Marine and limnic

Marine and limnic ecosystems underpin life on Earth and are facing increasing pressure from human activity and climate change. Our research encompasses both fundamental and applied understanding of aquatic ecosystems.

See the projects that we're working on, below.

Image source: the National Sea Simulator, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville. Learn more about the National Sea Simulator.

Microbial inducers for coral larval settlement

This project is part of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), a partnership to help the Great Barrier Reef resist, adapt and recover from the impacts of climate change. We aim to identify microbial taxa, genes or pathways involved in inducing or inhibiting coral larval settlement and metamorphosis for a diverse range of species, and to produce a broad-spectrum larval settlement cue for use in coral aquaculture to support reef restoration at scale.

Project team: Laura Rix (CI), Inka Vanwonterghem, Paul O’Brien, Abigail Turnlund, Felicity Kuek
Collaborators:  Sara Bell (AIMS), Muhammad Azmi Abdul Wahab (AIMS), Guillermo Diaz-Pulido (Griffith University), Andrew Negri (AIMS), Miguel Lurgi Rivera (Swansea University)

Great Barrier Reef microbial observatories

This project aims to construct the first Great Barrier Reef microbial genomics database, which will provide a framework to ascertain the environmental relevance and ecosystem consequences of changes in microbial community structure and function following environmental perturbation.

Project team: Phil Hugenholtz (CI), Steven Robbins, Katherine Dougan, Julian Zaugg
Collaborators: Davie Borne (AIMS and JCU), Yun-Kit Yeoh (AIMS), Patrick Laffy (AIMS), Marko Terzin (AIMS & JCU), Sara Bell (AIMS)

Defining species and functional sensitivity distributions for microorganisms

This project aims to develop a novel ecotoxicological framework for deriving quantitative stress thresholds for microbial communities inhabiting key reef habitats. Quantifying how marine microorganisms respond to a broad suite of environmental perturbations (toxicants, temperature, deoxygenation) will generate stress-response data that can be incorporated alongside eukaryotic data for deriving water quality guideline values, greatly improving the ecological relevance and reliability of risk and vulnerability assessments.

Project team:  Laura Rix, Inka Vanwonterghem, Gretel Waugh, Marie Thomas, Nicole Webster, Chris Rinke
Collaborators:  Andrew Negri (AIMS), Heidi Luter (AIMS)

The Brisbane River microbiome

This project aims to investigate the microbial community in the Brisbane River and to assess the impact of high nutrient loads, pesticides and plastic debris on the river microbiome. We employ culture-independent techniques to assess microbial abundances and to link taxonomy and functions. Our goal is to use this microbial data to understand, monitor and eventually predict river health.

Project team: Christian Rinke (CI), Apoorva Prabhu

Hidden microbes and viruses in North Stradbroke Island aquifers

Australian hot spring ecosystems

Natural thermal springs are produced by geothermally heated groundwater and provide opportunities to study microbes that may represent analogues of life on ancient Earth or even other planets. This project aims to characterise the microbial communities in the recently reopened Australian hot spring ecosystem at Talaroo in Far North Queensland.

Project team: Christian Rinke (CI), Apoorva Prabhu
Collaborators: Sharon Prior (Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation)