ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9329-6717
Current Organisation
University of Tasmania
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Ecosystem Function | Ecological Applications | Oceanography | Physical Oceanography | Glaciology | Climate Change Processes
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Environments (excl. Social Impacts) | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Environments | Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Marine Environments |
Related Links
Publications
Australian sea-floor survey data, with images and expert annotations
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-10-2015
Abstract: This Australian benthic data set (BENTHOZ-2015) consists of an expert-annotated set of georeferenced benthic images and associated sensor data, captured by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) around Australia. This type of data is of interest to marine scientists studying benthic habitats and organisms. AUVs collect georeferenced images over an area with consistent illumination and altitude, and make it possible to generate broad scale, photo-realistic 3D maps. Marine scientists then typically spend several minutes on each of thousands of images, labeling substratum type and biota at a subset of points. Labels from four Australian research groups were combined using the CATAMI classification scheme, a hierarchical classification scheme based on taxonomy and morphology for scoring marine imagery. This data set consists of 407,968 expert labeled points from around the Australian coast, with associated images, geolocation and other sensor data. The robotic surveys that collected this data form part of Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) ongoing benthic monitoring program. There is reuse potential in marine science, robotics, and computer vision research.
Choosing between strategies for designing surveys: autonomous underwater vehicles
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-01-2014
Stop ignoring map uncertainty in biodiversity science and conservation policy
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-05-2022
The potential of trait-based approaches to contribute to marine conservation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Quantifying fish assemblages in large, offshore marine protected areas: an Australian case study
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-10-2014
Statistical solutions for error and bias in global citizen science datasets
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
Integrating abundance and functional traits reveals new global hotspots of fish diversity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2013
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE12529
Abstract: Species richness has dominated our view of global bio ersity patterns for centuries. The dominance of this paradigm is reflected in the focus by ecologists and conservation managers on richness and associated occurrence-based measures for understanding drivers of broad-scale ersity patterns and as a biological basis for management. However, this is changing rapidly, as it is now recognized that not only the number of species but the species present, their phenotypes and the number of in iduals of each species are critical in determining the nature and strength of the relationships between species ersity and a range of ecological functions (such as biomass production and nutrient cycling). Integrating these measures should provide a more relevant representation of global bio ersity patterns in terms of ecological functions than that provided by simple species counts. Here we provide comparisons of a traditional global bio ersity distribution measure based on richness with metrics that incorporate species abundances and functional traits. We use data from standardized quantitative surveys of 2,473 marine reef fish species at 1,844 sites, spanning 133 degrees of latitude from all ocean basins, to identify new ersity hotspots in some temperate regions and the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. These relate to high ersity of functional traits amongst in iduals in the community (calculated using Rao's Q), and differ from previously reported patterns in functional ersity and richness for terrestrial animals, which emphasize species-rich tropical regions only. There is a global trend for greater evenness in the number of in iduals of each species, across the reef fish species observed at sites ('community evenness'), at higher latitudes. This contributes to the distribution of functional ersity hotspots and contrasts with well-known latitudinal gradients in richness. Our findings suggest that the contribution of species ersity to a range of ecosystem functions varies over large scales, and imply that in tropical regions, which have higher numbers of species, each species contributes proportionally less to community-level ecological processes on average than species in temperate regions. Metrics of ecological function usefully complement metrics of species ersity in conservation management, including when identifying planning priorities and when tracking changes to bio ersity values.
