Dr Line Bay

Senior Research Fellow

Line Bay

 

Smart State Innovation Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef studies James Cook University and Australian Institute of Marine Science (2008 - ). Inaugural Isobel Bennett Marine Biology Fellow (2008)

Research Interests
Research Supervision
Publications online
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Curriculum Vitae

 


Research Interests

My research interests span the areas of ecological and evolutionary genetics and genomics in a range of marine organisms including coral reef fishes, mangroves, corals, and their symbiotic communities of bacteria and dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae).

My current research focus is on the ecological and evolutionary genetics and genomics of coral symbioses. In particular, I am interested in gene expression variation in natural and stressed coral populations with the view of identifying key genes and pathways associated with coral bleaching. This research further aims to quantify variation in gene expression of reef building corals at a range of scales including within and among genotypes of coral host and zooxanthellae, times of day, and populations.

In collaboration with colleagues and students I use molecular tools to examine the population structure, patterns of connectivity and effective population sizes of zooxanthellae, corals and reef fishes in natural and disturbed systems. This research involves the development of molecular markers to compare populations and/or species with different ecological attributes such as level of temperature tolerance, ecological specialization, dispersal potential, range size, etc.

Research supervision:

David Jones (BSc Hons 2007 – 2008). Effective population sizes in a coral reef fish Pomacentrus amboinensis on the Great Barrier Reef. James Cook University.
Allison Paley (M Sc 2007 – 2009). Genetic diversity, bleaching sensitivity and colour polymorphism of a common reef-building coral, Acropora millepora, from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. James Cook University.
Rebecca Lawton (PhD 2008 – ). Ecological specialization versus susceptibility to disturbance among coral-feeding butterflyfishes. James Cook University
Emily Howells (PhD 2008 –) Genetic resilience of Symbiodinium populations: the role of coral endosymbionts in reef adaptation to climate change.

Coral transplant experiment on Keppel Islands genes expression slide

My research combines field based experiments and lab investigations to understand gene expression in natural and stressed coral populations (left: coral transplant experiment; right: microarray scan)

<em>Acropora millepora</em>
A.millepora red morph at Lizard Island

I examine the factors determining population structure at local and regional scales in a range of coral reef organisms.

Pomacentrus ambionensis Pomacentrus ambionensis
Pomacentrus ambionensis (left), a benthic spawner and Acanthochromis polyacanthus (right) a brooder both display strong genetic structure at local spatial scales on the GBR.

Publications online

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