Abstract: According to the 2014 Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report, the condition of the Reef is declining, and climate change is a major threat. In a recent editorial in Nature Climate Change (co-authored with Jon Brodie and Jon Day), we argued that the decline of the Great Barrier Reef can be reversed by improvements to governance and management, and that current policies that promote fossil fuels and economic development of the Reef region needs to be reformed to prioritize long-term protection from climate change and other stressors. This talk will focus on the interface between reef science and management, and the challenge of improving the future prospects of the GBR.

Bio: Terry Hughes is the Director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, headquartered at James Cook University in Townsville.  His research interests encompass coral reef ecology, macroecology and evolution, social-ecological systems and governance. A recurrent theme in his studies is the application of new scientific knowledge towards improving management of marine environments. He is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, with career citations exceeding 30,000. Hughes was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2001.  He has been awarded many prizes, including the prestigious Darwin Medal of the International Society for Coral Reef Studies in 2008.  In 2014, he was awarded an Einstein Professorship by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.