DNA reveals the past and future of coral reefs
New DNA techniques are being used to understand how coral reacted to the end of the last ice age in order to better predict how they will cope with current changes to the climate. James Cook Univer
From 2005 to 2022, the main node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies was headquartered at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland (Australia)
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 interspecific interactions, particularly between pathogens and their hosts. Many of the modeling approaches we use in the evolution of host-pathogen interactions can be readily applied to symbiotic interactions, however, and that is what brought Troy to coral biology. Troy hopes to use this opportunity to obtain useful feedback and to stimulate interest and potential collaboration on related future projects.
We have been using mathematical models of evolutionary change to better understand the key factors involved in the evolution of bleaching resistance in corals. Our primary focus has been on coral bleaching that occurs as a result of temperature stress. We have been using the models to explore the expected pattern of resistance evolution in response to an increase in average sea temperature, and how this pattern is affected by the biological details of the coral-zooxanthellae interaction. I will present some qualitative results obtained from very simple models of the eco-evolutionary dynamics of this symbiosis.
New DNA techniques are being used to understand how coral reacted to the end of the last ice age in order to better predict how they will cope with current changes to the climate. James Cook Univer
A new study on the effects of climate change in five tropical countries has found fisheries are in more trouble than agriculture, and poor people are in the most danger. Distinguished Profess
James Cook University researchers have found brightly coloured fish are becoming increasingly rare as coral declines, with the phenomenon likely to get worse in the future. Christopher Hemingson, a
Researchers working with stakeholders in the Great Barrier Reef region have come up with ideas on how groups responsible for looking after the reef can operate more effectively when the next bleaching
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Abstract: The past few years have seen unprecedented coral bleaching and mortality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) but the consequences of this on biodiversity are not yet known. This talk will expl
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