(MENAFN- The Conversation)

• Associate Professor, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University

Profile Articles Activity

My research focuses on coral biodiversity and how best to document, classify, monitor, and protect it. I lead the Coral Conservation and Research Group, where our work spans systematics, phylogenetics, ecology, population genetics, and conservation biology. I have conducted research on coral reefs around the world, from the Marshall Islands to the Andaman Islands. My current work examines how coral biodiversity responds to disturbance and explores the biological and molecular drivers of resilience and susceptibility to heat and oxidative stress.

Experience

• 2023–present Associate Professor, Curtin University
• 2025–present Research Associate, Western Australian Museum
• 2019–2025 Marine Invertebrate Curator, Western Australian Museum
• 2016–2023 Senior Research Fellow, Curtin University
• 2012–2016 Research Scientist, Western Australian Museum
• 2010–2012 Biodiversity Fellow, Australian Museum

Education

• 2010 James Cook University, PhD/Biological Science

Publications

• 2024 Links between climate histories and the rise and fall of a Pacific chiefdom, PNAS Nexus
• 2024 Conservation: Corals in an Extinction Vortex, Current Biology
• 2024 Biodiversity and biogeography of zooxanthellate corals in Australasia revisited based on new data from the Kimberley, Records of the Western Australian Museum
• 2024 Deoxygenation following coral spawning and low-level thermal stress trigger mass coral mortality at Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef, Coral Reefs
• 2024 An examination of seasonal variation in taxonomic richness and community composition using eDNA on a tropical coral reef, Coral Reefs
• 2024 Groundwater is a hidden global keystone ecosystem, Global Change Biology
• 2023 Levels of autotrophy and heterotrophy in mesophotic corals near the end photic zone, Frontiers in Marine Science
• 2023 The complete mitochondrial genome of the invasive cyanobacteriosponge Terpios hoshinota (Demospongiae, Suberitida, Suberitidae), Mitochondrial DNA Part B
• 2023 Macroalgae exhibit diverse responses to human disturbances on coral reefs, Global Change Biology
• 2023 Aquatic environmental DNA: A review of the macro-organismal biomonitoring revolution, Science of the Total Environment
• 2022 Evolutionary responses of a reef-building coral to climate change at the end of the last glacial maximum, Molecular Biology and Evolution
• 2022 Population connectivity and genetic offset in the spawning coral Acropora digitifera in Western Australia, Molecular Ecology
• 2022 Environmental DNA for biodiversity monitoring of coral reefs, Coral Reef Conservation and Restoration in the Omics Age
• 2021 The applicability of eDNA metabarcoding approaches for sessile benthic surveying in the Kimberley region, north-western Australia, Environmental DNA
• 2021 Under the karst: detecting hidden subterranean assemblages using eDNA metabarcoding in the caves of Christmas Island, Australia, Scientific Reports
• 2021 Spatio-temporal persistence of scleractinian coral species at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Coral Reefs
• 2021 Large-scale eDNA metabarcoding survey reveals marine biogeographic break and transitions over tropical north-western Australia, Diversity and Distributions
• 2021 Integrative systematics of the scleractinian coral genera Caulastraea, Erythrastrea and Oulophyllia, Zoologica Scripta
• 2021 Inclusivity is key to progessing coral biodiversity research: Reply to comment by Bonito et al (2021), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• 2020 Extreme seascape drives local recruitment and genetic divergence in brooding and spawning corals in remote north-west Australia, Evolutionary Applications
• 2020 New records of Heliopora hiberniana from SE Asia and the Central Indian Ocean, Diversity
• 2020 Evolutionary biogeography of the reef-building coral genus Galaxea across the Indo-Pacific Ocean, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• 2020 Biological consequences of an outbreak of growth anomalies on Isopora palifera at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Reefs
• 2020 Phylotranscriptomics confirms Alveopora is sister to Montipora within the family Acroporidae, Marine Genomics
• 2020 eDNA metabarcoding reveals fine-scale coral reef community variation across a remote, tropical island system, Molecular Ecology
• 2019 Development of a mulit-assay approach for monitoring coral diversity using eDNA metabarcoding, Coral Reefs
• 2019 Contrasting patterns of genetic connectivity in brooding and spawning corals across a remote atoll system in northwest Australia, Coral Reefs
• 2019 Oceanic and coastal populations of a harvested macroinvertebrate Rochia nilotica in north-western Australia are isolated and may be locally adapted, Marine and Freshwater Research
• 2019 Outbreaks of growth anomalies in Isopora palifera at Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Marine Biodiversity
• 2019 First report of the coral-killing sponge Terpios hoshinota in Western Australia: A new thereat to Kimberley coral reefs?, Diversity
• 2019 Defining biodiversity gaps for North Wesh Shelf marine invertebrates, Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
• 2019 Socio-environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene, Nature Ecology and Evolution
• 2019 A tropical Australian refuge for photo symbiotic benthic fauna, Coral Reefs
• 2018 Genetic signatures through space, time and multiple disturbances in a ubiquitous brooding coral, Molecular Ecology
• 2018 The state of Western Australia's coral reefs, Coral Reefs
• 2018 Integrated evidence reveals a new species in the ancient blue coral genus Heliopora (Octocorallia), Scientific Reports
• 2018 The composition and structure of shallow benthic communities in the Kimberley, north-west Australia, Records of the Western Australian Museum
