climate change

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.

Dr. Justin Welbergen

Dr. Justin Welbergen joined JCU’s Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change as an ARC Senior Research Fellow in June 2011, after doctoral work on grey-headed flying foxes in northern New South Wales.

Dr. Helen Murphy

Dr. Helen Murphy is a Research Scientist at CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences in Atherton. She joined CSIRO in 2005 as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow examining how weeds impacted on rainforest community structure and function. The work provided information to land managers on which weeds had the greatest impact, and where in the landscape these impacts were most evident. She also established a large field-based program monitoring the response of weed species to Tropical Cyclone Larry and maintains close links with weed managers in the Wet Tropics and Biosecurity Queensland.

Dr. Andrew Negri

Dr. Negri is a Senior Research Scientist in Water Quality & Ecosystem Health at AIMS. His background and training is in analytical chemistry and toxin research and he has spent 10 years at AIMS and CSIRO studying the chemistry, distribution and accumulation of natural toxins in marine and freshwater ecosystems. In the late 1990s, his research became more coral reef-oriented, including studies on the natural chemistry and microbiology responsible for coral larval settlement. Since 2000, Dr.

Project 12.4 'Governance, planning and the effective application of emerging ecosystem service markets to secure climate change adaptation and landscape resilience in far north Queensland'

This project will partner the region’s key stakeholders to review, trial and evaluate the most effective governance systems and planning foundations for regional and landscape scale adaptation to climate change. In particular, within the context of these governance systems and planning arrangements, it will focus on the potential application of emerging ecosystem service markets to secure landscape scale resilience for biodiversity in the face of climate change.

The key intent of the Project will be to:

Project 7.3 'Climate change and the impacts of extreme climatic events on Australia's Wet Tropics biodiversity'

This project proposes to provide information and tools to enable scientists and management agencies to predict and limit the impacts of extreme climatic events on Australia’s biodiversity. It aims to determine the exposure, sensitivity and vulnerability of Wet Tropics biodiversity to climatic extremes, and assess contemporary and future impacts.

Project 5.2 'Experimental and field investigations of combined water quality and climate effects on corals and other reef organisms'

The objective of this project is to assess how management of local stressors such as land runoff can help improve the resilience of coral reefs to global stressors (climate change) which are more difficult to manage.

Project 4.2 'The chronic effects of pesticides and their persistence in tropical waters'

A key policy to minimising the effects of climate change on tropical marine organisms (e.g. coral bleaching and loss of seagrass cover) is to improve water quality, thereby reducing the potential for pollution to exacerbate the effects of thermal stress (Reef Plan, 2009). While pesticides are thought to contribute to stress on nearshore habitats, little is known of their chronic effects on tropical species or their persistence in tropical waters.

Project 3.3 'Targeted surveys for missing and critically endangered rainforest frogs in ecotonal areas, and assessment of whether populations are recovering from disease'

Ten frog species disappeared from the upland rainforests of the Wet Tropics and Eungella during outbreaks of amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, representing 25% of the frogs endemic to the Wet Tropics and all of the Eungella endemics. Five of these species occurred only in the uplands and have been presumed extinct because no individuals have been found despite intensive searches. This represents a significant loss of endemic species diversity, particularly in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Project 3.1 'Rainforest Biodiversity'

This project will provide detailed mapping of present and future biodiversity patterns and drivers, environmental and evolutionary refugia and a comprehensive assessment of the vulnerability and resilience of rainforest biodiversity in Australian tropical forests. The project team will use a combination of available knowledge, existing datasets and strategic research to inform adaptive strategies for promoting persistence of biodiversity.

Main menu