Dr Jennie Mallela
Research Fellow
 |
Research Fellow, Australian National University (2009-); Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of the West Indies (2006-2009). Research Interests
|
Research Interests
My research is motivated by an interest in how past, present and future environmental disturbances (natural and anthropogenic) influence reef resilience and reef building processes (e.g. coral recruitment, calcification and erosion), and also how such disturbance affects resource management.
I have an interdisciplinary background and broad research interests which include: reef calcification, carbonate budgets, reef monitoring, geochemical proxies, coral sclerochronology, hurricanes, bleaching, coral recruitment, land-based stressors, climate change and marine resource management.
For my PhD research I developed a carbonate budget model to assess how river runoff influenced rates and styles of reef development and carbonate accretion in Jamaica. As a Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad, I expanded on this research to incorporate climate change variables into my carbonate budget approach. We designed and implemented a long-term reef monitoring program, assessed the effects of hurricanes and bleaching on coral recruitment and coral disease. We then took cores from coral colonies in order to build proxy records of climate change and terrestrial runoff, used stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) to assess sources of energy and pollution on the reef, and used in-situ experiments to assess reefal calcification in relation to global (e.g. climate change), regional (e.g. Orinoco River runoff) and local (e.g. sewage) disturbances. Currently I am focusing on the effects of land-based runoff on the Great Barrier Reef.
Select Publications
Recent Papers:
Harrod, C., J. Mallela, et al. (2010 ). Phenotype-environment correlations in a putative whitefish adaptive radiation. Journal of Animal Ecology 2010: 1057-1068.
Mallela J. and Crabbe MJC (2009) Hurricanes and coral bleaching linked to changes in coral recruitment in Tobago. Marine Environmental Research 68:158–162
Mallela J, Parkinson R, Day O (2009) An assessment of coral reefs in Tobago. Caribbean Journal of Science (in press)
Mallela, J. and R. Parkinson, (2008) Coral disease succession in Tobago: from yellow band to black band disease. Coral Reefs. 27: p. 787.
Mallela, J. and C. Harrod, (2008) δ13C and δ15N reveal significant differences in the coastal foodwebs of the seas surrounding the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 368: p. 41-51.
Mallela, J., Roberts CA, Harrod C, Goldspink CR. (2007) Distributional patterns and community structure of Caribbean coral reef fishes within a river-impacted bay. Journal of Fish Biology, 2007. 70: p. 523-537.
Mallela, J. and C.T. Perry, (2007) Calcium carbonate budgets for two coral reefs affected by different terrestrial runoff regimes, Rio Bueno, Jamaica. Coral Reefs. 26: p. 53-68.
Mallela, J. (2007) Coral reef encruster communities and carbonate production in cryptic and exposed coral reef habitats along a gradient of terrestrial disturbance. Coral Reefs. 26: p. 775-785.
Recent Book Sections:
Bouchon, C.,et al, (2008) Chapter19. Status of coral reefs of the Lesser Antilles: The French west indies, The Netherlands Antilles, Anguilla, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, in Status of coral reefs of the world 2008, C. Wilkinson, Editor. 2008, Global Coral Reef Monitoring and Reef and Rainforest Research centre: Townsville, Australia. p. 296.
Jones, L., et al. (2008) The Effects of Coral Bleaching in the Northern Caribbean and Western Atlantic, in Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005., C. Wilkinson and D. Souter, Editors. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, and Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, Townsville. p. 152.
Briefing papers:
FSBI (2007) Climate change and the fishes of Britain and Ireland: Briefing Paper 4. In: Fisheries Society of the British Isles GIS, 82A High Street, Sawston, Cambridge, CB2 4H, UK (ed) p. 55. http://www.fsbi.org.uk/publications.htm
