DNA 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)
Abstract: The study of diversity in ecology is in crisis. The use of inappropriate methods is resulting in misleading analyses and interpretations. The multinomial diversity model, MDM, is a new method for relating Shannon diversity to complex environmental, spatial and temporal predictors. It is based on a parameterised formulation of Shannon entropy and diversity, and a novel link between entropy and the log-likelihood of the multinomial model. Model effects can be expressed as changes in entropy. Entropy can be partitioned within and between sites, species and models, and changes in entropy can be attributed to model predictors. This greatly enhances our capacity to model complex data sets, and yet also provide simple interpretations. By formulating diversity as a statistical model, analyses are extended beyond traditional simple hierarchies of α, β, γ and measures of turnover. Two example analyses illustrate the theoretical concepts and the analytical methods. The MDM R-package that implements the model is available on CRAN.
Biography: Glenn De’ath is a statistician and ecological modeller who works as Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville. He has studied in mathematics, hydrodynamics, social-psychology and environmental methods. His research involves (1) the development of statistical methods for ecologists and has included multivariate regression trees, extended dissimilarity, principal curves, boosted trees and the multinomial diversity model, and (2) analysis of complex ecological-environmental systems.
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
A new study on the effects of climate change in five tropical countries has found fisheries are in more trouble than agriculture, and poor people are in the most danger. Distinguished Profess
James Cook University researchers have found brightly coloured fish are becoming increasingly rare as coral declines, with the phenomenon likely to get worse in the future. Christopher Hemingson, a
Researchers working with stakeholders in the Great Barrier Reef region have come up with ideas on how groups responsible for looking after the reef can operate more effectively when the next bleaching
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Abstract: The past few years have seen unprecedented coral bleaching and mortality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) but the consequences of this on biodiversity are not yet known. This talk will expl
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