Tropical
The tropics is a diverse and developing area straddling the equator, and covering 40 per cent of the Earth's surface. According to the State of the Tropics 2020 report, coordinated by James Cook University, nearly half of the world’s population will live in the tropics by 2050. Challenges faced continue around the condition of built and natural environments, eradicating diseases, and access to quality health care and food – challenges that Queensland’s tropical research sector is helping to address both at home and globally.
Watch our Queensland Science making a difference in the Tropics video to hear about the challenges we’re tackling and why Queensland is one of the best places for tropical research.
Queensland Science making a difference in the Tropics
Queensland Science is making a difference for the Tropics, addressing some of the most pressing challenges faced in a zone which is home to nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population, growing economies, and…
Professor Maxine Whittaker
Dean, Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences
James Cook University (JCU)
The tropics is a substantial part of the world. More than 40 per cent of the world's population live here. We’ve got tremendous biodiversity. A lot of the challenges of the world are felt first in the tropics. So the solutions we have to those problems help the world.
The science we do in Queensland is on issues that affect people living in the tropics. Some of the major concerns are around food security, water security, the impact of climate extremes … upon urban populations. In Queensland, we're inventing, collaborating and contributing at local, national and global levels.
[Caption: Queensland Science making a difference in the tropics]
Distinguished Professor Louis Schofield
Director, Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine
James Cook University (JCU)
Not only are we at the doorstep of tropical diseases in all their forms but we're also in a developed country with a really strong health system and institutions, and a government that’s focused on development of tropical know how.
[Caption: Healthy communities]
Not just for here, but for our neighbours and beyond.
Telehealth has been developed here and used for a number of years. Now it's really taken off. Disease outbreaks certainly test health systems. Our advanced technology is recognised globally. We've shown our ability to respond rapidly, whether it's mathematical modeling of viral pandemics, working collaboratively, to develop urgent solutions. We have attracted some of the best talent in vaccine development.
Significant clinical trials for vaccines against TB and malaria - two of the biggest infectious diseases of humanity - are close.
Prof Paul Burton
Director, Cities Research Institute
Griffith University
And like everywhere, developing resilience of communities is of fundamental importance to us. We have to deal with the pressures and the impacts of a changing climate.
[Caption: Changing climate]
We tend to experience those impacts in a more severe form. That includes sea level rise, extreme weather events and increasingly important, vector borne diseases.
Increasingly, we're talking about coastal cities in the tropics. Queensland is a great place to study climate change because it's all happening in our backyard. Across the region, we're improving our ability to predict the changes. We're finding out what we need to do, working out how best to prepare and adapt to change.
Professor Neena Mitter
Director, Centre for Horticultural Science
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI)
The human population is rapidly expanding and it's a challenge to have enough nutritious food growing and available where it's most needed. In the face of a changing climate we are making crops more resilient, making them more drought and more disease tolerant.
[Caption: Feeding the world]
Helping farmers to be more adaptable to the ever-changing conditions. Harnessing information technology plays another big role. Farmers here and across the Asia Pacific region use our tools to make decisions about when and what to plant. We are helping farmers to produce more food that is healthier with fewer inputs. Getting better results for the food industry, consumers and the environment.
Distinguished Professor Bill Laurance
Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science
James Cook University (JCU)
The tropics are important for a lot of reasons. Without a healthy tropical environment, humanity is going to be in trouble. Tropical rainforests are incredibly important in terms of generating and maintaining the climate that makes our planet livable, that sustains our agriculture and maintaining our cities and our lifestyles.
Here in Queensland,
[Caption: Healthy environment]
The tropical forest contains some of the most biologically important compounds. Queensland is a great place to be a researcher. We're right on the doorstep of some of the most important and imperiled ecosystems on the planet. Queensland researchers are especially well-established in the Asia Pacific region and they really have many important collaborations to come up with a better future. We're trying to make a difference and I think we are.
Professor Ian O’Hara
Director, Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Queensland’s a natural place to establish a bio economy. We’re finding more and more answers for inspiring sustainable enterprises. We're working with native seaweeds to reduce carbon emissions, improve productivity and water quality.
[Caption: Sustainable economies]
Each year there's millions of tons of waste generated but new technologies turning these materials into high value products is really exciting. We're partnering with scientists all around the world who look to Queensland for our leadership in tropical and subtropical science. And we're good to work with.
Neena Mitter
Smarter, innovative science. That's what we, Queenslander’s do. And people across the globe are benefiting.
The Tropics in Queensland
Approximately 50% of Queensland’s landmass is in the tropical zone, covering diverse landscapes of wet and dry tropics, coastal, marine, urban and industrial environments. Science for the tropics, not surprisingly, is one of Queensland key strengths, encompassing health and medicine, environment, food, agriculture and bio-commodities.
Tropical North Queensland boasts incredible natural biodiversity and World Heritage sites that include the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef—the world’s largest and most complex reef system—is one of Queensland’s and the world’s most treasured natural wonders.
The region also supports a significant agricultural sector and a growing aquaculture industry.
The Queensland Government is committed to understanding and addressing the ongoing impacts to the reef from climate change, ocean acidification, coastal development and water quality.
The Australian Government’s Office of Northern Australia is coordinating the implementation of initiatives to secure a strong and sustainable future for northern Australia through the Office of Northern Australia and has also established the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility in Cairns to encourage and complement private sector investment in infrastructure that benefits Northern Australia.
The Australian Government has established the Cooperative Research Centre on Developing Northern Australia(external link) in Townsville. Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton are also home to Regional Manufacturing Hubs encouraging links between industries and universities, and providing opportunities for advanced manufacturing and bringing ideas to reality.
Leading tropical research
Queensland has nine universities including three of Australia’s largest, all of which undertake research for the tropics and with our regional neighbours and beyond.
For example research at the Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy is focused on global solutions for food security including the effects of changing climatic conditions on agricultural productivity. The Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World, part of Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycosmics, has developed a broad-spectrum malaria vaccine, PlasProtecT™, currently in full human clinical trials.
Details of 200 plus research centres in Queensland are available by searching the Queensland science capability directory.
Tropics-based research centres
A number of Queensland’s internationally respected research institutions have based themselves in the tropics. The ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies, based in Townsville, includes the University of Queensland in collaboration with James Cook University (JCU) and other partners to undertake world-best integrated research for sustainable use and management of coral reefs. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) is home to the unique National Sea Simulator marine research aquarium facility for tropical marine organisms in which scientists can conduct cutting-edge research.
JCU is the primary university, with campuses in Cairns, Townsville and Singapore. The Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, one of its leading institutes, is focused on solutions to global and local health threats including two of the biggest killers—TB and malaria; and how to provide access to quality healthcare to regional and remote communities. The Australian Tropical Herbarium not only houses a reference collection, but undertakes research contributing to discovery, documentation and understanding of the flora of tropical Australia and neighbouring regions.
Queensland’s institutes, facilities, precincts, laboratories and other research organisations with connections to the Tropics: