Introduction
Program
Presenters
Public Forum
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Dr Aurelie Moya
Yui SatoDNA reveals the past and future of coral reefs
New DNA techniques are being used to understand how coral reacted to the end of the last ice age in order to better predict how they will cope with current changes to the climate. James Cook Univer
From 2005 to 2022, the main node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies was headquartered at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland (Australia)
UPDATE: Videos of the presentations are available!
You can watch all videos in the viewer on the top right corner of this page, or select individual videos from the Youtube playlist here.
A symposium presenting the latest research, management and policy developments in coral reef systems in Australia, our region, and globally will be held at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle on 20th and 21st October 2011. The Fremantle symposium will incorporate presentations by members of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and other leading scientists and provide an insight into the future of these iconic ecosystems.
Like Queensland, Western Australia (WA) has extensive coral reefs which are of major importance to the state. Uniquely, the coral reefs of Western Australia occur over an extremely large latitudinal gradient of several thousand kilometres, from the tidally-dominated tropical reefs of the Kimberley region to the temperate sub-tropical reefs of the Houtman-Abrolhos Islands and marginal reefs offshore from Perth. The fringing reef systems along the mainly desert coastline of WA are still relatively undisturbed from land-based sources of pollution. However, they are subject to the combined impacts of global warming and ocean acidification caused by rising levels of atmospheric CO2.
The Ningaloo Reef of WA is a key study site to investigate these processes. It is Australia’s largest fringing reef system, has exceptionally high coral cover, and stretches for ~290 km along the desolate northwest coast. Nominated for World heritage listing in January 2010 the Ningaloo coast represents an area of outstanding biodiversity. Coral reef biodiversity underpins the critically important functions and services performed by reef ecosystems, such as sustaining the productivity of fish stocks on which many tropical nations depend for their food security and future development. The latest science on understanding and managing coral reef biodiversity will be a feature of the symposium program.
The coral reefs of Australia, particularly Ningaloo Reef, the Great Barrier Reef and Lord Howe Island World Heritage Area are Australian national icons, of great economic, social, and aesthetic value to this country. Tourism on the Great Barrier Reef alone contributes approximately $5 billion annually to the nation’s economy. Income from recreational and commercial fishing on Australia’s tropical reefs contributes a further $400 million annually. Consequently, science-based management of coral reefs is a national priority.
Our objectives are to:
Key issues will include:
UPDATE: Videos of the presentations are available!
You can watch all videos in the viewer on the top right corner of this page, or select individual videos from the Youtube playlist here.
The Coral Reefs: Coast to Coast symposium will present the latest research, management and policy developments in coral reef systems in Australia, our region, and globally. The Fremantle symposium will incorporate presentations by more than 30 leading coral reef scientists and provide an insight into the future of these iconic ecosystems.
Thursday 20th October (day session)
Thursday 20th October (evening session)
| A public forum will be held at 6.00pm (5.15pm for refreshments) on Thursday 20th October at the Western Australian Maritime Museum |
Friday 21st October (day session)
UPDATE: Videos of the presentations are available!
You can watch all videos in the viewer on the top right corner of this page, or select individual videos from the Youtube playlist here.
Dr Andrew Baird
Life histories and biogeography: the coral fauna in isolated locations in the Pacific is not a random subset of the total species pool
Dr Andrew Baird is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Future Fellow (2010-2013) at James Cook University. He has broad interests in coral reef science, in particular, coral reproductive biology and larval ecology. His current research focuses on the evolution of life histories and biogeography of scleractinian corals.
Dr Natalie Ban
Strategies for conservation under climate change – an example from the Coral Triangle
Natalie Ban is an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow in Program 6 (Conservation Planning for a Sustainable Future) at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Natalie’s broad research interests include incorporating dynamics into conservation planning, marine protected area design that includes ecological and socioeconomic objectives, and human uses and impacts on the marine environment (including ecosystem services). Her postdoctoral research will comprehensively assess the role of an important and hitherto largely ignored set of biodiversity processes, patch dynamics, in conservation planning. She recently (November 2008) completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Professor David Bellwood
The nature of change: learning lessons from the past
Professor David Bellwood is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Professor in the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University. He has broad research interests in the evolution and ecology of coral reef fishes, with over 130 articles in leading international journals. Through a series of influential papers (eight in Science and Nature), he has pioneered the application of ecosystem function approaches to the study of reef fishes and in the evaluation of ecosystem impacts of biodiversity. In the last few years his primary goal has been to identify critical functional groups and the key reef processes that underpin coral reef resilience.