Integrating Seafloor Habitat Mapping and Fish Assemblage Patterns Improves Spatial Management Planning in a Marine Park
Publisher: Coastal Education and Research Foundation
Date: 03-03-2016
DOI: 10.2112/SI75-259.1
Contaminated suspended sediments toxic to an antarctic filter feeder: Aqueous- and particulate-phase effects
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2009
DOI: 10.1897/08-328.1
Abstract: Disturbances such as dredging, storms, and bioturbation result in the resuspension of sediments. This may affect sessile organisms that live on hard substrates directly above the sediment. Localized sediment contamination exists around many Antarctic research stations, often resulting in elevated contamination loads in marine sediments. To our knowledge, the potential impact of resuspended contaminated sediments on sessile fauna has not been considered, so in the present study, we assessed the sensitivity of Antarctic spirorbid polychaetes to aqueous metals and to metal-contaminated sediments that had been experimentally resuspended. Worms were first exposed to aqueous metals, both singly and in combination, over 10 d. Spirorbid mortality was tolerant to copper (median lethal concentration [LC50], 570 microg/L), zinc (LC50, > 4,910 microg/L), and lead (LC50, > 2,905 microg/L) however, spirorbid behavior responded to copper concentrations as low as 20 microg/L. When in combination, zinc significantly reduced mortality caused by copper. A novel technique was used to resuspend sediments spiked with four concentrations of three metals (up to 450 microg/g dry wt of copper, 525 micro/g dry wt of lead, and 2,035 microg/g dry wt of zinc). The response of spirorbids to unfiltered suspended sediment solutions and filtered solutions (aqueous metal exposure) was measured. Suspended sediments were toxic to filter-feeding spirorbids at concentrations approximating those found in contaminated Antarctica areas. Toxicity resulted both from aqueous metals and from metals associated with the suspended sediments, although suspended clean sediments had no impact. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to show that resuspension of contaminated sediments can be an important pathway for toxicity to Antarctic hard substrate organisms. Based on the present results, current sediment-quality guidelines used in the evaluation of Australian sediments may be applicable to Antarctic ecosystems.
Filling the gaps: Predicting the distribution of temperate reef biota using high resolution biological and acoustic data
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2014
Outcropping reef ledges drive patterns of epibenthic assemblage diversity on cross-shelf habitats
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-02-2016
Model‐based mapping of assemblages for ecology and conservation management: A case study of demersal fish on the Kerguelen Plateau
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-09-2017
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12613
Efficacy of baited remote underwater video systems and bait type in the cool-temperature zone for monitoring `no-take? marine reserves
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1071/MF15165
Abstract: Cool-temperate reef fish assemblages are often poorly described below 20m because of depth limitations of conventional er-based visual census. The recent development of baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) provide an alternative quantitative s ling method. Despite being used in warmer temperate and tropical waters and cool-temperate waters in Victoria, initial trials of vertical BRUVs in Tasmania, Australia, provided poor results. Our study explored possible reasons for this, including using horizontal BRUVs and various baits across a depth gradient. We examined the fish fauna in, and adjacent to, a small, but long-established, no-take marine reserve to assess the potential for BRUVs to enhance monitoring programs in exposed coastal environments. Significant differences in the fish assemblage were described relating to location, depth and bait type, with pilchards being an effective bait type. Fish abundance and species richness increased with depth. The research validated BRUVs for monitoring deep-reef systems in Tasmania, reinforced the importance of depth in structuring fish assemblages and identified the range of observable species in this region that may not be fully captured with er-based surveys alone. Power analyses were conducted using the data generated here to inform the amount of replication needed to detect biologically meaningful differences in targeted fish assemblages in subsequent studies examining the response of no-take marine reserves to protection. This facilitates future assessments of the effectiveness of Tasmanian no-take reserves and allows for more broad-scale studies that can address a range of ecological and conservation questions.
Phylogenetic and geographic variation in host breadth and composition by herbivorous amphipods in the family ampithoidae
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-11-2008
DOI: 10.1111/J.1558-5646.2007.00261.X
Abstract: Predicting the host range for herbivores has been a major aim of research into plant-herbivore interactions and an important model system for understanding the evolution of feeding specialization. Among many terrestrial insects, host range is strongly affected by herbivore phylogeny and long historical associations between particular herbivore and plant taxa. For small herbivores in marine environments, it is known that the evolution of host use is sculpted by several ecological factors (e.g., food quality, value as a refuge from predators, and abiotic forces), but the potential for phylogenetic constraints on host use remains largely unexplored. Here, we analyze reports of host use of herbivorous hipods from the family Ampithoidae (102 hipod species from 12 genera) to test the hypotheses that host breadth and composition vary among herbivore lineages, and to quantify the extent to which nonpolar secondary metabolites mediate these patterns. The family as a whole, and most in idual species, are found on a wide variety of macroalgae and seagrasses. Despite this polyphagous host use, hipod genera consistently differed in host range and composition. As an ex le, the genus Per hithoe rarely use available macrophytes in the order Dictyotales (e.g., Dictyota) and as a consequence, display a more restricted host range than do other genera (e.g., Ampithoe, Cymadusa, or Ex ithoe). The strong phylogenetic effect on host use was independent of the uneven distribution of host taxa among geographic regions. Algae that produced nonpolar secondary metabolites were colonized by higher numbers of hipod species relative to chemically poor genera, consistent with the notion that secondary metabolites do not provide algae an escape from hipod herbivory. In contrast to patterns described for some groups of phytophagous insects, marine hipods that use chemically rich algae tended to have broader, not narrower, host ranges. This result suggests that an evolutionary advantage to metabolite tolerance in marine hipods may be that it increases the availability of appropriate algal hosts (i.e., enlarges the resource base).
