Reef Matters seminar series

The ACRS is a strong and long-standing community of coral reef researchers who have previously come together in near-yearly conferences. Due to travel restrictions and border closures over the past year, the ACRS Reef Matters Seminar Series was designed to keep our membership connected and informed in lieu of annual in-person meetings. The online seminars have occurred every 4–6 weeks and reflect our broad and multidisciplinary and international membership from students through to veterans. It is important that we stay connected as a community, and that we are given the opportunity to share our research, our views and our personalities.

If you are interested in participating in the Reef Matters series with a seminar please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Dr. Anna Scott anna.scott@scu.edu.au Dr. Kennedy Wolfe K.wolfe@uq.edu.au

The impact of diet on the growth of the juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish.

by Prof. Maria Byrne & Dione Deaker

As part of our Reef Matters Seminar Series, we are pleased to present the work of Professor Maria Byrne (2019 ACRS Established Researcher) and her student Dione Deaker (2020 ACRS Terry Walker awardee) from the University of Sydney. Their talks, titled “Filling in pieces of the crown-of-thorns puzzle” explores the fascinating life history and behaviour of the crown of thorns starfish and how these findings may help shape future management decisions for Australia’s coral reefs.

Watch Prof. Byrne and Ms. Deaker’s seminar here.

Baselines still shift, reefs still degrade, most of us don’t really care. Is there a future with coral reefs?

by Emeritus Prof. Peter Sale

With hindsight, it is clear that coral reefs were degrading globally even before reef ecology really got started in 1955. The causes were various and the trajectories differed from place to place. Mostly, reef scientists failed to notice the generality of decline until remarkably recently, while being well aware that reefs were being degraded in some locations, usually for obvious, local reasons. I discuss the attitudes and the paradigms that likely caused this failure to appreciate this human-caused, global deterioration in coral reef condition. I also look forward to a possible future which includes viable, high-diversity, productive, actively calcifying reefs, and to a much more likely future where reefs as we knew them in the 1960s have disappeared entirely. Reaching that desirable, but less likely, future will require substantial innovation in our understanding of the dynamics of complex ecological systems, and a recasting of conservation as assisting and steering rather than preserving or restoring coral reef systems. Achieving this future would be of real benefit to humanity and the planet. It could also bring opportunities for scientific research on coral reefs that are every bit as wonderful and rewarding as the great discoveries of past decades.

Watch Emeritus Prof. Sale’s seminar here.

Advancing our capabilities to map and monitor coral reefs - global information with local detail.

by Dr. Chris Roelfsema

We outline a new global coral reef mapping effort that combines detailed ecological information and knowledge with global scale satellite image data sets. This talk will demonstrate how the detailed spatial information supports coral reef research using examples for the Great Barrier Reef. The resulting maps provide information on reef geomorphic zonation and benthic cover types in a globally consistent approach, driven by local scale information. These products are intended to be the first version of a data set that is updated continually based on input from reef science and management communities globally. We present the approach used, which is based on a progression of applied research projects in the Great Barrier Reef. We show how Geomorphic Zonation, and Benthic Cover maps were/are created combining field data, satellite imagery, reef physical attributes (depth, slope, wave climate), and spatial modelling algorithms. Examples will be shown on how improved understanding of the geomorphic and benthic composition of individual reefs to support development, validation and refinement of water quality models, reef restoration plans, connectivity modelling and marine park planning.

Watch Dr. Roelfsema’s seminar here.

Coral health in an era of ecosystem change.

by Assoc. Prof. Tracy Ainsworth & Dr. Coulson Lantz

Coral bleaching has now impacted reefs worldwide. We have entered an era of nearannual bleaching events and an accumulation of environmental stressors driving change on coral reefs. Here we ask – how do we better understand, define and quantify coral health and coral reef ecosystem health in this era of ecosystem change.

Assoc. Prof. Tracy Ainsworth and Dr. Coulson Lantz present recent research documenting coral bleaching events of the past two years on reefs along Australia’s east coast reef habitats including the southern Great Barrier Reef, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, and discuss the importance of understanding coral reef change, and the consequences to coral and reef health, across the reef ecosystems of Australia. Dr Lantz will also discuss a new home for coral reef health data which aligns with emerging trends in environmental accounting and how coral reef scientists around the world can help.

Watch Assoc. Prof. Ainsworth and Dr. Lantz seminars here.

Underwater, electronic, and armchair science.

by Dr. Charles Veron

Most of my life’s work has emanated from thousands of hours looking at corals. And then I’ve spent endless hours in front of a computer screen, as have we all. And, I’ll confess, I’ve spent even more time just thinking. What in all this can be called research or science? I put my case and leave it to you to consider, and decide, how these ways and means might have changed today

Watch Dr. Veron’s seminar here.