Coral Reef Targeted Research

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Strange days on planet earth
5 May 2008: The award winning National Geographic program Strange Days on Planet Earth recently premiered Episode 6 (Dirty Secrets). This features the CRTR Program’s Roberto Iglesias-Prieto and his colleagues in the Caribbean who are “studying how CO2, one of our largest industrial waste products, is impacting coral reefs”.
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Corals on the brink of .....
24 April 2008: Predicted mass spawning at Palau (Philippines) was the subject of a feature on BBC News on 20 April. Much of the article focused on the reef restoration work of CRTR scientists Dr Andrew Heyward (“one of the first biologists to describe the phenomenon of coral mass spawning in the 1980s”) and Dr James Guest, along with Dr Maria Vanessa Baria from the University of the Philippines.
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Prospects for coral in a changing environment
15 April 2008: The ABC’s Science Show, presented by Robyn Williams, keynote speaker at the CRTR Program's Future Leaders Forum, presents four international experts on coral reefs including Nancy Knowlton, chair of the CRTR Synthesis Panel.
[Read transcript] [Hear Audio (MP3)]

Science meets policy
3 April 2008: Keeping the Great Barrier Reef alive is one of the greatest environmental and social challenges faced by Australia today. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (Chair of the CRTR Program’s Bleaching Working Group) recently presented Australia’s political leaders with the latest research on the impact of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. Hear Professor Hoegh-Guldberg outline scientists' concerns at the threats facing this international icon.
[View PowerPoint presentation] [Hear Audio (MP3)]

Impact of human activity on oceans
3 March 2008: Only about 4% of the world's oceans remain undamaged by human activity, according to the first detailed global map of human impacts on the seas. A study in Science journal says climate change, fishing, pollution and other human factors have exacted a heavy toll on almost half of the marine waters.
[View video] [Read BBC News] [Hear press conference]

Carbon crisis: time for action
Seventeen leading marine scientists from the CRTR Program review the likely impact of climate change on the oceans' coral reefs. The paper also spells out steps that must be taken to address this issue.
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ReefVid
A resource of free coral reef video clips for educational use. Individual permission is required from p.j.mumby@exeter.ac.uk to use clips for commercial purposes
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Restoring Coral Reefs - what works, what doesn't
New guidelines from the CRTR Program provide coastal managers, decision-makers, technical advisors and others with an overview of research exploring successful and unsuccessful coral reef restoration approaches from around the world. French edition now available. Read more >

On-line toolkit for selecting image data and mapping techniques
This toolkit shows managers, scientists and technicians working in coastal marine environments how images, collected from satellites and aircraft, can be used to map and monitor changes to indicators of coastal ecosystem health. This toolkit focuses on coastal water bodies, seagrass, coral reefs, and mangroves. Read more >

Marine population connectivity
Theoretically, population connectivity should contribute to the resilience of reefs. However, modeling has been hindered by a lack of empirical data and knowledge of the processes controlling population connectivity in reef ecosystems. A special issue of Oceanography features two papers, including a review, co-authored by members of the CRTR Program’s Connectivity Working Group.
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Coral bleaching
A study in marine parks in Kenya that has measured the size of more than 21,000 corals over a 14-year period found that corals are growing smaller and these changes are associated with coral bleaching events and fishing.
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Oceanography feature article, March 2007

Coral disease
Destructive infectious diseases are contributing to the decline of many coral reef ecosystems. Monitoring has revealed new coral-disease syndromes at each of the CRTR Centres of Excellence, with particularly drastic loss of coral on the Yucantan Peninsula in the Caribbean. Data collected in this program is being used to test specific hypotheses about how climate change and anthropogenic factors threaten coral reefs.
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