Skip to main content
Environmental change


Changing climatic conditions, alterations to the environment due to urban and agricultural expansion, and ever-increasing human pressures on the landscape have impacted Australian agriculture and fisheries, as well as coastal ecosystems.

Research of the fragile and ancient Australian landscape, particularly the identification of what controls bedrock erosion, sediment generation, transport and storage, river incursion, and soil production, is vital for its preservation.

Landscape changes in the Australian coastal, semi-arid and arid zones and their impact on Australian ecosystems are addressed using different geochronological and geo-isotopic tools. These methods can measure geomorphic processes that span a few million years to more recent times. 

New methods being developed at ANSTO using the long and short lived radioisotopes are used to study the impact of past extreme events, coastal escarpments ad shore platforms.