Exploring Reef Science

2001 Reports

• Underwater hitchhikers on the bottom of boats
  Yacht owners know that removing fouling organisms from the hull of their boat can be expensive and laborious ...

2000 Reports

• The Great Barrier Reef Media Monitoring Project
  Report 1. January - April 2000 ...
• Microbial menace
  Corals on the Great Barrier Reef have been largely immune to disease. Yet recent work by Townsville scientists ...

1999 Reports

• Oceans of wealth in sea cucumbers
  Farming and replenishing wild populations of tropical sea cucumbers could see coastal com-munities ...
• Building coral viewing platforms on tourist pontoons
  Harvesting and growing corals to enhance underwater observatories on floating tourist pontoons ...
• 3-dimension ocean model maps seabed, reefs and islands
  Marine park managers and coral reef scientists will soon be using advanced three-dimensional topographic models ...
• Eight eyes but no brain
  Surely an animal with eight eyes would also have a clever brain to sort out what it sees from all directions at once? Not necessarily so. ...
• Sifting through the mud
  Chemical run-off from cane farms and its effect on our coastal seabeds is a hot environmental topic ...
• Controlling Crown-of-thorns Starfish
  The crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is a natural inhabitant of coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific Region. 'Normal' (non-outbreaking) densities of starfish ...
• Clownfish have a nose for perfume
  Clownfish spend their entire life in a kind of marriage with their poisonous host, the sea anemone ...
• Social and economic study helps aquarium fish industry
  Queensland's reputation as a world leader in producing quality fish for the tropical aquarium fish trade is being enhanced by fisheries researchers ...
• Computer technology tracks movement of larval billions
  It's difficult enough trying to track the movement of a fully grown fish in reef waters ...

1998 Reports

• Are corals failing to cope with the stresses of modern life?
  From satellite imagery to biochemistry, scientists are using a range of tools to understand coral bleaching, and why it is getting worse ...
• Larval biology and super-computers connect source and sink reefs
  Advances in technology and collaboration between mathematicians and marine biologists are providing new insights into ocean currents that connect organisms ...
• Dugongs in the Great Barrier Reef: the current state of research
  One of the reasons for nominating the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Area in 1981 was its importance as a feeding ground for large populations of dugongs...
• Coral bands unlock climate history
  Global temperatures have risen about 0.5 degrees celsius over the last 100 years ...
• Seagrass watchers get scientific about coastal monitoring
  Local community groups are joining forces with marine scientists to monitor changes in the growth, distribution and composition of what is probably Queensland's most important marine plant - seagrass ..
• River sediment stays close to coast
  People have become increasingly concerned in recent years that sediment washed down by rivers into the sea might be harming corals on the Great Barrier Reef ...
• 'Charismatic megafauna' research sets new tourism guidelines
  Most people wouldn't see a connection between echinoderms and large marine animals. But to reef scientist Dr Alastair Birtles, there ...
• Oil spill study helps protect coastal mangroves
  A research project funded by Australia's offshore petroleum industry will help to reduce future impacts of large oil spills on mangrove habitats...
• Reef monitoring program - a baseline for measuring change
  There is now a solid basis for measuring 'big picture' changes to populations of corals, reef fishes and crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier ...
• Science for management of the Great Barrier Reef (external link!)

1997 Reports

• Mud layers reveal coastal history
  Hidden inside the layers of coastal mud built up over the centuries in Hinchinbrook Channel, Missionary Bay and Bowling Green Bay, are signals of river catchment land use change ...
• Good politics and science will save coral reefs
  Australia's coral reef scientists and managers enjoy an enviable reputation as world leaders in marine research, education and protected area management ...
• Canaries in the coal mine: Corals in the Reef
  ... how corals can be used as environmental indicators for the health of the Great Barrier Reef ...
• Ballast research to kill shipping hitch-hikers
  More than 2000 large ships, including 200 tankers, travel through the Reef region each year ...
• Research, not rumors, needed for live fishing industry
  Recent debate on Queensland's expanding live fish trade has prompted fisheries scientists to study this new industry ...
• Serial spawners of coral reefs
  A research project on the reproduction of common coral trout has discovered widespread group mating rituals at selected sites ...
• Visitor survey helps tour operators understand travel trends
  Great Barrier Reef tour operators now have a much better understanding of what travellers want from a day on the Reef thanks to an innovative visitor data base ...
• Novice snorkellers need help on reef trails
  A James Cook University study into the impacts of snorkellers on self-guided underwater trails has found unintentional fin damage to corals could be minimised ...
• Fruits of the sea: seeds of coastal seagrasses
  Do marine plants respond to natural disturbances in the same way as their terrestrial relatives ...
• Small whale attracts big interest
  When dwarf minke whales began approaching tourist boats on the Great Barrier Reef in the early 1990s, Dr Peter Arnold knew that something special was occurring ...
• Spawning studies investigate bleaching effects
  A CRC research project on soft coral reproduction has found a new link between spawning and the 'bleaching' phenomenon ...
• Eco-Tourism training boost for Queensland
  Private eco-tourism operators are set to receive a boost as qualified tour guides ...
• Crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef: the facts
  Marine scientists have recently announced another outbreak of crown-of-thorns ...
• River loggers measure sediment and nutrient run-off to Reef
  When coral reef scientists start looking forward to tropical cyclones, diving in crocodile-inhabited rivers and major floods, its not that they're going troppo ...
• Seaweeds: causes or consequences of reef degradation?
  Seaweeds on the Great Barrier Reef are something of a paradox ...
• Eco friendly anchors prevent reef damage
  An innovative mooring system may be the salvation for coral damaged by increasing numbers of boats anchoring on popular sites ...

1996 Reports

• Extra eyes on the Reef to aid scientific research
  Cradled by tropical waters, floating in a world of alien-like plants and animals, scuba diving is a unique experience ...
• New information system makes access to research easier
  ... how marine park managers used various research that she, and many other marine scientists, collected ...
• Communicating marine science to non-scientists
  Marine scientists are letting the world's coral reefs down ...
• Soft corals shrug off poor image
  Soft corals have never taken top billing on the world stage of coral reef science ...
• Groundwater nutrients tracked at island resorts
  If you thought tracking the movement of nutrients carried by rivers into the Great Barrier Reef region is challenging, how about following the nutrient trail from surface runoff over land or seepage through soil? ...
• Fish watch time at tourist pontoons
  It might sound like a fishy story, but it's true that certain species of fish seem to behave as if they know not only the time of day but the date as well ...
• Taking the Reef's temperature
  Will coral reefs become the first major casualty of global climate changes gradually increasing tropical ocean temperatures? ...
• Cyclone virtual - the impact of cyclonic forces on reefs
  Look at Marji Puotinen's computer map of cyclone paths along the Queensland coast over the past 30 years, and it's clear that cyclones subscribe to chaos theory ...

1995 Reports

• Diver impacts to the Reef
  Are scuba divers damaging the very thing that makes Australia's Great Barrier Reef one of the world's best dive site - the corals? ...
• Health cures from coral reefs
  ... the potential health remedies hidden within coral reefs ...
• Communication for research networks
  Several years ago, Australia's Chief Scientist Ralph Slatyer mapped a vision to enhance the effectiveness of our overall national research and development effort ...
• Fish for the future
  A scientific technique to help predict populations of coral trout three to four years in advance ...
• Neighbouring reefs recover differently from a cyclone
  What causes such big differences in coral growth and marine life between seemingly identical groups of these strangely named reefs in the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? ...
• Coral reef gardening
  Until now, the idea of building coral reefs was limited to aquaria ...