Dr. Katharina Fabricius

Dr. Fabricius is a Principal Research Scientist and coral reef ecologist at AIMS. She has worked as a coral reef ecologist since 1988, with most of her research directed at better understanding the roles of disturbances (especially ocean acidification, climate change and terrestrial run-off) on ecological processes in coral reefs, and their consequences. In this context, Dr. Fabricius has worked across a very broad range of scientific questions and organism groups, including corals, octocorals, crown-of-thorns starfish, coralline algae, sedimentation, marine snow, organic enrichment, water clarity, storms, bleaching, zooxanthellae, thermal tolerance, biodiversity, bioindicators, calcification, and the interactive effects of multiple stressors.

Dr. Fabricius presently leads a study investigating how long-term exposure to CO2 alters coral reef communities and she is also involved in three projects to investigate cumulative impacts of climate and water quality changes on reef diversity, funded through the Australian Government’s National Environmental Research Program (NERP).