Defining and observing stages of climate-mediated range shifts in marine systems
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
The Antarctic Seafloor Annotated Imagery Database
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 18-02-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.16.528770
Abstract: Marine imagery is a comparatively cost-effective way to collect data on seafloor organisms, bio ersity and habitat morphology. However, annotating these images to extract detailed biological information is time-consuming and expensive, and reference libraries of consistently annotated seafloor images are rarely publicly available. Here, we present the Antarctic Seafloor Annotated Imagery Database (AS-AID), a result of a multinational collaboration to collate and annotate regional seafloor imagery datasets from 19 Antarctic research cruises between 1985 and 2019. AS-AID comprises of 3,599 georeferenced downward facing seafloor images that have been labelled with a total of 615,051 expert annotations. Annotations are based on the CATAMI (Collaborative and Automated Tools for Analysis of Marine Imagery) classification scheme and have been reviewed by experts. In addition, because the pixel location of each annotation within each image is available, annotations can be viewed easily and customised to suit in idual research priorities. This dataset can be used to investigate species distributions, community patterns, it provides a reference to assess change through time, and can be used to train algorithms to automatically detect and annotate marine fauna.
Do marine substrates ‘look’ and ‘sound’ the same? Supervised classification of multibeam acoustic data using autonomous underwater vehicle images
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2013
Quantifying wave exposure in shallow temperate reef systems: applicability of fetch models for predicting algal biodiversity
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 04-11-2010
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS08815
Grazing effects of the sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii in two contrasting rocky reef habitats: effects of urchin density and its implications for the fishery
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2003
DOI: 10.1071/MF03052
Abstract: The sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii plays an important role in determining the abundance and composition of benthic macroalgae in New South Wales. Centrostephanus rodgersii is commonly found in areas devoid of foliose algae (termed 'barrens habitat'), which abruptly change into areas rich in foliose algae (termed 'fringe habitat'). Complementary experiments were used to investigate the impact of C. rodgersii grazing on algal assemblages at a range of densities in the barrens and fringe habitats. Although 33% of the natural density of C.�rodgersii maintained barrens areas relatively free of foliose algae, only densities exceeding natural densities within barrens habitat cleared areas dominated by macroalgae. The impact of grazing was not linearly related to density in either habitat, which suggests that both the barrens and fringe habitats are stable and will persist unless there is a dramatic decrease in urchin densities in barrens areas or a large influx into fringe areas. These findings have significant implications for the commercial harvesting of C. rodgersii. They imply that reducing urchin densities in barrens habitats, or translocating urchins from barrens to fringe habitats in order to improve roe quality, will not significantly alter the algal assemblage of either habitat in the short term (less than 3 months).
Benefits and risks of incremental protected area planning in the Southern Ocean
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-03-2023
Remote sensing of Antarctic polychaete reefs (Serpula narconensis): reproducible workflows for quantifying benthic structural complexity with action cameras, remotely operated vehicles and stru
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-07-2023
DOI: 10.1002/RSE2.358
Abstract: Quantifying the structural complexity provided by biogenic habitat structures is important in ecology, conservation and management, and yet remains a challenging task, particularly in deep sea and polar environments, that current photogrammetry tools can alleviate. In this study, we demonstrate how small remotely operated vehicles and compact underwater GoPro® action cameras can be easily integrated into coastal Antarctic surveys to quantify structural complexity of under‐ice benthos via underwater photogrammetry. Forty‐four pairs of 1 m 2 quadrats at 1 cm resolution, each comprising an orthomosaic and three‐dimensional reconstructions, were analyzed to describe relationships between benthic cover and structural complexity metrics. The study case provided insights into a unique biogenic habitat, highlighting the role of integrating structural complexity metrics in Antarctic benthic surveys. Although no clear relationships between structural complexity and bio ersity were found, high cover of live reef‐building polychaetes was associated with higher levels of structural complexity, particularly fractal dimension ( D ). Further, broken biogenic structures, product of disturbance events retain habitat structural complexity known to be associated with larvae settlement and biogenic reef growth. This suggests that D can be used as a metric for detecting subtle changes in biogenic structural complexity. We build from available open‐source code, a reproducible scientific workflow that is expected to facilitate the acquisition and analysis of structural complexity metrics. The workflow presented aims to encourage and accelerate the use of photogrammetry tools for benthic studies aiming to quantify biogenic structural complexity across depths and latitudes.
