Program 1: Evolutionary and environmental change
Program Leader: Professor Malcolm McCulloch
Knowledge of the past improves our ability to predict future influences of natural environmental variability, human impacts, and climate change on coral reefs. Using the fossil record, Centre staff are working to develop novel methods for identifying potential causes of global changes in biodiversity and ecosystem function. Together with our ecological studies, this broad array of work provides the Centre with a unique perspective on community change that ranges from centuries to millennia.
(a) Evolutionary dynamics of coral reefs: Two sub-programs focus on (i) the fossil record and morphometric and molecular-based phylogenies of functional groups of fishes, corals, coralline algae and zooxanthellae and (ii) the quaternary history of coral reef assemblages in the past 400,000 years.
- Climatic variability, floods and terrestrial runoff: This group applies cutting-edge isotope technologies to develop banded coral skeletons as proxies for paleoclimates and human impacts in Australia and overseas. This innovative approach enables understanding of global climate changes, rainfall variability and drought, and long-term trajectories of nutrient and sediment discharge onto the Great Barrier Reef.
(c) Long-term records of human-coral reef interaction: Data is being assembled from a range of sources from before the arrival of humans to the present (including Quaternary fossil deposits (past 2MA), coastal archeological records (past 6000 years), historical documents, fisheries records and modern ecological studies) to quantify human impacts and explore management options.
Program 2: Understanding and Managing Coral Reef Biodiversity
Program Leader: Professor Sean Connolly
Biodiversity is widely recognised as a critical factor for the maintenance of robust ecosystems. However, the mechanisms and processes that maintain local and global biodiversity are poorly understood. There are three broad programs:
- Understanding patterns of coral reef biodiversity: Using a combination of mathematical modeling, field studies, and phylogenetic analyses, Centre members are conducting a series of ambitious initiatives to better understand how biodiversity is generated and maintained. Our current studies in Australia and the Pacific will be expanded to the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean to provide an understanding of processes operating at both local and global scales.
- Consequences of changing biodiversity: The management and successful long-term exploitation of reef resources depends critically on effective use of biodiversity. Building on a series of recent papers in Science and Nature, we are developing a new analytical framework for examining the consequences of changing biodiversity in marine ecosystems. Our aim is to quantify the relationships between biodiversity, community structure, and ecosystem function in reef systems.
- Management of coral reef biodiversity: Many critical management issues are broad-scale phenomena (e.g. depleted fish stocks, habitat fragmentation, global warming) that cannot be fully understood at the small scales favoured by most ecologists. We are applying innovative approaches to “scaling up” ecological studies, making them more relevant for managing sustainable resources. With knowledge of the mechanisms operating at regional to global scales, restoration and effective maintenance of biodiversity across national borders is an achievable goal. Knowledge-based management of biodiversity that takes better account of the diversity of ecological roles played by coral reef species will result in environmental, social and economic benefit to Australia and other tropical maritime nations.
Program 3: Marine Reserves and Reef Connectivity
Program Leader: Professor Garry Russ
Recent studies have highlighted the need for networks of Marine Reserves (no-take areas) for management of biodiversity and fisheries. Consequently, zoning for multiple levels of usage and protection is fast becoming the principal mechanism of management of maritime resources. An improved understanding of marine connectivity (the flux of organisms, genes, nutrients, pollutants etc between locations) and barriers to dispersal is central to this endeavour. Key areas of future research are:
(a)Marine reserves and fisheries management. This new sub-program beginning in 2006 is highly relevant for assessing the effectiveness of recent rezoning on the GBR Marine Park, and for management of artisanal fisheries in neighbouring developing nations.
(b) Optimal design of reserves for management of ecological resilience. Over-fishing and declining water-quality can result in destructive algal blooms and a loss of ecological resilience. Through a combination of innovative large-scale field experiments, functional group analyses, and mathematical modeling centre staff are providing new insights into the processes involved in undesirable phase-shifts, and how they can be controlled and managed.
(c) Larval biology, connectivity, and endemism. Centre members are world-leaders in developing technologies (e.g. genetic markers, biochemical tags, geochemical signatures) for directly measuring larval dispersal distances. Biodiversity hotspots and centers of endemism (where species with small geographic ranges are prevalent) are commonly targeted as priority areas for management. This sub-program uses new technology to quantify interchange between protected and unprotected areas, examine barriers to dispersal, and the mechanisms that determine the extent of geographic ranges.
By linking these sub-programs, we aim to build an improved framework for management of fisheries and sustainable tourist industries.
Program 4: Genetic, molecular and physiological processes
Program Leader: Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
This diverse program draws on researchers across multiple nodes to understand coral reef organisms at a molecular and physiological level and to examine potential mechanisms of coral reefs for adaptation and acclimatization to environmental change. Genomics and microarray technologies will be integrated with physiological measurements and field experiments.
- Biochemical analysis of coral-zooxanthellae interactions and coral bleaching. A key aim is improved understanding of the molecular relationship between symbiotic partners to predict responses to climate change and examine mechanisms for adaptation and acclimatization.
- Coral diseases. The objective is to understand anthropogenic and climatic drivers of coral diseases, to develop strategies for control and reduction of their economic impacts.
- Coral and zooxanthellae physiology, sublethal stress indicators and energetic modeling. These studies are providing novel tools for monitoring and predicting responses by corals to climate change and other stressors.
- Genomics. Comparative genomics of corals and zooxanthellae will be used to establish for the first time the molecular basis for symbiosis and calcification, of critical importance for growth of corals and healthy reef development.
Program 5: Resilience of linked Social-Ecological Systems
Program Leader: Professor Terry Hughes
This novel program will provide new solutions to managing resilience and coping with change, uncertainty, risk, and surprise in complex social-ecological systems. The objective is to improve the governance and management of natural systems and enhance their capacity to sustain human and natural capital. This represents a major new program of innovative multi-disciplinary research which will combine expertise on coral reef biology, management, governance, economics and social sciences.
A major outcome will be developing information, guidelines and tools for coral reef managers and planners on climate change risks and adaptation options. The scope of this program will be global.
Program 6: Conservation Planning for a Sustainable Future
Program Leader: Professor Bob Pressey
The next generation of systematic planning tools to promote sustainable use of natural resources in marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments will be developed by this program. It will assist agencies, non-government organisations, statutory authorities and community groups to decide where, when and how to allocate management resources to benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services.
