Corals light the way to a healthy partnership
Corals know how to attract good company. New research finds that corals emit an enticing fluorescent green light that attracts the mobile microalgae, known as Symbiodinium, that are critical to the e
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au
Benjamin Walther is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Centre of Excellence based at ANU, working with Prof. Malcolm McCulloch and Prof. Mike Kingsford. He received a B.A. and a B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography in 2007 from the Joint Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Dr. Simon Thorrold. He spent six months teaching at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and one year as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Bronwyn Gillanders at the University of Adelaide before beginning his current position.
There are two general fields of study that examine variation in chemical signatures of biogenic carbonates. The first uses elemental and isotope ratios of stationary organisms such as scleractinian corals to reconstruct properties of the ambient environment, such as temperature, salinity, and nutrient availability. The second uses similar signatures in hard parts of mobile organisms, such as fish otoliths, to track dispersal and migration patterns. Both approaches make fundamental assumptions about spatial and temporal variability in water chemistry and require careful selection of study species, locations, chemical proxies, and analytical methods.
I will discuss both uses of biogenic carbonates with two examples. First, the migratory patterns and stock mixture dynamics of a highly migratory diadromous fish species in the North Atlantic were resolved using a suite of isotope (oxygen and strontium) and elemental (Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca) ratios. Second, my current work on the Barrier Reef compares variation in Ba/Ca ratios recorded in both fish otoliths and coral skeletons to establish a time series of pulsed upwelling events and climate shifts on local and regional scales. These examples will illustrate the potential for biogenic carbonates to yield vital information about ecological processes and population dynamics in marine systems.
Corals know how to attract good company. New research finds that corals emit an enticing fluorescent green light that attracts the mobile microalgae, known as Symbiodinium, that are critical to the e
A study led by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University found fish become anxious and more cautious when water quality is degraded by sediment, an e
Queensland’s coastal shark numbers are continuing a 50-year decline, in sharp contradiction of suggestions of ‘exploding’ shark populations, according to an analysis of Queensland Shark Control
The future of the world’s coral reefs is uncertain, as the impact of global heating continues to escalate. However, according to a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the response of the
Who: Julian Cribb Where: JCU HY002, UQ CMS Meeting Room When: Monday 20 March 2006, 11.00am-12.00pm
The Lizard Island Doctoral Fellowships Program provides financial support for field-intensive coral reef research at Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef by outstanding PhD student
Who: Go Suzuki, Kyoto University Where: ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, James Cook University, Townsville with video link to Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 1.00pm Monday 23
Who: Lead by Meir Sussman Where: ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville with video link to Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 4.00pm, Thursday 26 April 2007
Dr. Frank Thomalla is a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) where he leads the Stockholm-based group of the “Risk, Livelihoods and Vulnerability Programme” and at the re
Dr Troy Day is a theoretical evolutionary ecologist at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada (http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~tday/index.html). His primary research interests are in the evolution of in
Who: Lead by Dr Sophie Dove Where: Video link ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville and Centre for Marine Studies, UQ, Brisbane When: 4.00pm, Thursday 10 May 2007
Who: Lead by Professor Terry Hughes Where: Video link ARC Centre of Excellence Conference Room, JCU, Townsville and JCU Cairns, Room B1.108 When: 12.00pm, Monday 14 May 2007
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au