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: The talk will provide an early account of the severity and extent of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2020, and how it compares with earlier mass bleaching in 1998, 2002, 2016 and 2017. This year’s event is more extensive than before, affecting parts of the northern, central and southern regions. In the north and south, offshore reefs generally escaped bleaching. Coastal reefs were severely bleached along the entire coastline in 2020. In the south, for the first time, two-thirds of reefs in the Swains and Pompeii region were moderately or severely bleached. These spatial patterns are likely to match gradients in heat exposure. In addition, the history of bleaching matters – northern reefs now have residual populations of tougher coral assemblages, compared to more naïve Acropora-dominated assemblages in the offshore south. The cumulative footprint of all 5 events has expanded further south, and many reefs that were proposed earlier as spatial refuges have now bleached severely at least once in the past 5 years.
Biography: Distinguished Professor 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. A recurrent theme in his studies is the application of new scientific knowledge towards improving management of marine environments, especially coral reefs. His publications focus on population dynamics, life histories, marine ecology, biogeography, and the responses of ecosystems to anthropogenic climate change. In 2016, Terry was recognised by Nature magazine as one of Nature’s “Top Ten People Who Mattered This Year” for his leadership in responding to coral bleaching throughout the tropics in 2015/6, due to global warming. In 2018, Prince Albert II of Monaco presented him with the 2018 Climate Change Award, recognising his contribution to advancing understanding of the influence of rapid climate change on the world’s coral reefs. He received an Honorary PhD from Trinity College, Dublin in 2019, and a Frontiers in Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation in 2020.
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