The Australian newspaper published a contentious article titled ‘How the reef became blue again‘ last weekend, discussing the ‘resilience’ of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change. On a whole the article did a pretty good job in getting the scientific facts correct, but the debate and ensuing discussion is full of rhetoric deliberately misleading.

The loss of the 3000 prize reefs collectively known as the Great Barrier Reef is feared by some scientists but research shows their living coral are far more diverse and resilient than they’ve been given credit …

Our lab has just published a new paper in PLoS ONE, detailing the interactions of coral and algae on the Great Barrier Reef, and uncovered just how resilient some reefs can be following coral bleaching events. The southern end of the Great Barrier Reef was exposed to extended periods of high sea surface temperatures in the end of 2006, resulting in extensive coral bleaching across the Keppel Islands throughout January 2006. Following the bleaching event, a single species of fleshy macro-algae (Lobophora) overgrew the coral skeletons, causing high rates of …

On the topic of Great Barrier Reef flood waters posted last week, a rapid response team from my lab, headed by Dr Guillermo Diaz-Pullido and backed by the remote sensing capabilities of Dr Scarla Weeks was busy conducting coral and algal surveys in the Keppels region to determine baselines of coral health before the flood waters hit the reef. Dr Diaz-Pullido and two volunteers (Pim Bongaerts and Norbert Englebert) joined researchers from JCU to determine levels of coral and algae at reefs across the region. Flying out from Rockhampton over …

Courier Mail, November 22nd
HERE is a chance for you to experience one of the planet’s most spellbinding natural spectacles. Within a few days, in the reefs around the Keppels, off Rockhampton and in the Capricorn Cays of the southern Great Barrier Reef, the annual spawning of coral is expected to take place.
After the bleaching of the corals in January and February in 2006, last summer’s spawning effort was half-hearted. “This year. they’re bursting to go,” said Central Queensland University coral ecologist Alison Jones. “If people can get to a reef …