Technology that could rehabilitate mine waste back to useful soil is entering full-scale trials at two Queensland refineries.

Researchers at The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) developed the bio-engineering technology in partnership with Rio Tinto and Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL).

SMI Professor Longbin Huang said the process would transform the bauxite residue known as ‘red mud’ into a soil-like material capable of hosting plant life.

“The team has secured more than $3 million in funding from Rio Tinto and QAL that will allow us to  trial the technology at an operational scale at two red mud sites,” Professor Huang said.

“This project demonstrates how transformative industry-academia partnerships can be – Rio Tinto and QAL have supported the research for the past eight years, from proof of concept to full field trials.”

There are more than four billion tonnes of red mud stored in dams around the world, with Australia the second largest producer of the mineral waste by-product of alumina refining.

“The salinity and alkalinity associated with the minerals in red mud means rehabilitation can be challenging,” Professor Huang said.

“The process we have developed is game changing as it involves eco-engineering the mineral and organic constituents of the red mud into material that is more hospitable to plant life.

“It is a more sustainable and cost-effective way of managing red mud compared to traditional methods, which require companies to excavate and transport metres of topsoil from other locations to cover thousands of hectares of waste.”

QAL Environment and Tailings Manager Trent Scherer said the team was excited to see the project moving to a full-scale trial.

“After years of watching various trials unfold within our daily work environment, to now be able to see the tangible outcomes of UQ’s work has been encouraging,” Mr Scherer said.

“QAL is committed to minimising our environmental footprint through our $440 million 5-Year Environmental Strategy, and the funding and resources provided to this project are further steps in that journey.”

Media: Connor Pound, c.pound@uq.edu.au, +61 (0)447 812 081.

Increasing reforestation efforts in coastal regions could substantially reduce the amount of sediment run-off reaching coral reefs and improve their resilience, a University of Queensland-led study has found.

The study analysed more than 5,500 coastal areas from around the world and found that nearly 85 per cent of them leached sediment to coral reefs, the second most serious threat facing the world’s reefs behind climate change.

Dr Andrés Suárez-Castro from UQ’s Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science said it was important to address the issue of sediment runoff if efforts to reduce the human impact on reefs were to be successful.

“Increased sedimentation can cause aquatic ecosystems to be more sensitive to heat stress, which decreases the resilience of corals to pressures caused by climate change,” Dr Suárez-Castro said.

“If the link between the land and sea is not recognised and managed separately, any future efforts to conserve marine habitats and species are likely to be ineffective.”

Excess sediment runoff from land clearing and agrichemical pollution along coastlines can increase sediment transport to coastal waters.

Dr Suárez-Castro said one of the impacts of sediment runoff on coral reefs is a massive reduction in light levels that were key for coral and sea grass growth and reproduction.

One solution proposed by Dr Suárez-Castro and his team is for countries to commit to land and forest restoration in coastal regions, which will help reduce the amount of sediment runoff.

“Reforestation is hugely important as it maintains the stability of soils that are vital in limiting erosion risk – it also helps to trap more sediments and prevent them from reaching aquatic systems,” he said.

“Building coral resilience through reducing sediment and pollution is also key to improving a coral reef’s potential for recovery.

“If land management to reduce sediment runoff does not become a global priority, it will become increasingly challenging, if not impossible, to protect marine ecosystems in the face of climate change.”

The researchers said that while the benefits of land restoration activities were clear, it would be a challenge to get countries and governments to commit to restoration activities.

“It’s encouraging to see many countries with high coral diversity committing large areas to land restoration, however the cost of reforestation, as well as political and social barriers may make it difficult to achieve these ambitious goals,” Dr Suárez-Castro said.

“If an average of 1000 hectares of forest was restored per coastal basin, land-based sediments reaching coral reefs could be cut by an average of 8.5 per cent among 63,000 square kilometres of reefs.”

Dr Suárez-Castro and his team hope that local authorities can use their results to identify areas where reforestation can have the highest benefit on coral reefs.

“Our approach can be adapted with local data to identify optimal actions for preserving ‘win-wins’ for multiple ecosystems spanning the land and sea,” Dr Suárez-Castro said.

“Several global initiatives such as the Paris Climate Agreement are bringing forest restoration to the forefront of global conservation discussions and our hope is that our study can facilitate more informed and educated conversations around the importance of a more integrated land-sea approach.”

The research has been published in Global Change Biology (DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15811).

Media: Dr Andrés Suárez-Castro, a.suarezcastro@uq.edu.au, +61 444 532 654; Faculty of Science Media, science.media@uq.edu.au, +61 3365 4043.

All of the world’s shallow coral reefs have been digitally mapped, thanks to a three-year project combining two million satellite images, enormous amounts of field data and University of Queensland-developed mapping techniques.

The Allen Coral Atlas project has officially launched its high-resolution maps of the world’s reefs which, together with the Atlas’s coral monitoring tool launched in May, will revolutionise reef management.

The project is an international research collaboration led by Arizona State University in partnership with UQ, Planet Ltd, National Geographic and Vulcan Inc.

UQ’s Remote Sensing Research Centre researcher Dr Chris Roelfsema said the digital atlas is a comprehensive and continually updated tool, perfect for scientists, policy makers and planners.

