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
- Collaborators: Sara Bell (AIMS), Muhammad Azmi Abdul Wahab (AIMS), Lone Hoj (AIMS), Guillermo Diaz-Pulido (Griffith University), Andrew Negri (AIMS), Miguel Lurgi Rivera (Swansea University), Nicholas Shikuma (San Diego State University), Morgan Farrell (San Diego State University), Abigail Turnlund (University of Oldenburg), Felicity Kuek (AIMS)
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, Julian Zaugg
- Collaborators: Davie Borne (AIMS/JCU), Yun-Kit Yeoh (AIMS), Patrick Laffy (AIMS), Marko Terzin (AIMS/JCU), Sara Bell (AIMS), Nicole Webster (University of Tasmania)
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: Inka Vanwonterghem, Gretel Waugh, Marie Thomas, Nicole Webster, Chris Rinke
- Collaborators: Andrew Negri (AIMS), Heidi Luter (AIMS)
Genomics of marine symbiosis
We adopt genomic approaches to assess the genetic capacity of symbiotic partners in sustaining a functional ecological unit. Central to our research are the Symbiodiniaceae microalgae, the symbionts that critically sustain the coral reefs. Breakdown of coral-alga symbiosis leads to coral bleaching.
Working with our collaborators nationally and internationally, we generate genome-scale data from coral symbionts and their relatives with the aim to understand how these microalgae evolved to sustain symbiosis with corals.
We also apply scalable methods to assess symbiont diversity directly from large number of coral hologenome datasets, and to recover genomes of symbionts without the need for strain isolation and culturing.
- Project team: Cheong Xin Chan (CI), Hisatake Ishida
- Collaborators: Debashish Bhattacharya (Rutgers University), Patrick Buerger (Macquarie University), Emma Camp (UTS), Yibi Chen (QUT), Ira Cooke (JCU), Jose Victor Lopez (Nova Southeastern University), Emily Howells (Southern Cross University), Matt Nitschke (AIMS), Cynthia Riginos, David Suggett (UTS), Mike Sweet (University of Derby), Madeleine van Oppen (University of Melbourne)
Host-cyanobacteria symbioses in marine sponges
Cyanobacteria hosting sponges of the genus Phyllospongia dominate shallow-water sponge communities across the Great Barrier Reef. Like corals, these photosynthetic sponges can undergo bleaching (loss of photosynthetic symbionts) in response to climate change-induced rising seawater temperatures.
We aim to investigate the mechanisms governing the breakdown of the host-Cyanobacteria symbiosis during bleaching in the photosynthetic sponge Phyllospongia foliascens using ecophysiology, transcriptomics, metaproteomics and single-cell stable-isotope probing coupled with NanoSIMS.
- Project team: Laura Rix
- Collaborators: Heidi Luter (AIMS), Michael Wagner (University of Vienna), Bettina Glasl (University of Vienna), Nicole Webster (University of Tasmania), Pam Engelberts (QUT), Arno Schintlmeister (University of Vienna), Anton Legin (University of Vienna)
The role of microbial symbionts in coral health
The cellular processes underpinning coral health are complex. Bacteria represent a third pillar supporting the symbiosis between coral and their algal partner, but despite being critical for coral resilience, this tripartite partnership is poorly understood. This project aims to determine how bacterial interactions in corals are sustained, their function in maintaining coral health, and whether they help stabilise the faltering coral symbiosis under environmental stress. Detailing the cellular processes that underpin coral health is critical for implementation of strategies to increase coral resilience and protect the values of the Great Barrier Reef faced with rapidly warming oceans.
- Project team: Laura Rix
- Collaborators: David Bourne (JCU), David Miller (JCU), Sen-Lin Tang (Academia Sinica)