Dr Joshua Cinner
Vulnerability of coastal communities to key impacts of climate change on coral reef fisheries
Dr Cinner is an ARC Australian Research Fellow. His research explores how socioeconomic factors influence the ways in which people use, perceive, and govern natural resources. He works on interdisciplinary research topics such as understanding vulnerability to environmental change in coral reef dependent societies, and defining the socioeconomic and institutional conditions that facilitate successful management outcomes for both people and reefs. He has worked on human dimensions of marine conservation in Australia, Jamaica, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Indonesia, and the USA.
Professor Sean Connolly
Climate change and the projection of coral reef futures
Professor Sean Connolly is a Chief Investigator and Program Leader with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Professorial Fellow within the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University. Sean combines mathematical and statistical modelling with fieldwork and laboratory experiments to study the dynamics of biological turnover at all scales, including population dynamics, species interactions and biodiversity, and macroevolution. Sean currently holds an Australian Professorial Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, and was most recently honoured by the award of the 2009 Fenner Medal of the Australian Academy of Science, for pioneering new approaches to understanding biodiversity.
Associate Professor Sophie Dove
The carbonate balance of coral reefs under a range of climate scenarios
Associate Professor Sophie Dove is a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies undertaking research in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland. A/Professor Dove is an expert in the photobiology of reef-building corals and leads a growing laboratory that is focused on the physiology and biochemical response of the dinoflagellate-coral partnership to changing environments. Her research seeks a greater understanding of the biotic and abiotic drivers that support rapid net coral growth.
Dr Louisa Evans
Limits to climate change adaptation in the Great Barrier Reef
Louisa is a social scientist with interests in governance of marine systems in developing countries. Her PhD, completed through the University of East Anglia (UK), used institutional analysis and political ecology to explore issues of inclusion, knowledge and complexity in marine social-ecological systems in Kenya. Following this, Louisa moved to the WorldFish Center in Malaysia to continue work in resilience thinking and how these concepts can be applied to small-scale fisheries in the developing world. Louisa has recently started as a postdoctoral fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies looking primarily at integrating resilience and other systems approaches with human development perspectives to understand and develop governance approaches that are better at addressing the synergies and trade-offs between poverty reduction, adaptation strategies and ecological sustainability.
Dr Michael Fabinyi
Chinese seafood consumption and the intensification of marine-resource based livelihoods in the Coral Triangle
Michael Fabinyi is a postdoctoral fellow in Program 7 (Policy development, institutions and governance of coral reefs) at the ARC Centre of Excellence at James Cook University. His research broadly focuses on the social and political aspects of marine resource use and management. Using theory and methods from environmental anthropology and political ecology, a key aspect of his research is the use of ethnographic and other qualitative research techniques. His research is primarily concerned with high-value commodity fisheries in the Asia-Pacific, particularly the live reef fish for food and shark fin trades. Aspects of the trades he is interested in include the social drivers of overfishing in source countries such as the Philippines, consumption trends in destination countries such as China, and the social and political aspects of governing these trades.
Dr Jim Falter
Hydrodynamics, water chemistry, and coral reef metabolism
Jim received his PhD in Chemical Oceanography from the University of Hawaii in 2002 following his completion of an MS from the same program in 1998. He also holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses largely on climatic forcing of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles in coral reef communities.
Dr Simon Foale
Transnational drivers of poverty and inequality and why they matter to coral reefs
Simon Foale leads the ARC Centre’s Program 7: Policy development, institutions and governance of coral reefs at James Cook University. Simon is a biologist whose interest in marine resource management outcomes has provoked him to take a cross-disciplinary approach in pursuit of that objective. Simon mainly works in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea and among other things is interested in the complex nexus between economic development and natural resource use and management, and in finding ways to improve coral reef resource governance in the developing countries in our region.
