Watching migrating whales: ensuring the sustainability of a growing whale-watch industry. Whale-watching is a huge growth industry, contributing $270 million to Australia in 2003. Yet most whalewatching targets species listed under the EPBC Act 1999 as species slowly recovering from massive overexploitation. Current protection measures are historical (ie best-guess) rather than scientific in origin. We will assess the scientific basis for these protection measures by experimentally manipulating ....Watching migrating whales: ensuring the sustainability of a growing whale-watch industry. Whale-watching is a huge growth industry, contributing $270 million to Australia in 2003. Yet most whalewatching targets species listed under the EPBC Act 1999 as species slowly recovering from massive overexploitation. Current protection measures are historical (ie best-guess) rather than scientific in origin. We will assess the scientific basis for these protection measures by experimentally manipulating tour boat behaviour, and by determining the economic feasibility of the industry. By doing so we will increase the long-term sustainability of the industry, a valuable tourist industry for regional Australia.Read moreRead less
Climate change and coral reef communities: predicting and managing future impacts. Coral reefs are critically important for the goods and services they provide, but are facing considerable threat from sustained, ongoing climate change. Results from this project, and supplementary data from other researchers within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, will help develop innovative strategies to manage the effects of climate change on coral reef ecosystems. There is no comparable te ....Climate change and coral reef communities: predicting and managing future impacts. Coral reefs are critically important for the goods and services they provide, but are facing considerable threat from sustained, ongoing climate change. Results from this project, and supplementary data from other researchers within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, will help develop innovative strategies to manage the effects of climate change on coral reef ecosystems. There is no comparable team in the world that has the capacity or resources to rigorously integrate world-class research into knowledge-based management of coral reef ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Environmental management of coral reef resilience. The primary aim of this project is to provide the scientific evidence needed to effectively manage and protect reef resilience within the GBR Marine Park. We will develop and apply scientific tools for understanding the large-scale effect of multiple physical environmental stresses on coral populations. Furthermore, we will determine how fish communities influence the potential for coral reefs to remain healthy in the face of global change. Cent ....Environmental management of coral reef resilience. The primary aim of this project is to provide the scientific evidence needed to effectively manage and protect reef resilience within the GBR Marine Park. We will develop and apply scientific tools for understanding the large-scale effect of multiple physical environmental stresses on coral populations. Furthermore, we will determine how fish communities influence the potential for coral reefs to remain healthy in the face of global change. Central to this work will be an evaluation of the potential of No-Take Zones, a contemporary management tool, to promote resilience and the ability of coral reefs to cope with environmental change.Read moreRead less
Vision and remote sensing: using nature's technology to examine the health of The Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay. We aim to use what is known and what we will discover about animals visual systems to examine environmental health on The Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay. Technology and knowledge from 8 university departments, 4 industry partners, and 7 international collaborators will be combined to both learn and provide information. The innovative aspect of our approach is to examine the w ....Vision and remote sensing: using nature's technology to examine the health of The Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay. We aim to use what is known and what we will discover about animals visual systems to examine environmental health on The Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay. Technology and knowledge from 8 university departments, 4 industry partners, and 7 international collaborators will be combined to both learn and provide information. The innovative aspect of our approach is to examine the world with the eyes of birds, fish and invertebrates. Tricks animals employ to solve visual tasks will be implemented at scales of instrumentation from hand-held to remote sensing and used to address problems such as coral reef bleaching.Read moreRead less
Population Viability Analysis of the Perth Metropolitan Population of the Little Penguin. The population of Little Penguins, breeding on Penguin and Garden Islands, in the Perth Metropolitan region, are an iconic species and a valuable ecotourism resource They breed and feed in close proximity to high human activity and a rapidly growing urban population. The nearest other major populations are located 600km to the south. The key benefit of this project is that it will provide a basis for meas ....Population Viability Analysis of the Perth Metropolitan Population of the Little Penguin. The population of Little Penguins, breeding on Penguin and Garden Islands, in the Perth Metropolitan region, are an iconic species and a valuable ecotourism resource They breed and feed in close proximity to high human activity and a rapidly growing urban population. The nearest other major populations are located 600km to the south. The key benefit of this project is that it will provide a basis for measuring the impacts of threats to this isolated population, and for testing management strategies. Thus it represents a key step in securing the long term future of the penguin population in Perth's waters.
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Impact of increased sediment and nutrient discharges on the long-term sustainability of the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia's greatest natural assets, is under increasing threat from extreme climatic events caused by global warming and from land-based pollution. This research will identify the main sources of sediment and nutrient pollution caused by river runoff and by how much this has increased above 'natural levels'. We will discover how the very sensitive offsho ....Impact of increased sediment and nutrient discharges on the long-term sustainability of the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia's greatest natural assets, is under increasing threat from extreme climatic events caused by global warming and from land-based pollution. This research will identify the main sources of sediment and nutrient pollution caused by river runoff and by how much this has increased above 'natural levels'. We will discover how the very sensitive offshore coral reefs have responded to increased pollution and whether this is the cause of the very devastating crown-of-thorn-starfish infestations. Understanding the long-term effects of land-based pollution on the ecology of coral reefs in the GBR will thus provide a scientific basis to help ensure that it has a sustainable future.Read moreRead less
Quantifying the effects of western colonisation on Great Barrier Reef molluscan communities. Dead shells provide a record of the pre-colonisation Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ecosystem. Using this record this research will determine what the GBR looked like before James Cook and the first fleet arrived in Australia. This study will also sample living molluscs to quantify the current state of these communities. Together these data will provide environment managers and stakeholders with the first quan ....Quantifying the effects of western colonisation on Great Barrier Reef molluscan communities. Dead shells provide a record of the pre-colonisation Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ecosystem. Using this record this research will determine what the GBR looked like before James Cook and the first fleet arrived in Australia. This study will also sample living molluscs to quantify the current state of these communities. Together these data will provide environment managers and stakeholders with the first quantitative estimates of human impacts on this world heritage ecosystem. This project will address the questions: Do protected areas return to a pre-colonial state or do they represent another non-natural state? What type of management scheme results in communities most similar to the pre-colonial state?Read moreRead less
The quality of seagrass as a dugong food resource: the importance of the effects of season and water depth. Australia has international obligations to conserve dugongs (sea cows). Dugongs rely on seagrasses for food. Knowledge of the abundance and quality of seagrasses, and how these change in response to the environment, is vital if dugong conservation is to have the necessary scientific basis. Research has focussed on intertidal seagrass as food for dugongs. However, deepwater seagrasses ....The quality of seagrass as a dugong food resource: the importance of the effects of season and water depth. Australia has international obligations to conserve dugongs (sea cows). Dugongs rely on seagrasses for food. Knowledge of the abundance and quality of seagrasses, and how these change in response to the environment, is vital if dugong conservation is to have the necessary scientific basis. Research has focussed on intertidal seagrass as food for dugongs. However, deepwater seagrasses are a mainstay of most significant dugong populations, such as the population in Hervey Bay, Queensland. This research will provide information on the effect of season and water depth on the quality of seagrasses as dugong food.Read moreRead less
Effectiveness of temperate Australian marine protected areas as tools for biodiversity conservation and informing fisheries management. The effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity protection and informing fisheries management will be investigated at a continental scale for the first time. Communities of fishes, invertebrates and plants at >100 sites within MPAs in WA, NSW and Tasmania will be studied from prior to fisheries protection, with changes over time compared with ....Effectiveness of temperate Australian marine protected areas as tools for biodiversity conservation and informing fisheries management. The effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity protection and informing fisheries management will be investigated at a continental scale for the first time. Communities of fishes, invertebrates and plants at >100 sites within MPAs in WA, NSW and Tasmania will be studied from prior to fisheries protection, with changes over time compared with changes at fished reference sites. This study represents a human predator exclusion experiment with a scale sufficiently large to distinguish general patterns from among site specific and species specific variability. It will provide management authorities with information crucial to determining MPA number, size and configuration.Read moreRead less
Larval Dispersal And The Design Of Marine Reserve Networks: Benefits Within And Beyond Boundaries. Most marine organisms produce tiny offspring that are dispersed unknown distances by oceanic currents. Our present strategies to manage marine resources lack this vital piece of information. This study will apply two revolutionary techniques that finally enable us to determine how far marine larvae travel. Using the team that developed these techniques, field studies will for the first time measure ....Larval Dispersal And The Design Of Marine Reserve Networks: Benefits Within And Beyond Boundaries. Most marine organisms produce tiny offspring that are dispersed unknown distances by oceanic currents. Our present strategies to manage marine resources lack this vital piece of information. This study will apply two revolutionary techniques that finally enable us to determine how far marine larvae travel. Using the team that developed these techniques, field studies will for the first time measure both retention of fish larvae within marine protected areas and dispersal of larvae to adjacent fished areas on coral reefs. This information can be directly applied to optimize the size of reserves and their spacing in marine protected area networks.Read moreRead less