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Alongside spawning #coral SeaSim, we also spawn #CrownOfThornsStarfish! Each year the team raise >5 million larvae for their research. 📺 Dr K-le Gomez shows us how they check if the starfish are ♂️ or ♀️ and explains their research to answer “how old are you?”

Exciting new crown-of-thorns starfish research led by Josie Chandler out now, featuring a novel sampling method, a renewed population irruption in the northern GBR & much more! Link to OA paper: rdcu.be/dqCHi Deborah Burn Dr Peter Doll Sarah Kwong Bethan Lang, Ph.D Kai Pacey

The final chapter of my PhD is out! We explored the patterns of coral bleaching, revealing how small-scale hydrodynamics and colony size shape resilience in individual coral colonies 🪸 Find the paper in Mar Env Res #OpenAccess researchgate.net/publication/37… Reef Function Hub

Excited to announce a new paper from our group: Detailed feeding rates of different crown of thorns seastar (Acanthaster) larvae measured using flow cytometry by Frances Patel SeaSim Australian Institute of Marine Science link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Great work by ⁦The Nature Conservancy⁩ & ⁦IMAS⁩, spearheaded by our valued collaborator ⁦Scott Ling⁩! youtu.be/SfmP0aP1hNQ?si…

meanwhile in the southern GBR.. mass coral bleaching (& recent mortality) at all reefs & sites surveyed this weekend, affecting vast majority of genera & all size classes; unfortunately, slope (~8m) almost as severely affected (~80% of colonies across sites) as the crest (>90%)!

Hi, Bert here! (Robert Streit) After 4 years in the FunHub as Comms Manager & PostDoc, I'm moving on. Thanks for the fun, follows, likes & celebration of science on social media! My new job will be far less fishy, so I'll leave with this: (from ABC Top5 in '22 ABC Australia)

Super cool coral alert 👀 Stephanocyathus (Acinocyathus) spiniger from 384m in Perth Canyon. Look at those long 'legs' - they are actually elongated costal spines that help anchor it in the substrate whilst preventing it from being buried.

The 2024 mass coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef in numbers (preliminary analysis): - 46% of reefs experienced record high DHW - new record of 17.7 DHW from the southern GBR - 37% of the GBR has been exposed to three or more >6DHW events in the past decade (1/n)

A nitrogen-fixing organelle, or “nitroplast,” has been identified in a marine alga. This discovery sheds light on the evolutionary transition from endosymbiont to organelle. Learn more this week in Science: scim.ag/6yX

Finally out!!! New paper from my lab detecting the 5th crown-of-thorns seastar outbreak on the GBR with eDNA: eDNA monitoring detects new outbreak wave of corallivorous seastar (Acanthaster cf. solaris) at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef" rdcu.be/dJaRU

Dive in to the next chapter of your career with 3️⃣ AIMS at JCU #Postdoctoral Research Fellowships up for grabs! 🪸 Reef Responses to Environmental Change 🪸 Modelling Coastal Dynamics 🪸 Reef Connectivity Apply now ➡️ bit.ly/AIMS_jobs 📆 Close 19 Aug 2024

New comment in NatureClimate. "This is not a call for inaction. We must act - with haste. But popular urgency should not prioritize technological and scientific feasibility over climate action and evidence-driven care for social-ecological systems." doi.org/10.1038/s41558…

Is coral restoration really the answer to saving our coral reefs? Robert Streit and Prof Tiffany Morrison along with @JCU's Prof David Bellwood are calling for a rethink and to address the root causes of the issue. Tap to learn more ➡️ unimelb.me/3WGeJnn

.Science at Melbourne and @JCU researchers say we need to rethink the accepted narrative behind coral reef restoration and adaptation. They question whether the practice can meaningfully improve reef health or if it is a dangerous distraction from climate action → unimelb.me/3LLLucv

Reef fishes are diverse, & so are their diets. What led to the diversity of diets🍴seen in fishes on reefs today? 🪸🐠 Read more here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2… Published in Royal Society Publishing w/ The Bellwood Lab, Prof Jan Strugnell, @ParraviciniVale, & Alexandre C Siqueira James Cook Uni Reef Function Hub

Some great work by Josie Chandler and team. 4k video workflows to image 40+ conlonies per dive and predict 3D surface area from rapid 1D field measures for a wide range of corals! Coral Reef Ecology Lab Deborah Burn Dr Peter Doll Agus Piccaluga Abby Johnades. rdcu.be/dS0NY

Pleased to share our new #GiantClam research out now in Ecology and Evolution! Genetic analysis shows small giant clams (Tridacna maxima) in the Coral Sea & Cook Islands have high haplotype diversities but different population structures. 📝: doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7… 📸: Dr Peter Doll

Hi all, the final paper of our 6 year multi-generational experiment on climate acclimation of coral reef sea urchins is out in Marine Biology: rdcu.be/d2Ik3 Unfortunately, it looks unlikely for this species to survive anthropogenic climate change. 😔

When thinking of the 'model' planktivore on reefs, fusiliers come to mind – their fusiform bodies and large eyes seem built for the job. But are these traits common among most plankton-feeding reef fishes? 🐟 🔗 The story is more nuanced than we thought: doi.org/10.1007/s11160…