Dr Sylvain Foret
The Australian Coral Genome Project
Dr Foret’s work gravitates around the area of genomics and bioinformatics, where he has developed both applied and theoretical interests. His theoretical work draws from the fields of statistics and computer science, and is motivated by the analysis of biological sequences, phylogenetic inference and gene expression data analysis. His biological research has been driven by his interest in the evolution of invertebrates. In particular, he has worked on the molecular bases of chemical communication, the evolution of development (evo-devo) and epigenetics, both in insects and corals.
Dr Mariana Fuentes
Working with Indigenous communities to monitor and manage marine megafauna in northern Australia
Dr. Mariana Fuentes recently started as an ARC Super Science postdoctoral fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, where she aims to develop systematic priorities for the management of marine mega-fauna to increase their resilience to climate change. Her broad scientific interest lies in informing the conservation and management of threatened marine mega-fauna in a changing climate using a range of approaches including spatial risk assessments and systematic conservation and management planning.
Dr Chris Fulton
Dynamic seaweed habitats within the Ningaloo reef landscape
Dr Chris Fulton is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a lecturer in Marine Ecology at The Australian National University. Chris completed his PhD on the ecomorphology of coral reef fishes at James Cook University (2005), followed by a post-doctoral position in macroalgal community dynamics at JCU (2005-2006), before taking up his current lectureship. Chris’s research explores how biophysical coupling influences patterns of coral reef biodiversity over space and time. Combining techniques in oceanography, functional morphology, physiology and biogeography, Chris’s work has revealed how coral reef organisms meet the challenges imposed by their physical environment in locations throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea.
Dr Nick Graham
Maintaining ecosystems and livelihoods in the face of climate change
Dr Nick Graham is an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow and Queensland Smart Futures Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. He is an applied coral reef scientist working on large scale ecological questions directly relevant to sustainable management and conservation. He has assessed the long-term impacts of climate induced coral bleaching on coral reef fish assemblages, fisheries and ecosystem stability. He has also worked extensively on the ecological ramifications of fishing and closed area management to reef systems. Nick is now turning his efforts towards understanding the patterns and processes by which coral reefs degraded by coral bleaching recover, and how this can be incorporated into, or influenced by, management action.
Dr Alana Grech
Working with Indigenous communities to monitor and manage marine megafauna in northern Australia
Alana Grech is a postdoctoral fellow in Program 6 (Conservation Planning for a Sustainable Future) at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Her research interests focus on spatially-explicit decision making to address applied issues in ecology and conservation biology. Alana’s postdoctoral research is developing culturally-appropriate tools and protocols to inform a systematic approach to conservation planning in the Sea Country of Torres Strait.
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
Evolution of coral reef biodiversity under rapid climate change. Real or improbable?
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is a Deputy Director in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, and a Queensland Premier’s Smart State Fellow (2008-2013). His research interests span a broad range of topics including marine biology, evolution, physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of plant-animal symbioses, co-evolution, coral bleaching and climate change. Ove has published over 160 papers, including 15 in Science and Nature. He is reviewing editor at Science Magazine.
Professor Terry Hughes
Tipping points and borrowed time
Terry Hughes is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Federation Fellow (2002-2012). He has broad research interests in ecology, marine biology and the social-ecological dynamics of coral reefs. He has published over 100 influential scientific papers, including 17 papers in Science and Nature. Terry was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2001 in recognition of “a career which has significantly advanced the world’s store of scientific knowledge”. Terry won the 2007 Sherman Eureka Prize for Environmental Research and in 2008 was awarded the prestigious quadrennial Darwin Medal by the International Society for Reef Studies. He is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher, ranked #1 in Australia for citations in Ecology and Evolution.
Professor Michael Kingsford
Fish as environmental loggers – how do they help us understand climate change?
Michael is the Head of the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University. The School is a recognized world leader in tropical marine science, aquaculture, zoology, ecology and plant sciences. He has been President of the Australian Coral Reef Society, Director of One Tree Island Research Station, member of the Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation and the Museum of Tropical Queensland advisory committees. He has published extensively on the ecology of reef fishes, jellyfishes, biological oceanography and climate change. His projects have encompassed a range of latitudes and he has edited two books on tropical and temperate ecology. A major focus of his research has been on connectivity of reef fish populations, environmental records in corals and fishes and deadly irukandji jellyfishes. In addition to research and leadership, he teaches undergraduate students and supervises many postgraduate students.
