Helping conservation initiatives turn contagious
New research shows that conservation initiatives often spread like disease, which helps scientists and policymakers to better design successful programs that are more likely to be adopted.In a st
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
Maria completed her Ph.D. in 2006 on neutral theory and biodiversity patterns of reef corals, under the supervision of Sean Connolly and Terry Hughes. She moved to Scotland to take up her first postdoctoral fellowship in Anne Magurran’s lab at the University of St Andrews. Maria came back to Australia to join the ARC CoE of Coral Reef Studies last February.
Species abundance distributions summarize the patterns of species rarity and commonness in ecological communities, and are the biodiversity pattern most often used to test biodiversity models. However, the abundances of rare species require large samples to be confidently estimated. In this seminar I will present the species abundance distribution for a sample of >40,000 coral colonies from a single bay in Lizard Island. This exceeds existing samples of coral assemblages by over an order of magnitude. Although species abundance distributions are widely accepted to follow a lognormal distribution, these data have a multimodal distribution, and are best fitted by a mixture of three lognormal distributions. Several types of heterogeneities within the community are explored, but only differences among species spatial distributions are linked to multimodality.
New research shows that conservation initiatives often spread like disease, which helps scientists and policymakers to better design successful programs that are more likely to be adopted.In a st
Millions of people across the globe are suffering from malnutrition despite some of the most nutritious fish species in the world being caught near their homes, according to new research published in
An internationally respected group of scientists is calling on world leaders to urgently accelerate efforts to tackle climate change.Almost every aspect of the environment and ecology is changing
Scientists say bolder actions to protect coral reefs from the effects of global warming will benefit all ecosystems, including those on land.In an article published in Nature today two researcher
Abstract: Because coastal fisheries have been a major provider of food and economic growth in modern human history, the inherent characteristics of fish populations have been studied by researchers f
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
Abstract:Developing global environmental policies, and implementing these at a local level has proven extremely challenging. I will present research using ethnographic techniques and multi-level
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