Altered niche of an ecologically significant urchin species, Centrostephanus rodgersii, in its extended range revealed using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2015
Sources of variation in herbivore preference: among-individual and past diet effects on amphipod host choice
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-04-2006
Loss of native rocky reef biodiversity in Australian metropolitan embayments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2015.03.023
Abstract: Urbanisation of the coastal zone represents a key threat to marine bio ersity, including rocky reef communities which often possess disproportionate ecological, recreational and commercial importance. The nature and magnitude of local urban impacts on reef bio ersity near three Australian capital cities were quantified using visual census methods. The most impacted reefs in urbanised embayments were consistently characterised by smaller, faster growing species, reduced fish biomass and richness, and reduced mobile invertebrate abundance and richness. Reef faunal distribution varied significantly with heavy metals, local population density, and proximity to city ports, while native fish and invertebrate communities were most depauperate in locations where invasive species were abundant. Our study adds impetus for improved urban planning and pollution management practises, while also highlighting the potential for skilled volunteers to improve the tracking of changes in marine bio ersity values and the effectiveness of management intervention.
Mapping Habitats and Developing Baselines in Offshore Marine Reserves with Little Prior Knowledge: A Critical Evaluation of a New Approach
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-10-2015
Interactive responses of primary producers and grazers to pollution on temperate rocky reefs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.ENVPOL.2018.02.061
Abstract: Macroalgal beds provide important habitat structure and support primary production for rocky reef communities, but are increasingly degraded as a result of human pressures. Various sources of pollution can have both direct and interactive effects on stressed ecosystems. In particular, interactions involving invertebrate grazers could potentially weaken or strengthen the overall impact of pollution on macroalgal beds. Using a paired impact-control experimental design, we tested the effects of multiple pollution sources (fish farms, marinas, sewerage, and stormwater) on translocated and locally established algal assemblages, while also considering the influence of invertebrate grazers. Marinas directly affected algal assemblages and also reduced densities of hipods and other invertebrate mesograzers. Fish farms and sewerage outfalls tended to directly increase local establishment of foliose and leathery algae without any indication of changes in herbivory. Overall, pollution impacts on algae did not appear to be strongly mediated by changes in grazer abundance. Instead, mesograzer abundance was closely linked to availability of more complex algal forms, with populations likely to decline concurrently with loss of complex algal habitats. Macrograzers, such as sea urchins, showed no signs of a negative impact from any pollution source hence, the influence of this group on algal dynamics is probably persistent and independent of moderate pollution levels, potentially adding to the direct impacts of pollution on algal beds in urbanised environments.
Characterization of Shallow Inshore Coastal Reefs on the Tasman Peninsula, Southeastern Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2012
Predictions of beta diversity for reef macroalgae across southeastern Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2011
DOI: 10.1890/ES11-00089.1
Using an autonomous underwater vehicle to inform management of biodiversity in shelf waters.
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 05-2010
Beyond the bed: Effects of metal contamination on recruitment to bedded sediments and overlying substrata
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.ENVPOL.2012.09.029
Abstract: Metal-contaminated sediments pose a recognised threat to sediment-dwelling fauna. Re-mobilisation of contaminated sediments however, may impact more broadly on benthic ecosystems, including on erse assemblages living on hard substrata patches immediately above sediments. We used manipulative field experiments to simultaneously test for the effects of metal contamination on recruitment to marine sediments and overlying hard substrata. Recruitment to sediments was strongly and negatively affected by metal contamination. However, while assemblage-level effects on hard-substratum fauna and flora were observed, most functional groups were unaffected or slightly enhanced by exposure to contaminated sediments. Diversity of hard-substratum fauna was also enhanced by metal contamination at one site. Metal-contaminated sediments appear to pose less of a hazard to hard-substratum than sediment-dwelling assemblages, perhaps due to a lower direct contaminant exposure or to indirect effects mediated by contaminant impacts on sediment fauna. Our results indicate that current sediment quality guidelines are protective of hard-substrata organisms.
