Orographic Barrier of the Great Himalayas

Probing orographic controls in the Himalayas during the monsoon using satellite imagery

The linkages between the space-time variability of observed clouds, rainfall, large-circulation patterns and topography in northern India and the Himalayas were investigated using remote sensing data. The research purpose was to test the hypothesis that cloudiness patterns are dynamic tracers of rainstorms, and therefore their temporal and spatial evolution can be used as a proxy of the spatial...

GREAT NEWS FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF: TULLY RIVER WATER QUALITY by Robert M. Carter GREAT NEWS FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF: TULLY RIVER WATER QUALITY

A prerequisite for meaningful environmental legislation is that it be based upon an adequate scientific understanding of the natural system to which it is applied. In 2003, the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland State governments introduced a Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, which aimed to “improve” water quality in river catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and in nearby ...

The Threats of Coastal Development on the Great Barrier Reef

The exposure of the Great Barrier Reef to ocean acidification.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is founded on reef-building corals. Corals build their exoskeleton with aragonite, but ocean acidification is lowering the aragonite saturation state of seawater (Ωa). The downscaling of ocean acidification projections from global to GBR scales requires the set of regional drivers controlling Ωa to be resolved. Here we use a regional coupled circulation-biogeochemic...

DNA barcoding the fishes of Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef)

To date the global initiative to barcode all fishes, FISH-BOL, has delivered barcodes for approximately 14,400 of the 30,000 fish species; there is still much to do to attain its ultimate goal of barcoding all the world’s fishes. One strategy to overcome local gaps is to initiate short but intensive efforts to collect and barcode as many species as possible from a small region – a barcode ‘blit...