Our projects

Our projects

The main activity of the Species Spectrum Research Centre will be to support working groups undertaking research across a wide range of organisms and phenomena, including brain structure, microbial function, mimicry and crypsis, coral biology and ant perception and navigation. Each working group will consist of Macquarie researchers, ECRS and HDRs and selected domestic and international visitors.

Species Spectrum Research Centre funded working groups in 2018:

Hotspotting complex lifecycles: the juvenile enigma of metamorphosing animals

Working group membership:

Matthew Bulbert (MQ), Martin Whiting (MQ); Lynne Beaty (Trent University Canada), Bibiana Rojas (University of Jyväskylä, Finland); Matthew Symonds (La Trobe University); Ian Wright (MQ); Linda Beaumont (MQ); Josh Madin (MQ, University Hawaii)

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2019

Working group status:

  • Data collection, preliminary analysis and hypothesis testing.

Working group outputs:

  • Database compilation in progress.
  • Pilot study on tadpole ratio of tail depth to tail muscle relative to water flow characteristics completed.

Ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea via measurable traits

Working group membership:

Mark Westoby, Michael Gillings, Josh Madin, Ian Paulsen, Sasha Tetu, Jemma Geoghegan. Assistance from Lisa Moore, Daniel Nielsen.

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2020

Working group status:

  • Data collection, analysis and hypothesis testing.

Working group outputs:

  • Weekly working group meetings to work through concepts and generate testable hypotheses
  • A bacterial trait database (derived from working group 'Network for ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea') is being explored to further develop hypotheses and relating these to the existing literature
  • Organising a workshop to be held at Macquarie University, 12-16 November, including all members

An investigation of the relationship between brain size and urban adaptation

Working group membership:

Lizzy Lowe, Alex Carthey, Alessandro Ossola, Ajay Narendra, Chris Reid, Jannis Liedtke

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2019

Working group status:

  • Data generation and collection, preliminary analysis and hypothesis testing.

Working group outputs:

  • Developing a protocol of fixing, staining and scanning spider brains
  • Database compilation in progress
  • Parallel collaborative research directions stimulated, including effect of sociality on spider brain size and investigating whether brain size is a constraint of the evolution of ant mimicry. Proposal submitted to run a workshop at the International Congress of Arachnology (Feb 2019) entitled “Spider trait network: opportunities for a global collaboration to address broad scale ecological and evolutionary questions”.

General rules for protected area design: using species traits to ensure protected area ‘adequacy’

Working group membership:

  • Conservation planning representatives: Vanessa Adams (MQ), Hugh Possingham (TNC)
  • Plant trait representatives: Rachael Gallagher (MQ), Will Cornwell (UNSW), James Camac (uni Melb)
  • Bird trait representatives: Simon Griffith (MQ), Daisy Englert Duursma (MQ), Micha Jackson (UQ)
  • Bat trait representatives: April Reside (UQ), Caragh Threfall (Uni Melb), Pia Lentini (Uni Melb)

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2020

Working group status:

  • Data collection, preliminary analysis and hypothesis testing

Working group outputs:

  • Near-finished database including datasets: 1) traits (completed); 2) distribution/range map currently being compiled (estimated to contain 12,000+ range maps).
  • Organising a workshop to be held at Macquarie University, late 2018

Pipilika: Ant database to identify the relationship of metabolic rate with activity time

Working group membership:

Ajay Narendra; Ravindra Palavalli Nettimi; Fleur Ponton; Drew Allen; Joshua Madin (MQU); Nigel Andrew (UNE), Heloise Gibb (La Trobe); Marc Seid (Scranton University, USA).

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2019

Working group status:

  • Data generation and collection (final testing phase of respirometer), preliminary analysis and hypothesis testing

Working group outputs:

  • Database compilation in progress
  • Manuscript:
    • Sheehan Z, Kamhi JF, Seid MA and Narendra A. Differential investment in brain regions for a diurnal and nocturnal lifestyle in Australian Myrmecia ants. Journal of Comparative Neurology.

