I completed my PhD at James Cook University (1992-1996) and then completed two ARC postdoctoral fellowships at The University of Sydney (1996-2000) and The University of Queensland (2000-2004). During these periods I researched the response of the coral-algal symbiosis to altered environmental conditions including heat, light and osmotic stress, and in response to xenobiotics such as herbicides, copper, cyanide & effluent from the offshore oil and gas industry. In 2004 I took up a faculty position at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) where I was Principal Investigator of the government funded Marine Environmental Program. This involved designing and implementing various long-term monitoring programs (water quality, seawater temperature, ecological surveys), as well as ecotoxicological studies and surveys of contaminant concentrations. In 2009, I returned to Australia to take up my present position at AIMS' Western Australia office in Perth.
My major research interest is the biology of the coral-algal symbiosis and understanding and quantifying how the relationship changes during altered environmental conditions (natural and anthropogenic). I am involved in developing ways to examine and quantify the condition of corals in both laboratory-based setting (i.e. for determining water quality criteria for reefal ecosystems) and in the field (i.e. examining dredging or construction-related activity, or point/diffuse source pollution). Much of my work now is associated with the examining the effects of sediments from dredging on corals, seagrass and sponges.
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Jones R, Pineda M-C, Luter HM, Fisher R, Francis D, Klonowski W, Slivokoff M (2021) Underwater light characteristics of turbid coral reefs of the inner central Great Barrier Reef. Frontiers in Marine Science 8:727206. https://doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.727206
Jones R, Wakeford M, Currey-Randal, L, Miller K, Tonin H (2021). Drill cuttings & drilling fluids transport, fate and effects in a coral reef mesophotic zone. Marine Pollution Bulletin 172, 112717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112717
Jones RJ, Giofre N, Luter HM, Neoh TL, Fisher R, Duckworth A (2020) Responses of corals to chronic turbidity. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61712-w
Jones RJ, Fisher R, Bessell-Browne P (2019) Sediment deposition and coral smothering. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216248
Jones RJ, Bessell-Browne P, Fisher R, Klonowski W, Slivkoff M (2016) Assessing the impacts of sediments from dredging on corals. Marine Pollution Bulletin. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.049
Jones RJ, Ricardo G, AP N (2015a) Effects of sediments on the reproductive cycle of corals. Marine Pollution Bulletin. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.08.021
Jones RJ, Fisher R, Stark C, Ridd P (2015b) Temporal patterns in water quality from dredging in tropical environments. PLoS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137112
Jones RJ, Johnson R, Noyes T, Parsons R (2012) Spatial and temporal patterns of coral black band disease in relation to a major sewage outfall. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09815
Jones RJ (2011) Spatial patterns of chemical contamination (metals, PAHs, PCBs, PCDDs/PCDFS) in sediments of a non-industrialized but densely populated coral atoll/small island state (Bermuda). Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.01.021
Jones RJ (2010) Environmental contamination associated with a marine landfill ('seafill') beside a coral reef. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.07.028
Jones RJ (2008) Coral bleaching, bleaching-induced mortality, and the adaptive significance of the bleaching response. Marine Biology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0900-0
Jones RJ (2007) Chemical contamination of a coral reef by the grounding of a cruise ship in Bermuda. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2007.02.018
Jones RJ, Bowyer J, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Blackall LL (2004) Dynamics of a temperature-related coral disease outbreak. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps281063
Jones RJ, Kerswell AP (2003) Phytotoxicity of Photosystem II(PSII) herbicides to coral. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps261149
Jones RJ, Heyward AJ (2003) The effects of Produced Formation Water (PFW) on coral and isolated symbiotic dinoflagellates of coral. Marine and Freshwater Research. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF02108
Jones RJ, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2001) Diurnal changes in the photochemical efficiency of the symbiotic dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae) of corals: photoprotection, photoinactivation and the relationship to coral bleaching. Plant, Cell & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3040.2001.00648.x
Jones RJ, Kildea T, Hoegh-Guldberg O (1999) PAM chlorophyll fluorometry: a new in situ technique for stress assessment in scleractinian corals, used to examine the effects of cyanide from cyanide fishing. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(98)90160-6
Jones RJ, Hoegh‐Guldberg O, Larkum A, Schreiber U (1998) Temperature‐induced bleaching of corals begins with impairment of the CO2 fixation mechanism in zooxanthellae. Plant, Cell & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3040.1998.00345.x
Jones RJ, Yellowlees D (1997) Regulation and control of intracellular algae (= zooxanthellae) in hard corals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1997.0033
Jones RJ (1997) Zooxanthellae loss as a bioassay for assessing stress in corals. Marine Ecology Progress Series. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps149163
