On coral reefs, tiny cleaner fish and shrimps remove parasites from large fish “clients”. The cleaners obtain nourishment by eating the parasites. Although some clients are fearsome predators, the cleaners are rarely prey. Scientific studies of this remarkable relationship provide insight into behaviour for mutual benefits, how it could be employed in aquaculture, and […]
Archives for March 2019
Great Barrier Reef – The Book
This book describes the animals, plants and other organisms of the reef, and the biological, chemical and physical processes that influence them. It also has chapters on shelf slopes, fisheries, climate change, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, coral disease, seabirds, invasive species and much more. Pat Hutchings led the editorial team. She is a Senior Fellow […]
Reef fish recruitment and microplastics
My colleagues and I are researching how plastic consumption may affect the transition (recruitment) that fish make from an open water (pelagic) existence to settlement in a coral reef community. Microplastics have been found in the digestive tracts of juvenile coral trout caught at Lizard Island. It is likely fish misidentify these particles as a potential food […]