Specialist scientists at a workshop in Perth this week have been identifying a treasure trove of marine sponges and have confirmed unexpectedly high biodiversity in deep Western Australian waters off Ningaloo Reef.

The workshop for expert taxonomists (scientists who specialise in the classification of biological organisms), convened by Dr Christine Schönberg of AIMS, has brought together participants from around Australia and internationally.

A prestigious national award that recognises the work of young, female scientists has been won by Dr Nicole Webster from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

The Dorothy Hill Award is announced annually by the Australian Academy of Science.

For Dr Webster, the award was particularly sweet, as she has raised three small children while breaking new ground in her field of expertise, where she is now considered a world leader.

 Massive corals are being used by marine scientists to unravel the effects of climate and environmental change on coral reefs in Australia’s remote north-west. Often referred to as the Methuselah’s of coral reefs because they can be older than 500 years, these massive corals grow in a series of annual bands that store a wealth of information about the environment in which they grow.

AIMS has taken out a prestigious national award for leading the way in occupational health and safety associated with a major marine science research project at a remote reef off the Western Australian Kimberley coast.

The National Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission (SRCC) has named AIMS as the winner of its award for the Best Workplace Health & Safety Management System for the Institute’s safety practices as part of the Scott Reef Research Project.

The Great Barrier Reef was severely buffeted by Severe Tropical Cyclone Hamish, which roared down a substantial part of the reef system, causing widespread though variable damage and in some places reducing coral cover from 70 per cent to 10 per cent.

In a wild 16 hours or so between 8 and 9 March, Hamish made its presence felt on the GBR, leaving a legacy that could take up to 15 years to overcome. Bureau of Meteorology reef weather stations recorded wind speeds of over 200km per hour as the eye of the cyclone passed over about a quarter of the length of the GBR.

AIMS welcomes the announcement made overnight in Zurich that the Great Barrier Reef is among the finalists for the title of "New 7 Wonders of Nature".

The GBR has progressed to stage 3 of the process, moving from the stage 2 list of 77 nominees to be among the 28 finalists that will be put to a global popular vote to decide the final seven in 2011. The process is being conducted by the New 7 Wonders Foundation.

A $55 million boost to Tropical Marine Research will greatly increase understanding of Australia’s complex marine ecosystems and support jobs, particularly in regional areas, according to Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

The Tropical Marine Research Facilities Project will provide new avenues for national and international collaboration to undertake experiments that were not possible before.

A global survey of coral reefs has shown that, while reefs face many threats, fears of a takeover by seaweed have so far not been realised.

AIMS scientist Dr Hugh Sweatman, along with Dr John Bruno, Dr Elizabeth Selig and Dr Virginia Schutte from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Florida-based marine ecologist Dr William Precht, have published a paper* that questions a common view that many reefs that were once lush coral communities are now overgrown by seaweed.

Female whale sharks at Ningaloo Marine Park are being electronically tagged to discover their migratory pathways.

Whale shark principal investigator Dr Mark Meekan’s work is being funded by the Western Australian Marine Science Institution, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Apache Energy, CSIRO and the National Oceanographic Administration from the United States.

He said only one in eight whale sharks passing through Ningaloo was female.

 At a time of expansion of its research activities in the West, AIMS has appointed world renowned marine biologist Dr Jamie Oliver as its Western Australian research leader and head of the Exploring Marine Biodiversity research program based in Perth. Dr Oliver, who has worked in senior scientific positions with the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia, since 2000, has returned to Australia and to AIMS to add his expertise to the burgeoning WA research effort.

The Federal Budget delivered in Canberra last night (Tuesday 12 May 2009) has boosted AIMS’ research capacity with $55 million in new infrastructure funding over three years.

The development of infrastructure will support jobs in regional Australia, particularly in Townsville and Darwin, and represents a significant new investment in the future of tropical Australia.

The Australian resources company, BHP Billiton, has a growing pool of marine science knowledge and appreciation in its ranks, thanks to a successful employee engagement program in the Australian node of the international CReefs project.

 Mangroves are just as productive and extensive as rainforests and are a vital part of the Earth’s carbon cycle, but they are often the forgotten ecosystem, not valued and so not properly looked after. AIMS scientist Dr Dan Alongi has dedicated his professional life to changing that.

