The Future Reefs research team studies reef-forming corals, the organisms that sustain the entire productivity and biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems.
Future reefs
Feature projects
Overview
The Future Reefs research team in C3 studies reef-forming corals, the organisms that sustain the entire productivity and biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems.
Our goal is to understand how environmental conditions influence the coral ‘holobiont’ (the coral and its associated microbial communities) and therefore how local stressors and climate change impact coral reefs.
We research from organism scale molecular signatures to broad scale ecological interactions and specialise in advancing technical solutions to meet our goal. The outcomes directly inform how reefs will look and function into the future, but also how to better preserve and re-build "healthy reefs" of tomorrow.
Annual report
2023 was a productive year for the Future Reefs team, with new collaborations, industry partners and successful funding applications that will expand the research portfolio of the team in 2024.
In the current trajectory that we’re on it’s a real possibility that in our lifetime the Great Barrier Reef, at least as we know it, will be lost. During 2016 and 2017 about two thirds of the northern Great Barrier Reef died, so we now think about 50% of the Great Barrier Reef has been lost.
Imagine the biggest living structure on the planet - we can see it from space - knowing that we’ve been responsible for its demise, it’s not even something you really want to think about. When I was a child I got to see a coral reef. I just couldn’t believe that there was life under the water and I just thought it was amazing and beautiful and this whole different world just fascinated me.
My research is basically trying to find corals that are living in places that we wouldn’t expect. I’ve discovered corals living in mangrove lagoons. Quite hostile environments; very warm, very acidic and very low oxygen conditions. This is interesting because this is what’s happening under climate change. The fact that we’ve discovered corals capable of doing that, it’s transforming our understanding of how corals can survive into the future. Then on the outer reef we have a nursery set-up. We take corals and we cut them and put them on these racks and we allow them to grow and try to recover some of the degraded areas. We already have over 3,000 outplants of multiple species.
So having educators, corporates, tourism operators, scientists and government all together working on these solutions is the only way that we’re going to actually be able to combat them. We’ve noticed huge impacts on the reef due to very warm waters.
We found out more about the work Emma’s doing with corals in extreme environments.Fortunately she’s got a fantastic position to provide some science to combat the immediate effects.
I want to know deep down that I did everything I could and also that I encouraged other people. This is my passion and I just can’t bear the thought that I would have to tell my children that our generation knew that it was dying and didn’t do anything to help it. I want to, through my research and my actions, ensure the reef is conserved into the future.
Support Us
If your passion aligns with the Future Reef team’s, there is opportunity to be involved.
Opportunities for Impact
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the world, but they face multiple threats to their survival from overfishing, water pollution and rising sea temperatures caused by climate change.
Learn more about our research track record, and how you can help us make real research impact here:
Find out more
Contact
Dr Emma Camp
Team Leader, Future Reefs
Phone: +61 02 9514 1253
Email: emma.camp@uts.edu.au
