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
Tom is one of a few Australian Citizens in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies pursuing a PhD. He arrived here after completing his undergraduate degree and honors’ at the University of Queensland. As a child Tom spent most of his free time fishing on headlands in southern New South Wales and as a deckhand for his father, a commercial abalone diver at the time. During this period, his foraging techniques evolved from picking table fish out of rock pools with his hands to setting many lines with many hooks in the hope of catching enough for dinner, and witnessed the collapse of the valuable New South Wales abalone fishery. This, combined with historical ecology research with Professor John Pandolfi is the probable catalyst for his passion to understand how people either succeed or fail to sustain natural resources. He has been fortunate enough to see most of Melanesia, and now works in Solomon Islands, a nation with abundant natural capital that is fast diminishing with rapid social change.
This research project will test the explanatory power of divergent sociological theories in explaining the condition of coral reef resources. The project is of national scope in Solomon Islands and focuses on village scale understanding and analysis. The context is coral reef fisheries and associated villages, and comprising both spatial and temporal perspectives. Theories being tested include; 1) human ecology which states that humans are ultimately bound by the limits of ecological conditions (akin to neo-Malthusian philosophy); 2) Environmental Kuznets Curve (and its derivations) which predicts that through the development process, societies will deplete their natural capital to a point before improving their localized environmental quality with continued development; 3) Political economy, with the central tenant that condition of natural capital is driven by market economies and the institutions that support them. This project will also identify how these theories relate to the way societies utilize and manage their resources. A fisher perspective will also be utilized to understand cross-scale differences in social-ecological dynamics.
A flotilla of Vietnamese fishing boats with crews suffering in harsh conditions is stripping Pacific coral reefs of seafood as the poaching escalates to become an international human rights and securi
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A new study highlights how healthy mangroves can help some coral reef fish navigate the impacts of climate change. Co-author Professor Peter Mumby, from the ARC Centre of Excellence at the Universi
Scientists say a failure of national management means excessive amounts of harmful chemicals—many now banned in other countries such as the EU, USA and Canada—are damaging the nation’s waterways
Abstract: I will talk about what we have learned from studying symbioses in algae and corals. Origin of the photosynthetic organelle in algae led to the major rewiring of host metabolic pathw
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Abstract Climate change is the fastest-growing global threat to the world's natural and cultural heritage. No systematic approach to assess climate vulnerability of protected areas and their communit
Abstract: This presentation will provide an updated prognosis of the overgrazing collapse of kelp beds driven by the range-extending sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) and outline antidotes cur
Abstract: Disturbances are fundamental to structuring many ecosystems, yet climate-driven alterations to disturbance regimes may prevent recovery in many biomes. Coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef
Abstract: Outbreaks of the corallivorous Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS; Acanthaster cf. solaris) have been responsible for 40% of the decline in coral cover on the GBR over the last 35 years. With
Abstract: Complex interdependencies between social and ecological dynamics underpin many important environmental problems. To account for these complex dynamics, over the past several years my collea
Abstract: Coral reef restoration is gaining momentum globally in response to the threat of climate change and associated coral bleaching. In Australia, as part of the Reef Restoration and Adaptatio
Partner Research Institutions
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