Determining marine bioregions: A comparison of quantitative approaches
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-08-2020
Image subsampling and point scoring approaches for large-scale marine benthic monitoring programs
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2016
Species traits and climate velocity explain geographic range shifts in an ocean warming hotspot
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12474
Abstract: Species' ranges are shifting globally in response to climate warming, with substantial variability among taxa, even within regions. Relationships between range dynamics and intrinsic species traits may be particularly apparent in the ocean, where temperature more directly shapes species' distributions. Here, we test for a role of species traits and climate velocity in driving range extensions in the ocean-warming hotspot of southeast Australia. Climate velocity explained some variation in range shifts, however, including species traits more than doubled the variation explained. Swimming ability, omnivory and latitudinal range size all had positive relationships with range extension rate, supporting hypotheses that increased dispersal capacity and ecological generalism promote extensions. We find independent support for the hypothesis that species with narrow latitudinal ranges are limited by factors other than climate. Our findings suggest that small-ranging species are in double jeopardy, with limited ability to escape warming and greater intrinsic vulnerability to stochastic disturbances.
Algal canopy as a proxy for the disturbance history of understorey communities in East Antarctica
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-12-2011
Seawater temperature effect on metal accumulation and toxicity in the subantarctic Macquarie Island isopod, Exosphaeroma gigas
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.AQUATOX.2016.06.002
Abstract: Very little is currently known of subantarctic nearshore invertebrates' sensitivity to environmental metals and the role of temperature in this relationship. This study investigated Cu and Zn toxicity in the common subantarctic intertidal isopod, Exosphaeroma gigas, and the influence of temperature on Cu toxicity and bioaccumulation kinetics. Adult E. gigas are insensitive to Cu and Zn at concentrations of 3200 and 7400μg/L respectively in non-renewal tests at 5.5°C (ambient subtidal temperature) over 14days. Under renewed exposures over the same temperature and time period the LC50 for copper was 2204μg/L. A 10-fold increase in Cu body burden occurred relative to zinc, indicating E. gigas has different strategies for regulating the two metals. Copper toxicity and time to mortality both increased with elevated temperature. However, temperature did not significantly affect Cu uptake rate and efflux rate constants derived from biodynamic modelling at lower Cu concentrations. These results may be attributable to E. gigas being an intertidal species with physiological mechanisms adapted to fluctuating environmental conditions. Cu concentrations required to elicit a toxicity response indicates that E. gigas would not be directly threatened by current levels of Cu or Zn present in Macquarie Island intertidal habitats, with the associated elevated temperature fluctuations. This study provides evidence that the sensitivity of this subantarctic intertidal species to metal contaminants is not as high as expected, and which has significance for the derivation of relevant guidelines specific to this distinct subpolar region of the world.
Sources of variation in herbivore preference: among-individual and past diet effects on amphipod host choice
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-04-2006
A standardised vocabulary for identifying benthic biota and substrata from underwater imagery: the CATAMI Classification Scheme
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-10-2015
Physico-chemical changes in metal-spiked sediments deployed in the field: Implications for the interpretation of in situ studies
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.CHEMOSPHERE.2010.12.089
Abstract: Manipulative field studies are useful for investigating cause-effect relationships between contamination and benthic community health. However, there are many challenges for creating environmentally relevant exposures and determining what measurements are necessary to correctly interpret the results. This study describes the physical and chemical changes in the properties of metal-spiked marine sediments deployed in four different locations for up to 11 months. The test sediments lost between 20% and 75% of their volume during the deployment period, with the greatest losses occurring at sites affected by strong hydrodynamic activity. More sediment was lost from clean treatments than those spiked with high metal concentrations and corresponded with differential recruitment of infauna to these treatments. In general, a greater proportion of spiked-metals remained at lower energy sites (48-85%) than at higher energy sites (15-48%). The decreased metal concentrations were attributed mostly to the loss of the metal-spiked sediments (through resuspension) and their dilution with sediments depositing from the surrounding environment. A range of recommendations are made for optimising the information gained from field-based studies using metal-spiked sediments. These include the careful documentation of physico-chemical sediment properties pre- and post-deployment, the use of co-located sediment traps and knowledge of site-specific hydrodynamic processes.
Spatial associations among palatable and unpalatable macroalgae: A test of associational resistance with a herbivorous amphipod
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2005
Related Organisations
Related Funding Activities
Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP190101858
Start Date: 03-2019
End Date: 08-2023
Amount: $660,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivitySpecial Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200100008
Start Date: 08-2021
End Date: 12-2027
Amount: $20,000,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity