Researchers
Students
Alumni
ManagementMelanie Trapon
PhD graduate
CSIRO
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)
Melanie grew up in France and attended the University of La Rochelle where she completed a Bachelor in Biology. Her passion for marine life and scuba diving drew her to move to Reunion Island where she studied the biology and ecology of tropical marine organisms at the University of Saint Denis. She then decided to take a big step and move to Australia to continue in the field of tropical marine ecology and study at James Cook University in Townsville. She completed a Master of Applied Science where she looked at the effect of a crown-of-thorn outbreak on coral cover and communities in Moorea, French Polynesia. Following this, she completed a PhD at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville under the supervision of Prof. Morgan Pratchett, Prof. Andrew Baird, and Dr. Andrew Hoey (ARC CoE CRS). Her PhD focused on large-scale monitoring of reef-building coral populations along the latitudinal gradient of the Great Barrier Reef. Specifically, she looked at patterns in post-settlement growth and mortality of juvenile corals at a various range of scale on the GBR. After graduating in 2013, she took on a position as a Tropical Marine Consultant at BMT Oceanica in Perth. Since 2015, she is working at CSIRO where she works on several projects of conservation and cultural significance such as the Pilbara Marine Conservation Partnership and the Ningaloo Outlook projects. Principally, she is part of a team that focusses on assessing coral reef health in the North-West shelf of Australia.
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
Abstract: As marine species adapt to climate change, their heat tolerance will likely be under strong selection. Individual variation in heat tolerance and its heritability underpin the potential fo
Abstract: The Reef Ecology Lab in KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center explores many aspects of movement ecology of marine organisms, ranging from adult migrations to intergenerational larval dispersal
Abstract: Macroalgal meadows are a prominent, yet often maligned component of the tropical seascape. Our work at Ningaloo reef in WA demonstrate that canopy forming macroalgae provide habitat for ad
Abstract: Sharks are generally perceived as strong and fearsome animals. With fossils dating back at least 420 million years, sharks are not only majestic top predators but they also outlived dinosa
Abstract: Connectivity plays a vital role in many ecosystems through its effects on fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes. Its consequences for populations and metapopulations have been
Abstract: Evolution of many eukaryotic organisms is affected by interactions with microbes. Microbial symbioses can ultimately reflect host’s diet, habitat range, and even body shape. However, how
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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