UNE has been awarded funding from the NSW Government’s Environmental Trust for two exciting research projects that will help to better understand, prevent and measure environmental impacts.

A grant of $19,500 has been awarded to Professor Martin Thoms, of Geography and Planning in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, to investigate ecological thresholds and river health in NSW.  This research will take the novel approach of examining fish specimens collected in the past. By measuring their carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, he hopes to establish a series of food webs that will enable comparison of food webs that existed in the past to those in rivers today.

‘Once established, we can investigate the influence of a range of environmental disturbances, like drought, on our river systems,’ Professor Thoms said.  His approach is based on cutting edge, collaborative research which is currently examining rivers in the United States and which will create a ‘timeline’ of river health.

A grant of $19,160 has also been awarded to research the role National Parks currently play in carbon storage and also where carbon storage in National Parks can be enhanced to contribute to mitigation. The project will be undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) by Associate Professor Brian Wilson and Dr Lalit Kumar of the School of Environmental and Rural Sciences.

Using existing spatial data, this project aims to estimate current carbon stocks (soil and vegetation), to delineate areas where land is suitable for management to enhance carbon storage, and to provide a “first approximation” of carbon storage potential across NSW National Parks. This will also provide a conceptual and practical framework for a more extensive and refined carbon inventory.

Associate Professor Wilson said that, to date, much of the attention relating to carbon sequestration has been focused on the agricultural and forestry sectors but National Parks are an extensive, publicly owned asset that has the potential to sequester large quantities of carbon in soils and vegetation. They might therefore offer a number of effective strategies for carbon storage, consistent with biodiversity conservation, that have been somewhat overlooked to date and for which information is largely lacking.

In announcing the approval of the seeding grants, the NSW Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker, said they were ‘for innovative research to test creative ideas that might lead to significant breakthroughs in managing our natural environment’ and could be used to test a theory or concept that may be used for a larger research project in the future. She added that the research would also ‘tell us where to concentrate rehabilitation efforts to ensure environmental health.’

UNE was a major beneficiary of $4.8 million in Commonwealth funding for a major project to benefit rural health just announced.

The funding, which will be administered by UNE, makes a substantial contribution to a $7 million rural mental health project. It is part of a total of $61.5 million in Collaborative Research Network (CRN) funding announced by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator the Hon Kim Carr.

The Collaborative Research Network for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Rural Regions will be led by the University of New England, which will work with five partners – Universities of NSW, Sydney, Newcastle, and La Trobe, and Hunter New England Area Health Service – to expand rural health strengths, and feed into the education of thousands of health professionals and better rural mental health services. CRN activities will build links with rural communities and health providers in NSW and Victoria, with a focus on investigating and improving mental health and wellbeing.

UNE Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Annabelle Duncan celebrated the awarding of CRN funding as a win for the University and for rural communities.

“This is a significant recognition of UNE and its partner institutions as having a major research strength in rural health”, Professor Duncan said.

“More importantly, it gives us and our partners a big leg up in delivering better health through research and extension activities. This will mean better health outcomes across a range of areas, and with a particular focus on rural mental health – a public health issue of great significance in our rural communities”.

Studies find that people living in rural regions and remote areas tend to be in poorer health than those in urban areas. There is excessive mortality in rural areas related to mental health disorders, and differences in morbidity rates are linked to access to services and quality of life for those suffering from mental health disorders.

“This funding gives us the capacity to link experts in a range of areas and to build on the collective strengths of a range of institutions through collaboration”, Professor Duncan said. “The whole research and innovation system will benefit”.

For further information contact

Professor Annabelle Duncan 02 6773 5050

David Ayres 0429 556 882