Australian Institute of Marine Science

Establish links with EU Research infrastructures and projects

This document corresponds to Milestone MS17: "Establish links with EU Research infrastructures and projects," as part of the BioGeoSea project on Essential ocean variables. It presents a summary of the steps taken to create those links, in-person and online, via engagement at con...

Resident damselfish influence the coral holobiont: species-specific responses in Acropora millepora and Acropora digitifera

Abstract Symbiotic interactions are central to coral ecology, spanning the coral holobiont’s internal microbial partnerships to broader associations with reef fishes and other motile species. Coral-dwelling damselfish live in close association with coral colonies, using their bra...

Does light and short-term high food availability enhance larval success in the coral eating crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthaster cf. solaris)?

Abstract Understanding the environmental drivers of Crown-of-thorns seastar outbreaks is important for predicting and managing coral reef decline. Larval survival and development are strongly influenced by phytoplankton food availability, which is highly variable in space and tim...

Marine heatwaves reshape survival of small corals, revealing size- and taxa-specific vulnerabilities

Abstract Despite decades of research, fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of coral vital rates across taxa. This is particularly true for the early life stages, which are critical for reef recovery, representing significant bottlenecks to population growth. We assessed t...

Coral spat survival on inshore reefs is enhanced by foul-release-coated seeding devices

Abstract Near shore coral reefs are increasingly characterised by high macroalgal biomass, elevated sedimentation and eutrophication, all of which limit coral recruitment and restoration success. Managing early life-stage bottlenecks is therefore critical for effective larval-bas...

A Non-Living, Microbe-Based Surface Coating Promotes Tubeworm and Coral Settlement

A major barrier to scaling marine restoration and aquaculture is the lack of reliable tools to induce invertebrate larvae to settle and metamorphose when and where needed. Although microbial cues are known to induce metamorphosis in many invertebrates, existing methods rely on na...

Microplastic pollution along the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area: Local source contributions within a remote marine protected area

This study provides the first quantitative assessment of microplastic (MP) contamination on beaches along the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area (NCWHA; Western Australia), a remote Marine Protected Area of multiple use, including tourism. Sediment collected across seven remote a...

Enhancing the Australian coastal wave buoy network: development, implementation, national coordination and future directions

Context Although long-running, regional wave buoy networks exist within Australia, there remain critical spatial gaps in observations and limited coordination of data standards. These limitations result in challenges for using existing observations for national-scale applications...

Metagenomic insights into mechanisms of coral larval settlement induction and inhibition by marine biofilms

Abstract Background Biofilms are essential to larval settlement in many marine invertebrates, yet the mechanisms driving settlement induction or inhibition in corals remain poorly resolved. This challenge lies in the vast taxonomic and functional diversity of marine biofilms, mak...

Will work for sardines: 20 years of animal-borne ocean observing by Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Tagging Facility

The world’s ocean stores ~90% of the excess heat generated by anthropogenic global warming, making sustained ocean observations essential for understanding physical, biological and climate processes. Here, we describe how the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Animal Taggi...