Vimoksalehi Lukoschek
Sea snakes of Western Australia
Vimoksalehi (Vee) grew up in Melbourne and spent most of her 20′s in Europe working as a nurse. In her early 30′s she made a career shift and moved to Townsville to study marine and conservation biology at James Cook University. She obtained a First Class Honours (1999) on the foraging ecology of coral reef fishes and a PhD (2008) on the molecular ecology of sea snakes. Following her PhD, Vimoksalehi spent a few years as Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof John Avise’s group at UC Irvine, where she continued her molecular genetic research on sea snakes. Vimoksalehi’s research interests also includes marine mammals and she worked as Research Associate in Scott Baker’s lab in New Zealand using forensic genetics to investigate the whale meat markets of Japan and Korea. Vimoksalehi’s current research interests include seascape genetics, coral connectivity, and marine protected areas, as well as the conservation of sea snakes on Australia’s coral reefs.
Professor Malcolm McCulloch
On the resilience of coral calcification to an acidifying ocean
Professor Malcolm McCulloch is a Deputy Director of the ARC Centre and the Western Australian Premier’s Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Malcolm’s research interests focus on the modern part of the geologic record using isotopic and trace element geochemical methods to determine how climate and anthropogenic processes have influenced both past and present environments with particular emphasis on coral reefs. Malcolm has received a number of prestigious awards, most recently in 2010 he was elected as a Fellow to The Royal Society. In 2009 he was awarded the Jaeger Medal for his career achievement in the Earth Sciences and has Fellowships of the Australian Academy of Science (2004), the Geological Society of Australia (2007), the Geochemical Society (2008) and the American Geophysical Union (2002). Malcolm is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and has published over 250 scientific papers in leading international journals including 23 in Science and Nature.
Professor David Miller
Probing coral immunity based on genomics and transcriptomics
David Miller is a program leader at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. His work is aimed at understanding how corals and the coral holobiont (the coral animal and its associated symbionts and bacteria) function at the molecular level. Major advances in DNA sequencing technology over the last few years mean that these are now realistic and achievable goals. David’s laboratory and those of his collaborators have pioneered the use of Acropora millepora as a model coral for gene expression analysis, enabling substantial advances to be made in understanding some general principles of coral biology. The coral genome has also provided some remarkable and surprising insights into the general principles of development and genome evolution in the animal kingdom.
Dr Aurelie Moya is an European Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. She aims at understanding the molecular response of early life stages of corals to ocean acidification. For that purpose, she is using the resources generated by the Acropora millepora genome and transcriptome projects, which give a powerful tool to understand how the physiology of corals is likely to change, and identify which molecular processes are highly vulnerable to ocean acidification. Aurelie is originally from France. She completed a PhD at the Scientific Centre of Monaco (2004-2007) and a two-years lecturer position at the University of Nice (2007-2009) before joining the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in 2009.
Professor Philip Munday
Fish on acid: ocean acidification impairs fish behaviour
Professor Philip Munday has broad interests in the biology and ecology of marine fishes. His current research program focuses on understanding and predicting the impacts of climate change on populations and communities of coral reef fishes, both directly through changes in the physical environment and indirectly through effects on coral reef habitat. Using a range of laboratory and field experiments he is investigating the effects of increased temperature and ocean acidification on reef fish populations and testing their capacity for acclimation and adaptation to a rapidly changing environment. He has published 90 papers in coral reef ecology, including reviews and research papers on the impacts of climate change. Philip is an Australian Research Council QEII Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and the School of Marine and Tropical Biology, at James Cook University.
Dr Jamie Oliver
Reefs below the radar: ecology and significance of deepwater coral communities in North West Australia
Dr Jamie Oliver is Science Leader for Western Australia at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. He is also Leader of the Exploring Marine Biodiversity Research Team at AIMS. He serves as deputy node leader for the Western Australian node of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Prior to this Dr Oliver worked for the WorldFish Center. Prior to WorldFish he was the Director of Information Support at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and a senior scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. During this period he conceived of, and led the production of the first State of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Report and edited the first AIMS Long-Term Monitoing Report for the GBR. Dr Oliver was a member of the JCU Coral Reproduction Group which was instrumental in discovering the mass coral spawning phenomenon, and which was awarded Australian Eureka Prize in 1992. His other reef interests include coral ecology, coral bleaching, remote sensing, reef monitoring and management and larval dispersal.
