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 […]

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation had a virtual “reefside chat” with Lizard Island Research Station (LIRS) Co-Directors Dr Anne Hoggett AM and Dr Lyle Vail AM, in conversation with Professor Kris Helgen, Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI).        

Marine environments are under increasing threat from human activity with climate change widely recognized as the single greatest risk to coral-reef ecosystems. Globally, the rapid build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is leading to rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. The former is causing mass coral bleaching events which […]

Mitigating the devastating effects of coral eating Crown of Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris, aka CoTS) has been the focus of 21 LIRS based projects over the past 5 years.  This extensive and collective research has been funded by the generous $500,000 grants program donated by The Ian Potter Foundation 50th Anniversary Commemorative Grant in […]

The Lizard Island Research Station is part of the Australian Museum Research Institute. Professor Kris Helgen has been appointed Chief Scientist and Director of AMRI. Prior to this appointment he was Curator in Charge of Mammals at the Smithsonian.  He has great knowledge of biodiversity and remains optimistic for the future of our natural world. […]

Recovery of coral growth rates and reef carbonate budget after severe bleaching events at Lizard Island Corals are the building blocks of remarkably diverse ecosystems, housing thousands of reef fish and associated organisms, but are extremely sensitive to anthropogenic stressors, such as ocean warming. The corals at Lizard Island experienced heat stress in unprecedented back-to-back […]

We’ve previously written about research conducted in the waters around Lizard Island on Mantis Shrimps, a group of marine crustaceans called stomatopods.  In fact over the past 3 decades there has been extensive sampling of stomatopods in the Lizard region providing a good baseline of species richness.  The Lizard Island Field Guide currently documents 28 […]

Drawing on field work conducted at the Lizard Island Research Station, a large team of ecologists and engineers has developed a relatively simple way to standardize how habitat complexity is measured. The research, recently published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution, begins with a simple insight: places with lots of nooks and crannies contain lots of […]