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: Habitats are degrading worldwide and such change leads to a major loss of biodiversity. This talk will summaries our recent research that explores how the degradation of coral reefs affects how fish assess risk. For fish that closely associate with live coral, the loss of live coral nearby can modify important olfactory cues that indicate risk, alter how they learn the identity of predators and their ability to pass this information to other. These fish are no longer able to develop a neophobic, risk averse, phenotype and die much faster than when not affected by cues from degraded coral. Luckily, they can still learn risk from other non-affected species, but this learning mechanism not as efficient as learning first hand and leads to reduced survival. Determining the mechanisms that underlie why some species are affected while others are not will improve our understanding of species resilience to coral degradation.
Biography: Professor Mark McCormick has been studying fish communities on temperate and tropical reefs for 30 years, and is a world expert on the early life history of fishes, producing over 200 research papers. He has been funded extensively through the Australian Research Council to examine the processes that regulate the numbers and distribution of fishes on today’s reefs, and those we may see in the future. His research has focused on the interconnections between fish life-stages; from how environmental change affects parents and their larval offspring, through to who survives the gauntlet of mouths as the larvae return to reefs to become breeding members of the fish community. His current research projects involve determining the impact of habitat degradation and anthropogenic noise on fish communities.
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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