Professor John Pandolfi
Incorporating evolution into biodiversity conservation
John Pandolfi is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and Centre for Marine Science, University of Queensland. He has broad research interests in marine palaeoecology, with emphasis on the effects of anthropogenic impacts and climate change on the recent past history of modern coral reefs. He has published over 90 scientific articles in leading international journals, including 8 papers in Science. He is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher, and one of the top 20 highly cited climate change scientists in the world. John is currently President of the Australian Coral Reef Society.
Dr Morgan Pratchett
Changes in biodiversity and functioning in reef fish assemblages following coral loss
Dr Morgan Pratchett is an Australian Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Morgan graduated from James Cook University in 2002, and has since published 50 papers based on research conducted throughout the South Pacific
Professor Bob Pressey
Marine conservation planning in the Coral Triangle: 30 years of research meets socio- political realities
Professor Bob Pressey is a Program Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. His research includes aspects of spatial data sets on biodiversity, geographic information systems, software development, and the socio-economic issues involved in implementing conservation action. During almost 20 years as a research scientist for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service he developed and applied leading-edge techniques in conservation planning, influenced policy and conservation practice, and began a long series of international collaborations. In 2002 he was awarded The Royal Botanic Gardens’ Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research. In 2008 he was awarded the inaugural Australian Ecology Research Award from the Ecological Society of Australia. His most recent recognition is being elected in 2010 as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Science.
Professor Garry Russ
Networks of marine reserves as fisheries management and conservation tools on coral reefs
Professor Garry Russ is Leader of Program 3 (Marine Reserves and Connectivity) in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Professor in Marine Biology at James Cook University. Garry studies the biology of reef fish of commercial and recreational fishing significance. A major area of his applied research involves population and community dynamics of reef fish of commercial significance. In the Coral Triangle region and Australia, he is undertaking long-term (25 year) studies of reef fish populations inside and outside marine reserves. Garry has published over 75 papers in international journals. In 1999, he received a prestigious Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation jointly with his long-time colleague Dr. Angel Alcala.
Yui Sato is a PhD candidate in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University and a member of AIMS@JCU, supervised by Professor Bette Willis and Dr David Bourne. His current research interests include the ecology and microbiology associated with coral disease and health. His PhD thesis addresses population dynamics of black band disease in the central Great Barrier Reef, its environmental drivers and microbial mechanisms that lead to the onset of this disease. He was a winner of the 2010 Virginia Chadwick awards for excellence in a scientific publication by an ARC Centre of Excellence student.
Dr Luke Smith
The fall and rise of Western Australia’s largest offshore coral reef, Scott Reef
Dr. Luke Smith is the Principal Environmental Scientist at Woodside Energy. He has a coral reef ecology background and his current research interests focus on the science of impact assessment and management of tropical marine ecosystems. In recent years, he has also focussed on understanding migration pathways and residence times of marine mammals and reptiles within Western Australia.
Dr David Williamson
Do no-take marine reserves work on highly disturbed coral reefs?
Dr David Williamson completed his PhD at James Cook University in December 2009 and he is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Program 3 (Marine Reserves and Connectivity) of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. His primary research interests are in broad scale ecological questions that have direct relevance to the conservation and management of coral reef ecosystems. A major component of his applied research has involved assessing the ecological and fishery effects of no-take marine reserves. David is currently undertaking research that aims to resolve patterns of fish larval dispersal, and quantify the potential contribution of marine reserves to the sustainability of exploited fish populations.
Dr Shaun Wilson
Habitat associations of juvenile reef fish: the importance of coral
Dr Wilson is a Senior Research Scientist within the Marine Science Program, Department of Environment and Conservation, Perth, Western Australia, where he conducts research that facilitates a better understanding and management of marine resources in tropical Western Australia.Shaun received his first degree in pharmacy from the University of Sydney, before becoming interested in marine biology. He was awarded his Phd in Marine Ecology in 2002 from James Cook University, and then held teaching and research positions overseas (USA and UK). He was a joint postdoctoral research fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and University of Newcastle in 2007 and 2008 where he focused on impact of habitat loss on coral reef fish communities.
