Local animal study on weather adaptability

Having joined Deakin University’s Warrnambool Campus, she is aiming to

find out how local animals are affected by variations in the environment and temperatures.

Dr Bates has already travelled to Canada, New Zealand and Antarctica to study creatures which learn to cope in the most arduous conditions.

She has specialized in researching how animals adapt around hydrothermal vents on mid-ocean ridges, where the ejection of warm fluids can drive the cold, two kilometre-deep seawater temperature from two to 60-degrees Celsius.

The scientist will do some adapting of her own, turning her attention to the Hopkins River and other south-west sites.

“I’m interested in how these animals respond to such extremes and also the impact it has on them from a disease perspective,” Dr Bates said.

“Many creatures survive along steep gradients near vents and we can learn a lot from how they adapt to high environmental variability.

“Vent animals are unique globally in preferring cooler fluids well within their tolerated range, which is probably a safety margin against rapid fluctuations,” she said.

Thus, animals that can anticipate and avoid high-temperature events will likely do better in a warming climate.

In New Zealand and Canada she also investigated mass mortalities of species, including starfish and snails, caused by disease, thought to be driven by rapid increases in temperature.

Now Dr Bates is joining the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin and hopes to use her research to address local problems.

She will investigate how animals are responding to changes in climate and how environmental variability influences the outbreak and severity of disease.