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Friday, 23 May 2008

Scientists working jointly with the University of Adelaide and South Australian Museum have been awarded the lion's share of the Australian Biological Research Study fauna grants for 2008/09.

The ABRS awarded 43% of the grants to academics of both institutions, who work together in the University's Evolutionary Biology Unit within the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The funds will support the documentation of Australia's biological diversity and improve the classification of fauna.

Dr Suzanne Miller, Director of the South Australian Museum, is delighted with the new grants.

"This unprecedented level of funding demonstrates the important contribution the SA Museum and University of Adelaide scientists are making to the documentation of the nation's fauna. Such work is vital to understanding Australia's fragile biodiversity and promoting environmental sustainability," she said.

Scientists have won funding for the following projects:

• Professor Andrew Austin of the University of Adelaide: Systematics, diversity and hosts of Australian scelionid wasps (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae): parasitoids of insect and spider eggs. $31,000 pa

• Steven Cooper and Lauren Hughes (SA Museum), Nick Murphy, (University of Adelaide), Jim Lowry (The Australian Museum): Systematics of Chiltoniidae (Amphipoda: Crustacea) in mound springs and calcrete aquifers of Western and South Australia. $60,000 pa

• Lisa-ann Gershwin of SA Museum: Continuing studies on the taxonomy and biodiversity of Australian jellyfishes. $59,472 pa

• Chris Watts of SA Museum: Systematics of Australian marsh beetles (Scirtidae; Coleoptera; Insecta) $14,571