Future too warm for baby sharks
New research has found as climate change causes the world’s oceans to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished and into environments that are already difficult for them to survi
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
Abstract: Conservation planning lies at the intersection between people and ecosystems. Concerned with the process of designing and implementing management actions, the ultimate goal of planning is to ensure the persistence of biodiversity, both for its intrinsic value and to benefit communities who derive food security, livelihoods and cultural values from it. Many of the challenges associated with conservation planning for coral reef ecosystems in tropical developing countries can be framed as scale mismatches. Failure to detect and resolve scale mismatches during planning undermines the likelihood that plans will be implemented, or that resultant management actions will be successful in ensuring biodiversity persistence. Using case studies from the Coral Triangle and Pacific Islands, I will first demonstrate the implications of scale mismatches during conservation prioritisation. I will then evaluate efforts to resolve social-ecological scale mismatches through the formation of governance networks. I will argue that resolving scale mismatches requires planning with broader perspectives, in addition to managing across greater spatial extents. These perspectives must include an understanding of, and ability to plan for, social and ecological connectivity processes. I will end with a quick preview of my future research plans.
Biography: Rebecca is a research fellow with the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Her research interests broadly focus on resolving challenges related to conservation planning for marine and coastal ecosystems in the Coral Triangle and Pacific Islands. Rebecca received her doctorate from James Cook University in 2011, for research on locally managed marine protected areas in the Philippines. Prior to her current appointment, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Fiji, where she provided scientific support to communities working to improve the effectiveness of their network of protected areas. Rebecca continues to collaborate with the Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, and other environmental NGOs in The Asia-Pacific region. She sits on the Oceania section board of the Society for Conservation Biology.
New research has found as climate change causes the world’s oceans to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished and into environments that are already difficult for them to survi
A new study shows the coastal protection coral reefs currently provide will start eroding by the end of the century, as the world continues to warm and the oceans acidify. A team of researchers led
A team of scientists led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) won one of the nation’s top science awards at tonight’s ‘Oscars of Australian science’, the Eureka P
An analytical tool will be used to assess the climate risks facing historic World Heritage sites in Africa—the ruins of two great 13th century ports and the remains of a palace and iron-making indus
Abstract: It is a little over a decade since research commenced into the effects of anthropogenic ocean acidification on marine fishes. In that time, we have learned that projected end-of-century
Abstract: Increased uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has caused the world’s ocean to become more acidic. Different marine habitats are known to have varying ranges of CO2 across mul
Abstract: The Allen Coral Atlas (http://allencoralatlas.org) partnership uses high-resolution satellite imagery, machine learning, and field data to map and monitor the world’s coral reefs at unp
Abstract: Climate change is causing the average surface temperature of the oceans to rise and increasing the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves. In addition, absorption of additional CO2
Abstract: Marine environments are a concealing medium, where observations of natural fish behavior are challenging. In particular, the geographic and depth distributions of migratory top predators ar
Abstract: Invasive species management can be the the subject of debate in many countries due to conflicting ecological, ethical, economic, and social reasons, especially when dealing with a species s
Abstract: Ocean acidification, the increase in seawater CO2 with all its associated consequences, is relatively well understood in open oceans. In shelf seas such as the Great Barrier Reef, processe
Abstract: The backdrop of legends and movies, the deep sea has always been unfathomable because we had no idea what existed there. Once thought to be barren of life, we now know this couldn’t be
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