About the Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna research cluster | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

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About the Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna research cluster

High-quality, innovative research that addresses key global conservation issues.

Why this Cluster exists 

Working on megafauna presents a broad range of challenges, especially regarding the habitats in which they are living. This includes access to animals, tracking, tagging, funding, ethics, permitting, and outreach. This cluster exists to bring people together to support a cross-collaboration of methodologies, skills, and disciplines to help manage and overcome these challenges.

This UniSC cluster is well placed to tackle these challenges, being home to an impressive group of megafauna researchers who are engaged in and leading local, national and international collaborations.

The formation of the Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster facilitates an innovative approach to team development, mentorship opportunities, leadership structures and joint funding initiatives. The research conducted by the cluster will further increase UniSC’s increasing reputation in marine and terrestrial science and directly build on our strengths in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14. Life below water, 15. Life on Land, and 13. Climate Action.

The streamlining of these initiatives will also promote new and exciting opportunities for prospective undergraduate and post-graduate students to join our award-winning team of researchers.

Genetics testing a manta ray

Our work

The Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster are currently undertaking a range of biological and ecological research programs on the following species: 

 

Marine

Cetaceans (dolphins, whales), Sirenians (dugongs), Elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, chimaeras), Teleosts (fish), Marine reptiles (turtles, sea snakes) and Aves (seabirds).

Terrestrial

Marsupials (kangaroos, koalas, quolls, possums, gliders, dasyurids), Reptiles (lizards, snakes), Aves (birds) and Placental Mammals (bats, sunbears).

 

Below are just some of the projects our team are currently involved in:

Bear - Koala Detection Dog
Detection Dogs for Conservation (DDC)

Globally recognised for facilitating non-invasive measures to protect endangered koalas and quolls.

Leaf to Reef Project

Leaf to Reef project examines the resilience of coral reef systems. The Lady Island a revegetation project is providing insights to help us understand how the revegetation impacts the in a downstream in a new, whole eco-system approach.

Dr Kathy Townsend researching manta ray populations at Lady Elliot Island.
Project Manta

Based at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Project Manta is bringing together scientists, industry partners and the geneal public to establish important baseline data of manta rays and their relatives, to aid in their conservation.

SEQ Eastern grey kangaroo conservation project

Since 2014 we have worked closely with local governments and the community to understand the impacts of urbanisation on the iconic eastern grey kangaroo. The project aims to inform sustainable management of declining populations of kangaroos in Southeast Queensland.

Our impact

The Marine and Terrestrial Megafauna Cluster achieves the UniSC strategic goals in generating short- and long-term benefits, including: 

Raising the profile of animal science

Through our research and engagement outputs, we highlight animal science to the broader community, attract new students to UniSC, and contribute to increasing student enrolments. As a school-based centre, our members undertaking the research are the same lecturers teaching our students. This connection facilitates a greater richer student experience by being part of our real-world research and participate in job-readiness by providing applied skills.

Research Impact

Our cluster members make a difference to our local, national, and international communities as we undertake research that is strategically aligned, regionally beneficial and globally impactful. Through our collaborations and leadership, we will further improve UniSC’s overall ERA performance and already considerable strengths in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including 13. Climate Action, 14. Life below water, and 15. Life on Land.

Engagement

Members of our Cluster have some of the largest engagement portfolios across UniSC, with a strong citizen science component. We will continue to drive growth in prosperity and human potential in our communities by further building on our powerful industry, government, regional and global partnerships. This will lead to improved regional impact and improved performance for Times Higher Education’s university global impact assessment.

People and Culture

The cluster will further build on UniSC’s reputation as an emerging powerhouse in the Australian marine and terrestrial science community. This is resulting in the university increasingly becoming a workplace of choice: attracting national and international HDR’s, ECR’s, and established researchers to UniSC. Our management structure is designed to foster a positive organisational culture through distributed leadership and explicit focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. The cluster will bring together a highly skilled and engaged workforce by nurturing existing members and attracting new talent to continuously build leadership, inclusiveness, capacity, and impact.

Exciting things on the horizon:
  • Turtle Rehabilitation and Research Facility, Fraser Coast – dedicated to advancing our understanding of marine animal strandings, including anthropogenic impacts on their health. The facility will provide critical information to marine park managers and traditional owners to enhance the survival chances of local marine life in the Fraser Coast region.
  • Unravelling Cryptic Bull Shark Ecology – dedicated to understanding nearshore human-shark interaction risks, critical for informing contemporary shark control programs on Australia’s east coast.
  • Dolphins as Marine Bioindicators – focusing on anthropogenic impacts, and how dolphin health reflects habitat quality in a climate change hotspot.
  • Biomechanics in the Field – using accelerometers and machine learning to study the behaviour of terrestrial and marine animals in their natural habitat.
  • Bats of K’gari – combing bioacoustics and ecophysiology to reveal how the bats of K’gari respond to environmental changes such as increases in tourism and a changing fire regime.
  • Urban bats – quantifying the impact of habitat degradation and pollution (particularly resulting from urbanisation) on physiological and immunological traits of bats, and if they contribute to increased viral shedding.

In the news

UniSC secures grants to research iconic species across Queensland

From grey nurse sharks in Moreton Bay and birds of prey on K’gari to manta rays off Cairns and sawfish in Cape York – UniSC has gained new funding for research and citizen science projects to help protect some of the state’s most iconic and threatened species.

Seaweed consumption among young Australians

Young Australians are increasingly turning to seaweed for its flavour, nutrient content, and health benefits, despite facing barriers to buying it. These are the findings from a study about factors influencing the consumption of seaweed by PhD candidate Mikaela Young.

Sustainable fishing research hooks government funding

A researcher from USC Australia using cutting-edge data science to help boost the sustainability of fisheries worldwide has been awarded a major government grant to further her work.