An assessment of an environmental gradient using coral geochemical records, Whitsunday Islands, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Environmental Factors Controlling the Distribution of Symbiodinium Harboured by the Coral Acropora millepora on the Great Barrier Reef

BACKGROUND The Symbiodinium community associated with scleractinian corals is widely considered to be shaped by seawater temperature, as the coral's upper temperature tolerance is largely contingent on the Symbiodinium types harboured. Few studies have challenged this paradigm as knowledge of other environmental drivers on the distribution of Symbiodinium is limited. Here, we examine the influe...

Predicting the Location and Spatial Extent of Submerged Coral Reef Habitat in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia

AIM Coral reef communities occurring in deeper waters have received little research effort compared to their shallow-water counterparts, and even such basic information as their location and extent are currently unknown throughout most of the world. Using the Great Barrier Reef as a case study, habitat suitability modelling is used to predict the distribution of deep-water coral reef communitie...

An examination of the ability of coral geochemical records to reconstruct suspended sediment loads to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Environmental Records from Great Barrier Reef Corals: Inshore versus Offshore Drivers

The biogenic structures of stationary organisms can be effective recorders of environmental fluctuations. These proxy records of environmental change are preserved as geochemical signals in the carbonate skeletons of scleractinian corals and are useful for reconstructions of temporal and spatial fluctuations in the physical and chemical environments of coral reef ecosystems, including The Great...

Water quality objectives and targets in the Mackay Whitsunday region to protect water quality to the Great Barrier Reef

This paper presents an overview of the development of water quality objectives (water quality guidelines for local waterways), and water quality targets to protect waterways draining to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is the world’s largest World Heritage Area, and contains the largest single collection of coral reefs in the world, supporting many divers...