Coral reefs and environmental change

Recent UNEP estimates have put the loss of reefs by the year 2100 at 30-50% of currently healthy coral reefs. My laboratory is located both in St Lucia and on Heron Island on the southern Great Barrier Reef and has become a focal point for studies trying to understand the basis of stress in reef-building corals. This spans the effect of nutrients, global warming and chemical impacts like cyanide. Our work in this area spans ecology, remote sensing, physiology and molecular studies. We hold two patents on a group of green fluorescent protein like compounds called pocilloporins. Recent work has begun to focus on the pathology of coral disease and on the stress proteins of the principal symbiont of reef-building corals, Symbiodinium. We have developed the first EST library for Symbiodinium.

Awards:

Eureka Prize for Research, awarded 1/10/1999
Sydney University Award for Excellence in Teaching, awarded 1/1/1996
UCLA Distinguished Scholar Award , awarded 1/1/1988

Selected Publications:

Hoegh-Guldberg, O (2005). Low coral cover in a high-CO2 world. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 110, in press

Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove, Maoz Fine, William Skirving, Ron Johnstone, Sophie Dove, and Alan Strong (2005). Coral bleaching following wintry weather. Limnol. Oceanogr. 50: 265-271

Hoegh-Guldberg, O, Muscatine, L, Goiran, C, Siggaard, D, Marion, G (2004). Nutrient induced perturbations to δ13C and δ15N in symbiotic dinoflagellates and their coral hosts. Marine Ecology Progress Series 280:105-114

Hoegh-Guldberg , O. ,R. J. Jones, S. Ward, W. K. Loh (2002). Is coral bleaching really adaptive? Nature, 415: 601-602.

Hoegh-Guldberg, O. (1999). Coral bleaching, Climate Change and the future of the world’s Coral Reefs. Review, Marine and Freshwater Research, 50:839-866.

Professional Associations:

The Australian Climate Group http://www.iag.com.au/pub/iag/sustainability/publications/climate/intro.shtml

Royal Society working group on Ocean Acidification http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=2557

GEF-World Bank Project Ð Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building http://www.gefcoral.org/

Stanford-Australia Program http://osp.stanford.edu/program/australia/

International Society for Reef Studies http://www.fit.edu/isrs/

Funded Projects:

ARC Centre for Excellence.

ARC, 2005-2009 , $12 million

Coral Bleaching and related ecological factors.

GEF, 2005-2009, $2.0 million

Ecology, physiology and molecular microbiology of coral disease on the Great Barrier Reef.

ARC, 2004-2006, $300,000

GEF World Bank Targeted Research for Coral Reef Management

GEF-World Bank, 2005-2009, $24 million

Long-term changes in Mackay Whitsunday water quality and connectivity between coral reefs and mangrove ecosystems.

ARC, 2005-2007, $600,000

MARINE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK - infrastructure for island research stations.

DEST, 2002-2005 , $10.7 million

New tools for managing ecosystem responses to climate change on the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Smart State Research Facilities Funding for a Queensland Marine Science Centre.

Smart State, 2005 , $3.5 million

Solar radiation, coral bleaching and climate change.

ARC, 2004-2006, $500,000

Tracing the origins of stress in the symbionts of reef-building corals.

ARC, 2003-2006, $650,000

Student Projects Available:

Stress biology of coral reefs

Student Level: Honours Start Year: 2005 Sem Available: sem 1 and 2

Stress biology of coral reefs.

Student Level: PhD Start Year: 2005 Sem Available: Sem 1 or 2

Postdoctoral Staff:

FINE Maoz - The University of Queensland
LEGGAT Bill - The University of Queensland - Elucidating the genes involved in the stress response of the coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis
LEVY Oren - The University of Queensland
WARD Selina - The University of Queensland - Coral Reef Ecology and Physiology
RIDGWAY Tyrone - The University of Queensland - Coral reef connectivity
LOH William - The University of Queensland
SCHOENBERG Christine - The University of Queensland
HARI Saki - The University of Queensland - Reef connectivity based on biochemical and ecological study of coral larvae

Students:

FISHER Paul - PhD
NIJGH DE SAMPAYO Eugenia - PhD
AINSWORTH Tracy - PhD
KVENNEFORS Charlotte - PhD
ALBERT Simon - PhD
ROELFSEMA Chris - PhD
REEF Ruth - PhD
DIAZ-RUIZ Ayax - PhD
FELLEGARA Ida - PhD
HENDERSON Meegan - PhD
DAVY Joanne - PhD
MARION Guy - PhD
ORTIZ Juan - PhD
KANIEWSKA Paulina - PhD
ENGELHARDT Udo - PhD
ROFF Jez - PhD - "Historical ecology of coral communities from the central inshore Great Barrier Reef: a palaeoecological approach"
LAWTON Angela - PhD
KONGJANDTRE Narinratana - PhD - The taxonomy and systematics of corals genus Favia in Thai waters
BONGAERTS Pim - PhD - Ecological significance of deep light-dependent coral communities
MIDDLEBROOK Rachael - PhD - Determining thermal threshold dynamics and variability in reef building corals
VEAL Cameron - PhD - Micro Scale Light Fields of shallow coral reefs: Optical and Hydrodynamic Interactions
BONGAERTS Pim - PhD
ALLEN Campbell - MPhil

Research Visitors:

Dr Todd LaJeunesse (Florida Institute of Technology)

Dr Ken Anthony (James Coook University)

Dr Michael Kuhl (University of Copenhagen)

Dr Bill Fitt (University of Georgia, Athens, USA)

Dr Roberto Iglesias-Prieto (UNAM, Mexico)