Great Barrier Reef Foundation > Our Projects > ZooX Fund > Current Research Projects

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Projects currently being funded by the ZooX^TM Fund:

eReefs

eReefs is an ambitious and visionary project which aims to integrate and visualise GBR related data and models spanning the paddock, catchment, estuary, lagoon and ocean, into a unified framework with supporting visualisation and communication tools to make it accessible to a wide range of audiences. eReefs project will provide the most comprehensive picture of the Reef as it is, has been and will be in the future, significantly enhancing the decision making capabilities of Reef managers and policy makers.
This $25m project will be delivered over 5 years. The Foundation, and its partners in the project including CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland Government and Australian Institute of Marine Science, are progressing the funding and arrangements to commence the full eReefs project in 2012.A pilot of the eReefs project was completed in 2010

Improved Tools for Comprehensive Monitoring of Water Clarity and Light Availability in Coral Reef Systems

By utilising satellite imaging provided by NASA, the shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef can be monitored in order to assess water quality. This project hopes to build on this mapping system by applying a set of deep-water algorithms to give reef managers the ability to efficiently and reliably provide measurements of all natural waters of the GBR once implemented.
Monitoring water clarity is essential when assessing coral health, a key Attribute (refer GBRF Research Portfolio) when understanding what makes a reef resilient to climate change.
Most objectives for Phase 1 of this project have been achieved, with assembly of the optical field equipment well underway. The first field trip to assemble a spectral library of substrates was scheduled for mid 2011. In addition to this, the development and implementation of a key algorithm has begun with simulated data being used for initial testing.

Genetic Variance

This research has found a high correlation between thermal tolerance and a particular gene, providing proof-of-concept for this research. Activity will now focus on assessing the usefulness of this gene as a biomarker for thermal tolerance by conducting targeted experiments to examine whether coral colonies harbouring different variants of the gene differ in their thermal tolerance. Successful validation of a biomarker for greater tolerance to water temperature will then allow the identification of populations of tolerant corals and the location of potentially tolerant reefs.

Assisted North-South Migration

Following an excellent coral spawning in November 2010, more than 13,500 samples of modified juvenile hybrid and purebred corals were deployed on the Reef. Sadly, as a result of the flooding in January 2010, 99.5% of these samples were lost. A revised project has been approved by the Foundation’s International Scientific Advisory Committee to ensure that the important work continues (see below).

Revised Project

Temperature tolerance of corals is to a large extent determined by the Symbiodinium (or Zooxanthellae) strain they associate with. Symbiodinium occur at very high cell numbers within coral colonies, at roughly 1 million cells per square cm of coral surface area. Each cell divides approximately once every two weeks while inside the coral tissue. During cell division, the Symbiodinium genome is copied. During the copying process errors can occur resulting in mutants which contain a change in their DNA compared to the original DNA sequence. Depending on where the mutation occurs, it may result in an increase in the temperature tolerance of the Symbiodinium cell. With climate warming, such cells would have an advantage and increase in numbers.

This project will test whether mutant cells with increased temperature tolerance evolve in the laboratory and how many cell generations are required for this to happen. Any resulting Symbiodinium with increased temperature tolerance could then be transferred on to juvenile corals. This tests whether temperature tolerance of Symbiodinium and coral can be increased through genetic adaptation.

Smart State Premier’s Fellowship

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland, a member of the Foundation’s ISAC, is the recent recipient of the prestigious Smart State Premier’s Fellowship (2009 – 2013). The Foundation is a co-investor of this Fellowship with the Queensland Government. This Smart State Fellowship research program aims to rapidly broaden our understanding and increase our capacity to respond to the threat posed to the Great Barrier Reef by ocean warming and ocean acidification. Work has begun on several fronts:

Designing climate change tools: This work is focusing on the development of web-based tools that will enable Reef managers to quickly and easily access different data sets and predictive models. These tools will enhance understanding of global change and its influence on ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and facilitate the planning and implementation of appropriate management strategies. It is anticipated that a preliminary set of tools with both private and public access points will be available in late 2010.

Developing partnerships: Prof Hoegh-Gulberg’s group has developed extensive partnerships with the two leading international satellite agencies, NASA and NOAA. (National Oceanic and Atmosphospheric Administration), and is developing partnerships with a number of non-governmental networks such as CoralWatch (www.coralwatch.org) and Reef Check (www.reefcheck.org).

Ecological vulnerability assessment undertaken in partnership with GBRF: Prof Hoegh-Guldberg has developed a partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and now chairs the Foundation’s ‘Attributes of a Sustainable Reef Working Group’ (involving 14 scientists from UQ, JCU, CSIRO, AIMS, and GBRMPA). This working group was established to develop a set of criteria (attributes) for the Great Barrier Reef which define its unique values, and to identify which values are vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

Specific projects being pursued under this Fellowship include:

Different strains of the Zooxanthellae that live inside coral polyps have varying levels of thermal tolerance. As warmer than average long-term temperatures have been recorded on the Reef over the past 10 years, understanding the varying genetic tolerances to thermal stress across a range of Symbiodinium species would have significant outcomes for the management and mitigation of climate-based impacts, e.g. coral bleaching.
So far, a total of 1048 samples have been collected in order to complement the existing database of symbiodinium. These samples were primarily taken from the inshore and outer sites of the Mackay/Capricorn section of the GBR as well as mid and outer sides from the Far Northern area.
Extensive DNA analysis of the samples has identified 42 different subtypes of symbiodinium which are highly linked to their specific host. The ongoing identification of these species is especially important to analysis of the complex responses that are displayed by specific algae/host combinations to heat stress.

Reef-scale ocean acidification project

Building on the deeper understanding of the impact of acidification on productivity and calcification rates of corals, the proposed project will explore and define the rates at which reefs break down in terms of their structural strength and ability to maintain their three-dimensional structure. This information will be used to model how climate change and ocean acidification will affect the structural integrity and hence ecosystem services of coral reefs. This information is important to coastal managers and policymakers with respect to the expected impacts (and adaptive options) on coral reef ecosystems as temperature and acidity change within the global ocean.