UPDATE: Videos of the presentations are available!
You can watch all videos in the viewer on the top right corner of this page, or select individual videos from the Youtube playlist here.
Everyone is invited to join us at the Western Australian Maritime Museum at 5.15pm (for a 6.00pm start) on Thursday 20th October for a public forum. The panel of 5 international scientific experts in their field will each present on a topic of critical importance to the future of coral reefs. The floor will then be open to public discussion.
Refreshments at the public forum will be served at the Museum from 5.15pm. The forum will commence at 6.00pm.
Professor David Bellwood
Professor David Bellwood is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and a Professor in the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at James Cook University. He has broad interests in the evolution and ecology of coral reefs with a single goal: to find practical solutions to the challenges facing today’s coral reefs.
Professor Malcolm McCulloch
Coral Reefs of Western Australia: a litmus test for the survival of coral reefs?
How will the unique and extensive coral reefs of Western Australia respond to climate change? New evidence will be presented for what appears to an unprecedented episode of coral bleaching associated with unusually warm oceanic conditions that prevailed during the 2011 summer. Professor Malcolm McCulloch is a Deputy Director of the ARC Centre and the Western Australian Premier’s Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Malcolm’s research interests focus on the modern part of the geologic record using isotopic and trace element geochemical methods to determine how climate and anthropogenic processes have influenced both past and present environments with particular emphasis on coral reefs. Malcolm has received a number of prestigious awards, most recently in 2010 he was elected as a Fellow to The Royal Society. In 2009 he was awarded the Jaeger Medal for his career achievement in the Earth Sciences and has Fellowships of the Australian Academy of Science (2004), the Geological Society of Australia (2007), the Geochemical Society (2008) and the American Geophysical Union (2002). Malcolm is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and has published over 250 scientific papers in leading international journals including 23 in Science and Nature.
Dr Glenn Almany
Do fishers get any benefits from marine protected areas?
Theoretically, marine protected areas can help sustain fisheries by exporting fish to places open to fishing, but hard evidence of this has been elusive. New research tests whether marine protected areas do export fish and where they go.
Glenn Almany is an ARC Future Fellow. His research focuses on coral reef fishes, and he works with fishers in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to develop science-based management that benefits both reefs and people. He works closely with governments, fisheries managers, environmental conservation organizations and fishing communities.
Dr Mark Meekan
Running on empty – how the world’s largest fish sustains a planktivorous lifestyle
Mark Meekan is a Principal Research Scientist with the Perth Office of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and is a Partner Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. He is a fish biologist and his research interests focus on the ecology of reef fishes and elasmobranchs in tropical waters. Over the last 10 years he has been involved in tagging studies that have tracked various species of sharks over much of northern Australian waters and the Indian Ocean.
Dr Sally Keith
Bursting with biodiversity….or not!
Species are not distributed evenly across our Earth – some places are bursting with biodiversity whilst others have very few species. I try to understand the processes that determine how patterns of biodiversity change over time, with the aim to help us speculate how it might re-organize in response to a changing environment. Sally Keith is a research fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and has broad interests in how and why patterns of biodiversity change through space and time. Sally is currently tackling this question with modelling techniques that try to reproduce patterns we observe in real life by simulating fundamental processes of colonization, speciation and extinction. These process-based models help us explore ideas at the cutting edge of theoretical ecology. Sally completed her PhD at Bournemouth University last year and prior to her current position has worked woodland plants, rocky shores invertebrates and primates.
Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
Evolution of coral reef biodiversity under rapid climate change. Real or improbable?
The current rate of environmental change is among the highest for thousands if not millions of years. The big question is, will evolution step in and save the coral reefs like the Great Barrier Reef? Ove will explore this question using data from past and present to illustrate the risk that the biodiversity of our great coral reefs may be left in the dust of a rapidly changing climate. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is a Deputy Director in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, and a Queensland Premier’s Smart State Fellow (2008-2013). His research interests span a broad range of topics including marine biology, evolution, physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of plant-animal symbioses, co-evolution, coral bleaching and climate change. Ove has published over 200 papers, including 18 in Science or Nature. He is reviewing editor at Science Magazine.
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