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
Abstract: Climate change is resulting in alterations to the distribution of key fishery species. Regardless of whether species shifts are temporary or permanent, these changes have important implications for commercial fisheries. In tropical areas, climate change is predicted to result in an increased frequency of intense cyclones. Such events affect the abundance of the key fishery species in the area affected by the cyclone, and provide an opportunity to explore adaptive response of fisheries to distribution or abundance changes. In 2009, Cyclone Hamish (category 5) tracked along the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, dramatically reducing catches of commercially important coral trout. Commercial fishers in the affected area had a number of practical adaptation options: stop fishing temporarily until catches returned to normal, diversify their marketed catch, diversify into other fisheries, or move areas to where key species remained unaffected by the cyclone. We repeatedly surveyed affected fishers for 12 months following the cyclone, to explore if and how fishers adapted to this extreme weather event. Few fishers had the financial capacity to stop fishing, and most fishers were highly specialized and unwilling or able to diversify their catch or fishery, meaning the most viable option was to move. Regulations allowed fishers to move to any area within the 345,000 km2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; However, fishers showed a high attachment to place, with numerous economic and social reasons limiting the distance they could move from the affected area. This study reveals that limitations for adaptation extend beyond policy and governance issues, highlighting the importance of understanding the economic and social drivers of fishers’ behavior.
Biography: Dr Renae Tobin is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, within the School of Earth and Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townsville. She specialises in social science, but with a background in ecology also undertakes multi-disciplinary research, providing essential links between social and ecological science in fisheries. Dr Tobin’s research is generally stakeholder (industry and management) driven, and hence very diverse within the social sciences. Recent research includes exploring regional co-management options for inshore fisheries, social network analysis for co-management and community stewardship, developing socio-economic indicators for long-term monitoring of fishery stakeholders (including fishers and consumers), exploring impacts of Marine Park zoning and fisheries management change on fishers, highlighting the importance of effective engagement of stakeholders in management decisions, exploring perceptions of climate change and its impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, and documenting the adaptive capacity of fishers to environmental events (e.g. intense cyclones). Much of Dr Tobin’s research has direct application to fisheries and marine park management, and is collaborative with other researchers within and outside of JCU.
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