A new book being launched today in Townsville is the fruit of many years of research into these crucial biological systems that inhabit the harsh fringe areas between land and sea and exhibit characteristics of both land-based and marine ecosystems in a unique synthesis.

Stressed reef fish mothers produce highly active babies, and this affects survival and has important implications for fish populations in a changing environment, according to new research.

Dr Monica Gagliano, a research fellow with the AIMS@JCU joint venture, worked with colleague Dr Mark McCormick from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (James Cook University) on a study that deepens our understanding of how stress affects the dynamics of wild fish populations and hence how fish may cope with increasing human-induced stresses.

A comprehensive research program investigating pesticide residue run-off has revealed a suite of herbicides in rivers and creeks and in marine waters within the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.

The runoff of pesticide residues were monitored in the Tully-Murray, Burdekin-Townsville and Mackay Whitsunday Regions over four wet seasons (2005-2008), with a focus on key land uses within these regions.

They are sea creatures that have no neural system, just sit still in one place, and are far less studied and understood than more charismatic species such as corals. But a new scientific study has revealed just how remarkable tropical marine sponges really are – and how their young perform amazing feats to ensure the survival of new generations.

 Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which is devastating delicate ecosystems and fish breeding grounds in waters to Australia’s north, can no longer be managed effectively by individual nations and now requires an urgent regional solution if food security into the future is to be maintained, according to a new scientific report.

 There is strong support for developing the next generation of a high-tech sensor network to watch over the health and resilience of the vast area of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a new study has found.

Reef managers and coral scientists are strongly in favour of developing an automated intelligent system for monitoring key aspects of water quality and factors affecting the health of the GBR, says Debora de Freitas of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and James Cook University.

 Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has welcomed a new era in research co-operation with a $2 million agreement between one of Australia’s leading universities and Australia’s tropical marine research agency.

The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have today signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint research fund.

Research from the Australian Acoustic Tagging and Monitoring System (AATAMS) shows the effect of water temperature on the movement and distribution of sharks.

The movements of reef sharks at Ningaloo Reef are being tracked by AATAMS, part of the nation-wide collaborative Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Long term patterns of habitat use and dispersal will help manage the populations in areas where sharks are vulnerable to habitat degradation due to climate change.

 A world renowned chemistry researcher with long standing research interests in the Northern Territory has been appointed head of AIMS in Darwin.

Professor David Parry starts work today (Monday 2 March 2009) at the Arafura Timor Research Facility (ATRF) a joint facility of AIMS, the Australian National University (ANU) and Charles Darwin University. He has joined the Institute from Charles Darwin University where he ran the Tropical Futures: Mineral Program on strong inter-disciplinary principles.

The complexities of coral disease are starting to be unravelled with the key revelation that a similar mechanism that causes cholera in humans may be causing White Syndrome (WS) in coral.

Mr Meir Sussman, a postgraduate student at James Cook University (JCU), working with AIMS scientist Dr David Bourne, coral biologist Dr Bette Willis at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and colleagues from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Palau Coral Reef Center, have published a paper* showing for the first time how bacterial WS kills coral.

In some cases these species are so crucial to their environments that if their populations either crash or proliferate, catastrophic “phase shifts” to degraded seascapes may result. The evolutionary progress of the species may also be affected, potentially leading to extinctions.

It’s official: the biggest and most robust corals on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have slowed their growth by more than 14 per cent since the "tipping point" year of 1990. Evidence is strong that the decline has been caused by a synergistic combination of rising sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research says a new Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Index of Marine Industry estimates the value of Australian marine industries at $38 billion a year. The Index quantifies the value of Australia's marine industries for the first time and is based on an analysis commissioned by AIMS from consulting company Deloitte.

AIMS is embarking on a scientific quest to answer fundamental questions about the unseen world of marine microbes, focused on the symbiotic relationships between the smallest creatures known and their hosts.

The new AIMS Centre for Marine Microbiology and Genetics Research (CMMG), being opened today by the Hon Desley Boyle MP, Queensland Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry, will make the Institute a major international player in the burgeoning field of marine microbiology.

The roadmap to the future of the gorgeously-decorated fish which throng Australia’s coral reefs and help earn the nation $5 billion a year from tourism may well be written in their genes.

