With thanks to the generosity of our donors, six new fellows have been announced for work to commence for field work in 2025 – two PhD students and four recent post-docs.
The scope of projects supported by Fellowships is intentionally broad to enable applicants to seek support for research within their areas of interest and existing commitments. They are highly competitive and produce excellent research while making an important contribution to research training. The program is unique for its scope and longevity and for the rare support it offers for field work by early career scientists. Since the program’s inception in 1984, the LIRRF has supported 139 Fellowships to a value of more than $2 million.
Eleanor Kelly
2025 Gough Family Doctoral Fellowship
University of Otago, New Zealand
The effect of oil exposure and elevated temperature on the predator-prey dynamics of coral reef fish
Globally, marine environments are subjected to multiple stressors including warming and increasing pollutants. Of particular concern is exposure to heavy crude oil which contains toxic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These types of compounds can negatively impact physiological, morphological, and behavioural traits in marine organisms. In addition, the ever-increasing threat of warming events not only exert stress onto marine taxa but can also interact with other stressors including oil pollution. With an increasing prevalence of marine heatwaves, it is essential we gain an understanding of how these two stressors interact and impact coral reef inhabitants.
Eleanor’s research aims to determine the effect of oil and warming on multiple traits and life-histories of coral reef fish, such as embryonic development, predator-prey interactions, and underlying metabolic drivers. Damselfish embryos and juveniles will undergo a simulated heatwave followed by exposure to non-lethal, environmentally relevant concentrations of crude oil. Kinematic analysis of behavioural interactions between treated damselfish (as prey) and predatory fish will determine whether oil exposure and warming impact predation rates or prey evasion capabilities. Oxygen consumption and metabolic enzyme analysis of embryos and juvenile damselfish will be recorded to indicate any cost of fitness.
Presently, there is no published research on the behavioural effect of oil and warming in coral reef fish. By focusing on behavioural and physiological traits associated with predator-prey interactions, this research will help determine how oil pollution and warming may influence coral reef fish at individual, population, and community levels.
Ryan McAndrews
2025 Big Blue Ocean Doctoral Fellowship
James Cook University
The evolution and ecology of pair bonding and cooperation in a coral reef rabbitfish
According to Charles Darwin’s model of evolution by natural selection, an individual organism’s fitness is the key to the survival and the persistence of species. Descent with modification, as Darwin called it, defined evolutionary fitness to be the ability of an organism to contribute its own variation to the species by producing offspring. Following this, cooperation among relatives to raise offspring is self-explanatory, as cooperators have a shared outcome in terms of Darwinian fitness. However, cooperation requires an investment for each individual that equals some level of fitness cost. For a cooperative strategy to be evolutionarily stable, the fitness benefits need to outweigh the costs.
On coral reefs, fourteen species of rabbitfishes form pairs, some of which are known to cooperate when foraging. While one individual is feeding, the other takes a vigilant posture, apparently acting as a lookout. There is evidence that pairing among these rabbitfish may not necessarily be for mating and they do not perform parental care (the two most straightforward explanations for the evolution of cooperation). So why has this behaviour evolved? The key to understanding this lies in the cost-benefit balance of the relationship and determining who partners with one another. Are they related? Are they of the opposite sex?
Ryan’s research will investigate the cooperative behaviour of the Two-barred Rabbitfish, Siganus doliatus. He will use their unique face and body markings to recognise and track individual fish with the help of computer vision software. While observing pairs’ cooperative behaviour, Ryan will investigate the cost-benefit balance of the relationship. This balance will be compared among pairs under different environmental conditions (such as predation risk, competition, and habitat condition) to see how these conditions influence the cost-benefit relationship and cooperation at large. Over the 3.5-year duration of the project, Ryan will frequently visit the same pairs and see how long paired fish stay together. By studying their behaviour, the cost-benefit balance, and from determining partners’ relatedness and sex, this research will be able to determine the mechanism underpinning the evolution of this cooperative behaviour.
Dr Sam England
2025 John and Laurine Proud Fellowship
Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin
Surfing the web: elucidating the ecology of enigmatic coral reef spiders
Whether it’s the fish that first crawled onto land, or the whales that slid back into the ocean, transitions from life in the water to life on land (and vice versa) represent some of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth. There are over 50,000 species of spider on Earth, inhabiting effectively every terrestrial biome on all continents except Antarctica. Despite this ubiquity, it is currently thought that only a single species of spider worldwide has successfully transitioned to a fully aquatic lifestyle: the freshwater diving bell spider (Argyroneta aquatica). However, another group of spiders also spends considerable time underwater. These are the intertidal spiders (Desis spp.).
Intertidal spiders live in the intertidal zone, typically amongst coral reefs, and spin webs within empty seashells, rock crevices, corals, and abandoned holes of other animals. At high tide, they are thought to take shelter in these nests, with the ability to survive submerged in some cases for over a month. At low tide, they are thought to freely forage for bugs and crustaceans on the exposed reef, but critically, are not believed to leave their nests or forage whilst underwater. Despite this, laboratory experiments show that Desis spiders will readily attack and kill fish whilst submerged underwater. This suggests that these spiders might be adapted for hunting in the ocean. For example, they could possess eyes adapted for aquatic vision. If true, this would transform our understanding of the ecology of these spiders and also the ecology of coral reefs and intertidal zones more generally, as spiders have previously not been regarded as predators in the marine environment.
At Lizard Island, Sam will investigate spiders of the recently described intertidal species Desis bobmarleyi. Observations by other researchers indicate that they are relatively common at Lizard Island, especially on the reef flat at Coconut Beach. Initially, he plans to find their natural nest sites at low tide, place infrared-sensitive cameras near them and then film them through the high tide to determine if the spiders leave their nests and/or try to hunt underwater. His team will also perform experiments in the laboratory to establish whether intertidal spiders react to visual cues underwater, by playing videos to them on screens. He plans to determine the resolution of their vision in water and air. If the resolution is better underwater, it will tell us that their eyes are adapted for use in the ocean.
This project promises to significantly further our knowledge of these unique and enigmatic coral reef inhabitants. In the process, it is expected that a deeper understanding of broader processes and themes will be developed, including visual evolution, biological optics and aquatic colonization.
Dr Christopher Hemingson
2025 Charles Warman Foundation Fellowship
The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Understanding the drivers of diverse coloration on coral reefs and their susceptibility to environmental change
Both the organisms that build reefs (hard-skeleton corals) and residents that call them home (including fishes) possess an almost unimaginable diversity of colours and patterns, many of which are only found in reef ecosystems. Since the times of Darwin and Wallace, scientists and naturalists have worked towards understanding how these unique colourations function; whether that be to attract mates, indicate individual health, or provide camouflage from predators. Why this diverse colour palette evolved in the first place still remains poorly understood.
Some coral species have intricate growth forms that provide refuge to resident fishes from predators. This protection, paired with the colourful appearance of many coral species, are thought to be two important traits that generally support more colourful fish communities. Yet, exactly how each of these features attract and shape fish communities with different appearances has not been explored.
Chris will use custom, 3D-printed mini reefs that vary in colour and shape to understand what habitats attract and promote colourful fish communities. These structures will be deployed on the reef and surveyed daily to learn which shapes and colours fishes prefer to call home and how that relates to their appearance. Additionally, a model fish species will be reared in aquaria on different coloured habitats to study its capability to change appearance to match the local environment. Ultimately, this research will highlight the factors responsible for supporting colourful fish communities and how fishes can cope with changing visual environments.
Dr Jennifer Mallon
2025 Isobel Marine Biology Fellowship
Nova Southeastern University, Florida, USA
Quantifying calcification by distinct functional groups in reef benthic metabolism measurements
Coral reefs are constructed over millennia from the calcium carbonate skeletons of corals and calcifying algae to create some of the largest living structures on Earth. Through the process of calcification, they protect coastlines from storms and provide structurally complex habitat for biodiverse inhabitants.
This project builds upon existing methods for measuring calcification by corals and calcifying algae. Measuring their rates of growth in the field has been a challenge due to the slow timescales on which these organisms build their skeletons. In this study, a biogeochemical approach will be used to measure real-time in-situ benthic metabolism at sites close to the LIRS. Seawater samples will be collected using benthic chambers known as the Community In Situ Metabolism system to measure metabolism over small areas of single organisms. In addition to measuring calcification, the team will also collect data on photosynthesis and respiration of the calcifying organisms for an enhanced understanding of the carbon cycling driving accretion of coral reef ecosystems.
The project will go a step further by applying a novel technique to tease apart the relative contributions of different types of calcifiers by identifying the distinct calcium carbonate types precipitated by reef organisms. While corals produce aragonite skeletons, calcifying algae form high-magnesium calcite structures, and other reef organisms, such as molluscs, create low-magnesium calcite shells. The different modes of calcification will be detected from changes in seawater metal composition, as the distinct modes of calcification use distinct ratios of key minerals from the water column to build their skeleton types. By measuring alkali metal uptake, it will be possible to define relative contributions by distinct calcifiers to overall community calcification. Understanding the contributions of these distinct functional groups to reef calcification is important for predicting the future resilience of coral reefs under climate change.
Dr Wyatt Million
2025 Maple-Brown Family Foundation Fellowship
University of Technology Sydney
BREATH: Benchmarks of resilience evaluated across thresholds of hypoxia
Ocean deoxygenation – defined as the loss of biologically available oxygen in seawater – can limit the ability of coral to produce the energy needed to grow, reproduce, or respond to stress and it can also directly cause mortality. Because increasing sea temperature reduces the ability of seawater to hold and replenish its oxygen, the mild deoxygenation prevalent on reefs today will only intensify with the occasional severe deoxygenation events becoming more frequent as the climate continues to change.
Hypoxia is a biological state where oxygen supply is inadequate to sustain normal functioning within an organism relative to that under normal oxygen conditions. Unlike humans, some corals can survive under extremely low oxygen for hours to days, even when there is not enough oxygen to support their main energy production process – aerobic respiration. Therefore, to accurately determine the consequences of ocean deoxygenation, it is important to characterize not only the limits of aerobic energy production but the point at which coral can no longer survive the oxygen loss. This project seeks to assess both aerobic and sublethal/lethal thresholds to identify the consequences of short, mild deoxygenation (aerobic impacts) and also prolonged, severe hypoxia (sublethal and lethal impacts).
Lizard Island is an excellent place to explore concepts in coral deoxygenation due to the diversity of species and habitats occurring in the area. Previous work has uncovered a variety of strategies among coral species to deal with hypoxia so access to such diversity will ensure this project provides a comprehensive assessment across species.
A good understanding of coral tolerance to ocean deoxygenation is required to predict how ocean deoxygenation will change the species composition, coral cover, growth, and success of restoration on future reefs. Wyatt’s research will target this gap in knowledge using multiple ocean deoxygenation experiments that characterize the hypoxia tolerance of Lizard Island corals.