Toward a traits based approach for groundwater biomonitoring

Working group membership:

  • Macquarie University: A/Prof Grant Hose, Dr Kathryn Korbel, Dr Anthony Chariton
  • International; Dr Christian Griebler (Helmhotz Centre, Munich, Prof Anne Robertson (Roehamptonb University, UK), Dr Florian Malard (Univ Lyon, France), Prof Diana Galassi (L’Aquila Univ, Italy), Dr Tiziana Di Lorenzo (ISE CNR, Italy), Dr Sofia Riboliera, (Natural History Museum of Denmark).

Working group commencement date:

June 2018

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2019

Working group status:

  • Working collaboratively on defining opportunities and challenges around concepts and generating testable hypotheses

Working group outputs:

  • 2-day workshop held in Aviero Portugal, preceding the 24th International conference on subterranean biology. The workshop was attended by 12 delegates from 6 countries.
  • A manuscript is in draft discussing the potential possibilities and challenges of the use of invertebrate and microbial traits in groundwater communities.

Species Spectrum Research Centre funded working groups in 2017:

Pipilika: Ant database to identify the relationship of metabolic rate with activity time

Working group membership:

Ajay Narendra; Ravindra Palavalli Nettimi; Fleur Ponton; Drew Allen; Joshua Madin (MQU); Nigel Andrew (UNE), Heloise Gibb (La Trobe); Marc Seid (Scranton University, USA).

Working group commencement date:

June 2017

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2018

Working group status:

  • Completion of companion project 'changes associated with activity time (diurnal and nocturnal animals), by investigating neural changes/adaptations'.

Working group outputs:

Working group conference outputs:

  • 2018. Sheehan Z, Kamhi J, Narendra A. Light and the brain: what drives neural investment in bull ant. International Conference of Neuroethology. Brisbane
  • 2018. Seid MA, Narendra A. Brain allometry and the evolution and behavioral ecology of Myrmecia. International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Brazil
  • 2018. Narendra A. Action in dim light: sensory and neural adaptations in nocturnal ants. International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Brazil

Working group publication outputs:

  • Sheehan Z, Kamhi JF, Seid MA, Narendra A (revisions). Differential investment in brain regions for a diurnal and nocturnal lifestyle in Australian Myrmecia ants. Journal of Comparative Neurology.
  • Seid MA, Narendra A. Brain allometry in ants. (in preparation)
  • Zachary Sheehan awarded a Masters degree in 2017 from MQU for the project: 'Brain neuroarchitecture in diurnal and nocturnal ants'.

Mapping behavioural ecology across the species spectrum

Working group membership:

Alex Carthey, Mariella Herberstein, Mark Westoby, Drew Allen, Simon Griffith, Martin Whiting, Matt Bulbert, Josh Madin, Dan Falster, Ian Wright

Working group commencement date:

June 2017

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2020

Working group status:

  • Data collection, preliminary analysis and hypothesis testing.

Working group outputs:

  • Near-finished data base with a total of 2532 observations from 193 sources, covering:
    • 4 phyla: Chordata, Arthropoda, Annelida, Mollusca
    • 9 classes: Amphibia, Arachnida, Aves, Insecta, Malacostraca, Mammalia, Reptilia, Clitellata, Gastropoda
    • 85 orders
    • 327 families
    • 945 genera
    • 1521 species

Network for ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea

Working group membership:

Michael Gillings, Ian Paulsen, Sasha Tetu, Mark Westoby, Jemma Geoghegan, Josh Madin

Working group commencement date:

June 2017

Working group proposed completion date:

June 2018

Working group status:

  • Transitioned into the 2018-supported working group ‘Ecological strategies across bacteria and archaea via measurable traits’

Working group outputs:

  • Weekly working group meetings to workshop concepts and generate testable hypotheses
  • A bacterial trait database has been created from multiple existing data sources
  • Submission of an ARC Discovery (Westoby and Gillings + Madin, Fierer and Litchman)
Back to the top of this page