Of particular importance may be to protect ‘pioneer’ fish populations which are able to re-colonise regions of reef devastated by global warming and other impacts or settle new areas as the corals move south, says Dr Line Bay of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (JCU) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

Hundreds of new kinds of animals have surprised international researchers who have been systematically exploring waters off two islands on the Great Barrier Reef and a reef off northwestern Australia, waters long familiar to divers.

Amid rising concern about the impact of multiple threats to coral habitats, the Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists today released the first results of a landmark four-year effort, led by AIMS, to record the diversity of life in and around Australia’s renowned reefs.

Working at Lizard and Heron Islands (part of the Great Barrier Reef) and Ningaloo Reef in northwestern Australia, researchers turned up a wealth of new insights into – and stunning images of – ocean life, much of it never seen by humans before, including ...  

Rising sea surface temperatures are setting the scene for increases in virulent coral diseases that are already wreaking havoc on reefs around the world.

According to AIMS scientist Dr David Bourne and his colleagues, global warming and increased sea surface temperatures presented a major challenge to the health of the world’s coral reefs.

Warming has caused significant damage to reefs in recent hot years (particularly 1998 and 2002) by sparking coral bleaching, which is a breakdown in the symbiotic relationship between the coral animal and its bacterial partner (zooxanthellae). Bleaching and coral disease seem to go together. While the correlations between the two phenomena are yet to be understood, it is known that the more stress a reef is under the more likely it is to get sick.

Sea sponges, which host a complex community of microbes in a mutually-beneficial relationship, are at risk from higher sea surface temperatures because the symbiotic relationship between the sponge and its microbes breaks down at 33 degrees Celsius.

This is identical to the temperature threshold at which corals experience bleaching, which is also a breakdown in the symbiotic relationship between the host and its microbes.

Work by AIMS scientist Dr Nicole Webster has shown that the elevated sea temperatures expected as climate change progresses would threaten the survival of sponges. These remarkable living creatures are an essential part of many marine ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef. In some sponges, up to 40 per cent of their body weight is made up of microscopic symbiotic bacteria, contributing a range of benefits including chemical defence systems and the processing of nutrition and waste.

Preventing bacterial disease in farmed rock lobsters will remove a large barrier to commercial production. Work by AIMS microbial ecologist Dr Lone Høj and her colleagues has shown for the first time how the wild larvae of this elusive creature may be resisting the diseases that so far have made aquaculture difficult.

The key appears to be beneficial bacteria, which wild rock lobster larvae host naturally but which farmed lobsters are missing because they are not exposed to the complex ecology of the ocean environment.

Following several successful AIMS field trips to capture tiny, translucent rock lobster larvae from the Coral Sea, Dr Høj has been able to compare natural microbial communities that live on the wild larvae with the microbes present in experimental farmed animals.

Elucidating how the true masters of planet Earth, microorganisms, have evolved to use energy sources is likely to lead to innovative ways of solving the problems of climate change and energy production, according to the leader of AIMS’ marine microbes research team and her colleagues.

Professor Blackall is the chair of the organising committee of the 12th International Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME) conference which gets underway at the Cairns Convention Centre, far north Queensland, on Sunday 17 August. This conference brings together 1,500 delegates including the world’s leading experts in the rising field of the ecology of the hidden microbial world.

Since the 1950s, average sea surface temperatures in northeast and northwest tropical Australian waters have increased steadily, causing a 200km shift southwards of climate zones along the northeast coast and an expansion in the area that can be designated "the tropics".

According to senior AIMS scientist and climate change team leader Dr Janice Lough, who has published her findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters*, if current trends continue, annual sea surface temperatures in northern Australian tropical waters could be around half a degree warmer and those of more southern parts about two degrees warmer within the next 100 years, with dire consequences for our coral reefs, particularly those in the more southerly areas.

The Great Barrier Reef is under threat from climate change, but there is hope: scientists and managers are working together to try to keep the Reef healthy. That was the clear message delivered this morning by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, in Port Douglas, far north Queensland.

The Prime Minister and Climate Change Minister were guided by Ms Sheriden Morris, CEO of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, as they inspected some healthy and unhealthy reefs at the Low Isles, just offshore from Port Douglas.

Reefs where fishing is not allowed are much less prone to infestation by the devastating crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), according to a new analysis of AIMS’ long-term surveys of the Great Barrier Reef.

AIMS scientist Dr Hugh Sweatman predicts that any future waves of COTS outbreaks will not be as destructive as the three waves that have affected the GBR since 1960, because the area of no-take zones on the GBR was increased from 4.5 per cent of the Reef to 33 per cent in 2004.

