The title of this article springs from an apocryphal quote of the late British evolutionary biologist, J.B.S. Haldane – “The Creator, if He exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles” – alluding to the extraordinary diversity of this group. – Editor   In April of 2019, Dr. Darko D. Cotoras (2019 LIRRF fellowship recipient) invited […]

  Two tagged gobies from my project that are different species living together in a live coral: Fiveline Coral Goby (Gobiodon quinquestrigatus) on the left and Yellow Coral Goby (Gobiodon okinawae) on the right. © Catheline Froehlich When we think of coral reefs, we immediately imagine corals of different shapes and sizes with many colourful […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For Dr Simon Brandl and Dr Christopher Goatley, success and frustration came hand in hand. Joint recipients of the 2020 John and Laurine Proud Fellowship, neither could visit the Lizard Island Research Station to resume their work. COVID has taken its toll on […]

Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster cf. solaris, are natural inhabitants of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) are common coral eating starfish which grow up to 80 cm across, eat 10 square metres of coral a year and can produce up to 50 million eggs a year (https://www.aims.gov.au/sites/default/files/cots-revised.pdf). Aggregations of CoTS, known as population irruptions, […]

Following a COVID enforced delay, Dr Stephanie Gardner heads to LIRS in late March to spend two weeks, supported by two PhD candidate assistants, researching the characteristics of turf algae in the region.  Lizard Island represents the northerly most point of her research which includes various latitudinal studies along our east coast (other regions include […]

The impact of plastic in our oceans is a growing threat to the marine ecosystem and a new study conducted at LIRS is helping to understand the magnitude of the problem associated with microplastics – those plastics that are <5mm. The aim of the project is to understand the potential effects of microplastics on tropical […]

Coral reefs are in global decline through the combined effects of climate change and anthropogenic stressors.  This has resulted in a decrease in coral cover, shifts in coral composition and the spatial arrangement of coral habitats.  Such habitat degradation can have profound effects on the reef fish communities they support.  What is largely unknown is […]

Human activity has caused plastics to contaminate marine ecosystems around the world. Plastic materials can remain in the marine environment for decades and break down into smaller pieces such as microplastics (i.e. plastics <5 mm). Contamination by microplastics is of particular concern, as they are of similar sizes to natural prey for many marine organisms. […]

With over 100 people logging into the reefside chat on December 9, there were too many questions to answer in the time available. Not to be undone by the tyranny of time, LIRS Director Anne Hoggett has provided written answers to many of the questions that did not get airtime on the night. The answers […]