“To manage environmental assets like the world’s reefs, you need to know what’s happening at any given time,” Dr Roelfsema said.

“The Allen Coral Atlas provides maps that accurately describe the composition and extent of our reefs globally, and at a level of detail not seen before.

“These maps are connecting people with the data they need to save our reefs – it’s momentous.”

The Allen Coral Atlas, now available online, has been a global effort with UQ scientists playing the leading role in gathering verification data, developing and implementing the mapping approach for the world’s coral reefs.

“The verification and mapping approaches we’ve developed are based on 20 years of experience UQ has in combining reef knowledge, field data and earth observation processes to map and monitor coral reefs,” Dr Roelfsema said.

“This work combined 450 field data sets from global collaborators with machine learning and automated contextual-editing approaches, which helps us achieve the highest spatial and thematic resolution of coral reefs anyone has ever seen.”

The data is needed now more than ever, with models predicting 70 to 90 per cent of coral reefs will be lost by 2050, because of warming, polluted and acidic oceans.

Professor Greg Asner, Director of Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and Managing Director of the Atlas project, said he was thrilled to announce the platform.

“It is a gratifying milestone after years of dedicated non-stop teamwork to bring this global map to fruition,” Dr Asner said.

“But the true value of the work will come when coral conservationists are able to better protect coral reefs based on the high-resolution maps and monitoring system.

“We must double down and use this tool as we work to save coral reefs from the impacts of our climate crisis and other threats.”

The Allen Coral Atlas is named for the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, and founder of Vulcan Inc.

The official collaborative press-release for the Allen Coral Atlas, along with images, video and other digital assets is available here.

A history of UQ’s involvement in the project is available here.

The University of Queensland has climbed to its best global position yet in the respected Times Higher Education University World Rankings.

UQ jumped eight places from last year’s ranking to sit at equal 54^th in the world, and moved up to equal second place in Australia.

Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry said the result was exceptional given the intensely competitive higher education environment along with the pressures associated with a pandemic.

“To enhance our standing on a global stage is exciting and reflects the commitment of our exceptional academic, research and professional staff,” Professor Terry said.

“We continue to face the current challenges head on while maintaining our focus on high impact research and cultivating the critical thinking capabilities of our students to help them become the experts of tomorrow.”

The University improved in the key performance indicators – teaching, research, international outlook and industry income – with the latter achieving the largest increase from a score of 81.0 to 86.2.

Professor Terry said the result sent a clear message to Australia and around the world that UQ pursued ambitious industry partners looking to innovate.

“Strong collaboration is at the heart of UQ’s research efforts,” Professor Terry said.

“This is highlighted by the number of UQ projects funded under the ARC Linkage Projects scheme which support collaborative research that genuinely make a difference.

“UQ was also one of the first universities to establish a commercialisation arm – UniQuest ­is now Australia’s leading technology transfer company.”

Media: UQ Communications, communications@uq.edu.au, 07 3346 7890.

A little more than twenty years ago, eliminating cervical cancer would have seemed an impossible dream, but now the achievable goal of halting the disease worldwide is the focus of a feature documentary film.

Conquering Cancer stars cervical cancer pioneer Professor Ian Frazer, who co-developed the life-saving Gardasil vaccine with UQ colleague, the late Dr Jian Zhou.

“The film spreads the message that cervical cancer is a curable disease which women around the world still suffer from,” Professor Frazer said.

“It’s been filmed to portray an accurate and honest point of view, but it’s also a platform to launch people into action.

“What can we do to save the lives of an estimated 62 million women around the world?”

The tagline to Conquering Cancer is ‘The fight to eliminate cervical cancer – everywhere’, and presents perspectives from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.

One of the most powerful voices belongs to Zambian Ministry of Health Assistant Director (Cancer) Dr Sharon Kapambwe.

“Conquering cancer means a world where women are empowered to do other things, not succumbing to a disease,” Dr Kapambwe said.

“They are able to give their full potential to their families and nation.”

Others in the film reflect on how hearing the words ‘cervical cancer’ previously formed an automatic equivalency with the word ‘death’ in their mind, but that no longer needs be the case.

Among the stories featured in Conquering Cancer is that of Australian woman Kirsty Browne, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer at age 26.

She became one of the first Australian women to deliver a baby after having her cervix removed.

The Queensland premiere screening of Conquering Cancer will take place at Elizabeth Street Picture Theatre in Brisbane on Wednesday 1 September at 6.45pm.

A limited number of tickets to the premiere are still available, with $5 from each ticket going to the Translational Research Institute (TRI) Foundation.

Professor Frazer is Ambassador and Chair to the TRI Foundation, as well as holding affiliations with UQ Faculty of Medicine, UQ Diamantina Institute and the Institute for Molecular Biosciences.

Professor Frazer is one of the executive producers of Conquering Cancer, which is directed by Mike Hill, hosted by Sue Collins and produced by Australian-based Moonshine Agency.

A preview trailer of the documentary is available on YouTube.

Image above: film crew shooting overlay with Professor Ian Frazer in a lab.

Media: Shelley Templeman, UQ Communications, s.templeman@uq.edu.au, 07 3443 8042.