• 2018 Gradients of disturbance and environmental conditions shapre coral community structure for south-eastern Indian Ocean reefs, Diversity and Distributions
• 2017 Phylogenomics provide new insight into evolutionary relationships and genealogical discordance in the reef-building coral genus Acropora, Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• 2016 Habitat degradation increases functional originality in highly diverse coral reef fish assemblages, Ecosphere
• 2016 Post-Disturbance Stability of Fish Assemblages Measured at Coarse Taxonomic Resolution Masks Change at Finer Scales, Plos One
• 2016 Cryptic genetic divergence within threatened species of Acropora coral from the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Conservation Genetics
• 2016 Diversity on the edge: Non-linear patterns of coral community structure at an isolated oceanic island, Marine Ecology Progress Series
• 2016 Marine biodiversity in temperate Western Australia: multi-taxon surveys of Minden and Roe Reefs, Diversity
• 2015 New precise dates for the ancient and sacred coral pyramidal tombs of Leluh (Kosrae, Micronesia), Science Advances
• 2015 A diverse assemblage of reef corals thriving in a dynamic intertidal reef setting, Bonaparte Archipelago, Kimberley, Australia, PLOS ONE
• 2015 The coralline algal cascades of Tallon Island (Jalan) frinding reef, NW Australia, Coral Reefs
• 2015 Scleractinian corals and crown-of-thorns seastars of the Kermadec Islands, Bulletin of the Auckland Museum
• 2015 Hybridization on coral reef and the conservation of evolutionary novelty, Current Zoology
• 2014 Taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of the coral genera Australomussa and Parascolymia (Scleractinia, Lobophylliidae), Contributions to Zoology
• 2014 New records of sea snakes at mid-shelf shoals of Australia's North-west Shelf, Marine Biodiversity
• 2014 Symbiodinium diversity and host specificity in Acropora corals from geographical extremes of Western Australia using 454 amplicon pyrosequencing, Molecular Ecology
• 2014 Synthesis of Historic Marine Species Data for the Kimberley, Western Australia, (1880s – 2009): Hard Corals, Records of the West Australian Museum
• 2014 Coral-mimicking alga Eucheuma arnoldii found at Ashmore Reef, north-western Australia, Coral Reefs
• 2014 Predicting coral species richness: the effect of input variables, diversity and scale, PloS ONE
• 2014 Optimal monitoring of coral biodiversity at Christmas Island, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
• 2014 The status of hard coral communitites at Kosrae, Micronesia, Marine Biodiversity
• 2014 The status of hard coral biodiversity at Christmas Island, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
• 2013 Molecular phylogenetics of geographically restricted Acropora species: Implications for threatened species conservation, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• 2013 New records of atypical coral reef habitat in the Kimberley, Australia, Journal of Marine Biology
• 2013 Regional conservation status of scleractinian coral biodiversity in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Diversity
• 2013 A comparison of proxy performance in coral biodiversity monitoriting, Coral Reefs
• 2013 Multiple occupancy-abudance patterns in staghorn coral communities, Diversity and Distributions
• 2013 Enigmatic declines of Australia's sea snakes from a biodiversity hotspot, Biological Conservation
• 2012 Rarity and genetic diversity in Indo-Pacific Acropora corals, Ecology and Evolution
• 2012 New records of scleractinian coral fauna for the Pilbara Offshore Bioregion, Journal of the Royal Society of WA
• 2012 Climate change impacts on the tree of life: changes in phylogenetic diversity illustrated for Acropora corals, Biology
• 2011 Rapid increases in coral cover on an isolated coral reef, the Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve, north-western Australia, Marine and Freshwater Research
• 2011 A quantification of the standing stock of marine debris in Majuro Lagoon, Republic of the Marshall Islands and its effect on coral communities, Marine Pollution Bulletin
• 2011 Prehistoric Pacific Island Kings entombed in truncated coral pyramids, Coral Reefs
• 2011 Population trends of remote invertebrate resources in a marine reserve: the case of trochus and holothurians at Ashmore Reef, Pacific Conservation Biology
• 2010 Archetypal 'elkhorn' coral discovered in the Pacific Ocean, Systematics and Biodiversity
• 2008 The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the US and Pacific Freely Associated States
• 2008 Thinking Outside the Reef, Science
• 2008 Bikini Atoll coral biodiversity resilience revealed: Five decades after nuclear testing, Marine Pollution Bulletin
• 2008 One-Third of Reef-Building Corals Face Elevated Extinction Risk from Climate Change and Local Impacts, Science
• 2008 Some rare Indo-Pacific coral species are probable hybrids, PLoS ONE
• 2004 Acropora rongelapensis sp. nov., a new species of Acropora from the Marshall Islands (Scleractinia: Astrocoeniina: Acroporidae), Zootaxa
• 2001 Regional distribution patterns of Acropora in Indonesia and their use in conservation, Indonesian Journal of Coastal and Marine Resources

Grants and Contracts

• 2025 Coral Survivorship and community recovery after bleaching Role: Lead Researcher Funding Source: Minderoo Foundation
• 2024 eGenomics of Threatened Species Role: Co-lead Researcher Funding Source: Australian Research Council
• 2023 Benthic Biodiversity of King Reef Role: Lead Researcher Funding Source: RecFish West
• 2022 Kimberley Reef Connect Role: Lead Researcher Funding Source: Parks Australia
• 2017 Coral Resilience and the optimal management of biodiversity Role: Lead Researcher Funding Source: Australian Research Council

Professional Memberships

• IUCN Coral Specialist Group
• International Society for Coral Reef Studies
• Australian Coral Reef Society
• Western Australian Marine Science Institution

Honours

Churchill Fellow

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