Worrying signs that warmer seawater combined with a possible change in the ocean’s acid balance may be curtailing the growth of an important reef-building coral species have been documented by a research team from AIMS in Townsville.

The paper, published in the journal Global Change Biology, points to a 21 per cent decline in the rate at which Porites corals in two regions of the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have added to their calcium carbonate skeletons over the past 16 years.

Environmental stresses, including warmer and more acidic seawater, may be affecting the development of the ear bones in young reef fish, causing the fish to get lost at sea during a crucial stage of their development.

Research by fish ecologists Dr Monica Gagliano (AIMS and James Cook University) and Dr Martial Depczynski (AIMS, Perth), with Dr Stephen Simpson from the University of Edinburgh and James Moore from JCU in Townsville, has found that fish with asymmetrical ear bones struggle to return to the reef.

In the first observation of its kind, a coral community in the southern inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef is showing signs of adjusting to higher sea surface temperature by quickly changing its main algal partners to types that can better cope with the heat.

An AIMS field study near Miall Island, part of the Keppel group of 15 islands on the southern Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast near Rockhampton, has revealed a remarkable feat of acclimatisation; the only time such an event has been observed in natural conditions on a coral reef.

Knowledge of life on coral reefs will be boosted from this Wednesday (2 April 2008) when a team of scientists led by AIMS heads for Lizard Island, north of Cairns, for the first CReefs Australian expedition.

CReefs Australia, funded by $3.4 million over four years by the giant Australian resources company BHP Billiton in a deal brokered by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, will address important questions about the diversity of coral reef associated species including how many species live on reefs, how many of these only live in this habitat, and how this diversity responds to human induced disturbance.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) will undertake a baseline environmental study of Scott Reef, off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast about 430 kilometres north of Broome. The project is funded by Woodside Energy on behalf of the Browse Joint Venture.

The study, which will cost at least $25 million over four years, will provide a comprehensive understanding of biodiversity, oceanography and ecosystems on and around Scott Reef.

The fate of an unfortunate reef shark, caught and eaten 80 km from where it was tagged in a Sanctuary Zone in the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park off the Western Australian coast, is helping to unravel the mysterious life and movements of sharks.

An AIMS project to tag the common grey, black tip and white tip reef sharks and monitor their movements through the Marine Park is in its early stages and has already turned up useful information about shark movements, thanks to the shark that became a fisherman’s dinner.

The Great Barrier Reef will soon be the most monitored reef in the world with the application of a “digital skin” of sensors that will make possible the finest resolution picture ever of the region’s dynamic systems.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, will today (Friday 9 May 2008) announce the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System (GBROOS), a regional ocean observation network covering the eastern Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef and incorporating the world’s first large scale reef-based Internet Protocol (IP) network.

A new automated tool that provides support for sea cage aquaculture managers in making crucial decisions about locating their sites and determining the number of fish that can be sustainably farmed is now available.

A project undertaken by AIMS in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, and funded by the Australian Aid Program through the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), has developed a user-friendly decision support tool available on CD and the Internet.

The CEO of AIMS, Dr Ian Poiner, has been appointed Chair of the international Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the Census of Marine Life (www.coml.org).

The Census of Marine Life, which began in 2000 and whose secretariat is based in Washington DC, is a growing global network of researchers in more than 70 nations engaged in a 10-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the world’s oceans, past, present and future.

The latest report of AIMS’ Long Term Monitoring Program (LTMP) has both good news and bad news about the Great Barrier Reef.

The good news is that the third recorded crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) outbreak is waning after more than 14 years. The outbreak has worked its way down the Reef since the early 1990s. Crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks account for the largest proportion of coral mortality detected by the AIMS surveys.

Dramatic evidence that protected fish populations can bounce back rapidly from the impact of years of heavy fishing has been obtained by a team of marine scientists working on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

A spectacular recovery in coral trout numbers on unfished reefs has been reported by researchers following the imposition of a strict no-fishing policy across 33 per cent of the total GBR area in 2004, to form the world’s largest network of no-take reserves.

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University have identified the possible cause of a virulent coral disease that until now has been mysterious.

Coral disease has emerged as a serious threat to coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, and this research is a step towards understanding it and finding ways to deal with it.