Dec 12, 2018 | Bleaching, Observation
In 2018 the corals spawned; juvenile corals that settled back after mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017 continued to grow; and many more appeared. Fish populations increased. The resident Lizard Island Research Station Directors Dr Anne Hoggett & Dr Lyle Vail were... 
May 24, 2018 | Observation
In his book Other Minds – the octopus and the evolution of intelligent life Peter Godfrey-Smith goes back 600 million years to find the common ancestor of octopuses and humans. It was probably a simple worm-like creature, living at a time when no organisms had made... 
Jan 31, 2018 | Global change, Observation, Posts
How important is continuing research on the Great Barrier Reef, now that (a) the coral population has been diminished and needs decades without further bleaching or cyclone damage to fully recover; (b) climate science says it is unlikely to have this recovery period... 
Jan 30, 2018 | Events, Global change, Observation
Bleaching events killed many reef-building corals in the late summers of 2016 and 2017 . Given enough time (i.e. a decade or two without further bleaching), these corals will re-establish. Millions of tiny new corals have already appeared during the cooler months,... 
Dec 30, 2017 | Observation, Reef condition
2017 – a year of further bleaching and hope for recovery January 2017: Greg Torda’s proposed research on ability of corals to adapt or acclimatise to higher sea temperatures was outlined in Coral recovery – basis for hope. Daniela Ceccareli and Zoe... 
Sep 6, 2017 | Global change, Observation
When thinking about coral loss and recovery, it helps to have a sense of time and a sense of urgency. Time began about 13.5 billion years ago. The first organisms were formed in the sea around 3.8 billions years ago. Corals have existed for over 500 million years,...