapter set in Spain on architects shows if they can get a job it’s only on contract and how vulnerable they
Blues Awards celebrate magnificent year for Matildas
Matildas stars Clare Polkinghorne and Tameka Butt have jointly taken out the 2017 Most Outstanding Sporting Achievement at the Griffith Sports Blues Awards.
The Griffith postgraduate students were part of the Australia team that dominated world soccer during the year, defeating traditional powerhouses Brazil and the United States in the process. Tameka proved the game-breaker in the historic first-time triumph over the US with the winning goal.
After completing a Bachelor of Business, Tameka has started a double degree Master of Business/Master of Marketing. Clare completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science (with honours) before embarking on her current studies, a Master of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
“It was a privilege to watch Clare and Tameka on top of their game as part of a Matildas team very much on top of the world game,” Duncan Free OAM, Director of Griffith Sports College, said. “They have done their country and they have done their