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Ultimate guide to managing coral disease
 8 July 2008: The definitive management guide - handbook plus id cards for Caribbean and Indo-Pacific regions - to identifying, assessing and managing coral reef diseases was launched at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) and can be ordered online now.
[Read media release] [Read summaries] [Order online] [Visit CRTR at ICRS booth 418]      

Top award for CRTR researcher
 21 May 2008: CRTR Program researcher, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, has been awarded the Queensland Government’s top science award. Chair of the CRTR Bleaching Working Group, and also of its Australasian Centre of Excellence, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg was one of the world's first scientists to show how projected changes in global climate threaten coral reefs including Australia's Great Barrier Reef......
[Read UQ News]      

Indian Ocean coral shows partial recovery
 15 May 2008: An unusual spike in sea temperatures a decade ago killed coral throughout the Indian Ocean, dropping the average healthy, hard coral cover to 15 percent of reefs from 40 percent before. CRTR researcher, Dr Tim McClanahan, said hard coral cover had recovered to 30 percent by 2005, although the data masked big variations.....
[Read Reuters Africa article]      

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”.
[Read article]      

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.
[Read article]      

 
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CRTR CENTER OF EXCELLENCE: AUSTRALASIA/SOUTH PACIFIC
University of Queensland Heron Island Research Station (HIRS), Queensland Australia

The Heron Island Research Station (HIRS) is one of four Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management (CRTR) Program Centers of Excellence.  Each Center aims to build the necessary scientific information for management and policy so that coral reef ecosystems, under threat from climate change and multiple human stresses, can be sustained for current and future generations. The Centers of Excellence also act as important bases for the CRTR Working Groups.

The Heron Island Research Station is the focus for coral reef research in Australasia and the South Pacific and operates as one of the largest platforms of coral reef research in the world.  It is situated 80km offshore from Gladstone on the southern Great Barrier Reef. The Center is drawing upon the knowledge of management of the Great Barrier Reef, the reefs of Western Australia, Indonesia and the Pacific region to develop a regional understanding of research needs.

Local Goals

The Australasian Center of Excellence is working towards:

  1. Providing a solid technical platform for the Working Group research and training activities
  2. Establishing critical equipment and undertaking research and training activities related to stress markers, bleaching, disease, connectivity and remote sensing
  3. Training courses for students in advanced material and techniques on coral reefs and environmental change
  4. Building regional networks across the Australasian, Indonesian and Western Pacific in research and training expertise
  5. Supporting activities aimed at increasing regional capacity for understanding and managing coral reefs under environmental change

Reef and Research Information

Research is continuing on coral bleaching and climate issues, despite a temporary setback due to a fire through the Heron Island research facilities.  This includes a new project (Managers’ tool package for assessing coral reef community responses under environmental stress) funded by the Packard Foundation and complementing the work in the Hoegh-Guldberg laboratory.

In 2007 the Centre undertook and sponsored a series of training courses for participants from the Pacific and Southeast Asia. These courses included Tropical Marine Invertebrates; Coastal Resources Management; and Marine Neurobiology, under the Centre for Marine Studies’ Great Barrier Reef Study Program, and a joint Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and NOAA course on Responding to Mass Bleaching and Climate Change. These courses provide participants from developing countries with critical knowledge to take back to their countries, and help establish and enhance valuable networks.
 
 Information resources Minimize  
  • Poster: CRTR Program Centres of  Excellence [download]
  • Brochure: CRTR Program Summary [download]
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 Contact - CRTR Program Australasia Centre of Excellence Minimize  

Chair: Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
Centre for Marine Studies
The University of Queensland
QLD 4072
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3346 9418
Fax: +61 7 3365 4755
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