Our science as featured in the news
AI IDENTIFIES HEAT-RESISTANT CORAL REEFS IN INDONESIA
A recent scientific survey off the coast of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia suggests that some shallow water corals may be less vulnerable to global warming than previously thought.
The June survey, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s family foundation, found the reefs were surprisingly healthy - a surprise for British scientist Dr Emma Kennedy, who led the research team.
Johnny Langenheim reports in the Guardian - 13th August 201
“the use of AI to rapidly analyse photographs of coral has vastly improved the efficiency of what we do — what would take a coral reef scientist 10 to 15 minutes now takes the machine a few seconds.”
The field team from L-R: Emma Kennedy, Patrick Gartrell, Kathryn Markey, Susie Green, Anjani Ganase and Dominic Bryant
CORAL REEF SCIENTISTS REVISIT IMPORTANT MARINE SITES IN INDONESIA
Researchers from The University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute have returned to Indonesia to resurvey coral reefs previously surveyed in September 2014.
Working with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) on a program funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the research will focus on marine national parks in the Karimunjawa Islands off the north coast of Central Java, and Bunaken National Park in north Sulawesi.
Team leader postdoctoral research fellow Dr Emma Kennedy said Karimunjawa and Bunaken were well-established marine parks that held great importance to Indonesia for both food security and tourism.
SCIENCE AND LEADERSHIP: HOMEWARD BOUND # 4
Homeward Bound is a groundbreaking leadership, strategic and science initiative for women, set against the backdrop of Antarctica.
The initiative aims to heighten the influence and impact of women with a science background in order to influence policy and decision making as it shapes our planet, within 10 years.
Applications closed this week for the fourth cohort of women, all with critical science (STEMM) backgrounds, to undertake a year-long state-of-the-art leadership program culminating in an Antarctic expedition.
You can watch my application video here!
“I was amazed at the damage the cyclones had caused. In the Keppels, one of our study reefs, and all my experiments, had been transformed to rubble by Tropical Cyclone Marcia”
CATASTROPHE ON THE REEF: CYCLONES AND BLEACHING
It has been a catastrophic few years for the world’s coral reefs: the worst ever mass bleaching event has devastated many of the world’s tropical corals, while back-to-back cyclones along the Great Barrier Reef have pummelled the already weakened mighty structure.
Find out what happened to our own coral reef experiments in this article from BBC Earth's Our Blue Planet blog.
Michelle Douglas reports for Our Blue Planet, May 2018.
DEFENDERS OF THE REEF: BBC rADIO 4 DOCUMENTARY 'COSTING THE EARTH'
Marine biologist, film-maker and friend, Ellen Husain studied the Great Barrier Reef for her Masters degree thirteen years ago. In this documentary for BBC Radio 4 she returns to dive with her old supervisor. The picture is grim. So much of the life she remembers has gone, wiped out by the great coral bleaching events caused by rising sea temperatures.
Some who love the reef are in despair, others who once chose to ignore the signs are finally energised, determined to do what they can to slow or even reverse the decline. Ellen meets the people of the reef- tour operators, aboriginal Sea Rangers and coral scientists- to discover if one of the great natural wonders of the world really can be saved.
BBC Radio 4 documentary Costing the Earth, aired 27/02/2018 at 15:30
“The future of coral reefs... is all dependent on us meeting those Paris Agreement targets”
AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE SUPERHEROS
Australian scientists work right across every inch of our sunburnt country, and across every field of discovery. This year, Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel has been shining a light on some of the Australian Science Superheroes with a new campaign.
It's hard to feel much like a superhero when the ecosystem you study has recently experienced an unprecedented die-off. Nonetheless, Emma was stoked to feature alongside other young scientists in the recent #AusScienceHeroes campaign.
“I’m a field biologist and study coral reefs, so I spend a lot of time upsidedown in the ocean staring at stuff. We’re worried about how the changing climate is affecting the organisms living on the Great Barrier Reef. My job is to investigate what’s happening and why.”
DAILY LIFE ON A MARINE RESEARCH STATION
Student Nathan Caromel made this great short film about what he got up to when he volunteered for the Coral Reef Algae Lab at Orpheus Island Research Station back in 2015.
You can relive a day in the life of a volunteer - from diving to retrieve experiments on beautiful Rib Reef, to processing samples in the lab.
Interested in volunteering? In Australia you can find opportunities at Lizard Island, James Cook University, University of Queensland and programs like Reef Check Australia. For opportunities abroad check out Operation Wallacea.
Large sections of australia's great barrier reef are now deaD, scientists find
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia has long been one of the world’s most magnificent natural wonders, so enormous it can be seen from space, so beautiful it can move visitors to tears. But the reef, and the profusion of sea creatures living near it, are in profound trouble.
Reported in the New York Times, Mar 2017
Stopping global warming is the only way to save the Great Barrier Reef, scientists warn
The survival of the Great Barrier Reef hinges on urgent moves to cut global warming because nothing else will protect coral from the coming cycle of mass bleaching events, new research has found. The study of three mass bleaching events on Australian reefs in 1998, 2002 and 2016 found coral was damaged by underwater heatwaves regardless of any local improvements to water quality or fishing controls. The research, authored by 46 scientists and published in Nature, raises serious questions about Australia’s long-term conservation plan for its famous reef, which invests heavily in lifting water quality but is silent on climate-change action.
Joshua Robertson reports in the Guardian.
“Securing a future for coral reefs, including intensively managed ones such as the Great Barrier Reef, ultimately requires urgent and rapid action to reduce global warming”
CEMENTING CORAL REEFS: CALCIFICATION OF CRUSTOSE CORALLINE ALGAE
Crustose coralline algae, or CCA, is an important part of what stabilises reef structures in changing conditions. To determine just how rising temperatures and ocean acidification affect CCA, researchers have deployed more than 144 'stations’ across 18 reefs.
“The relationship between coral and symbiotic algae is crucial to the survival of coral: the more we can understand about how and why it occurs, the better our chances of protecting reefs”
LARGE SCALE STUDY REVEALS NEW INSIGHTS INTO CORAL AND SYMBIOTIC ALGAE PARTNERSHIP
A large-scale study of Caribbean coral has yielded discoveries on the pairing process between an endangered coral and the microscopic symbiotic algae they rely on for survival.