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
Madeleine’s research focuses on three areas: the potential of reef corals to acclimatize and adapt to climate change, connectivity and population structure, and the evolution of biodiversity. It includes the fields of population genetics, evolutionary and quantitative genetics, ecological genetics, and coral ecology and physiology, and combines field and lab based approaches. Most of my work involves reef corals and their algal symbionts as well as box jellyfishes and some other marine taxa.
Coral reefs have suffered long-term decline due to a range of anthropogenic disturbances and are now also under threat from climate change. The scleractinian (stony) corals deposit the structural framework that supports and promotes the maintenance of biological diversity and complexity of coral reefs, and as such, are major components of these ecosystems. The success of reef-building corals is related to their obligate symbiotic association with dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium. These one-celled algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) live in the endodermal tissues of their coral host, provide most of the host’s energy budget and promote rapid calcification. Furthermore, zooxanthellae are the main primary producers on coral reefs due to the oligotrophic nature of the surrounding waters. In this seminar I will present examples from genetic research conducted in my lab, some of it in collaboration with others, to understand (1) the significance of zooxanthella diversity in terms of physiological acclimatization of corals, (2) the adaptive potential of corals to climate warming, and (3) the potential for recovery through immigration.
In writing about his theory of coral reef formation Charles Darwin was also faced with a second challenge. He was writing during a time when very little was known about coral reefs and coral reef formation, but a great deal was imagined. Scientific arguments and publications were comprehensible to a much wider range of the public than they are now, scientific reputation was not yet so tightly tied to the publication of original research, and the image of the intrepid, voyage–making naturalist had become familiar—as had the image of the romantic coral reef. Consequently most of the information that people, including many scientific authors, had been given about coral reefs had been supplied by imaginative texts that extolled the exotic aesthetic and moral characteristics of coral reefs. When Darwin presented his innovative theory of coral reef formation, he was writing about a subject that had captured the interest and imagination of both the scientific community and the broader public. He was bringing science to a subject that had, for the most part, been held as the stuff of fantasy.
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