Australian Institute of Marine Science

Coral chemicals protect against warming oceans

EMBARGO LIFTED: 4am AEDT, Thursday 24 October 2013

Nature paper reveals coral animals produce the ‘smell of the ocean’ – influencing cloud formation and protecting themselves against rising seawater temperatures. 

Australian marine scientists have found the first evidence that coral itself may play an important role in regulating local climate.

They have discovered that the coral animal—not just its algal symbiont—makes an important sulphur-based molecule with properties to assist it in many ways, ranging from cellular protection in times of heat stress to local climate cooling by encouraging clouds to form.

These findings have been published in the prestigious weekly science journal Nature.

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$37 million Sea Simulator opens in Townsville

Media release from Senator the Hon Kim Carr and Senator the Hon Jan McLucas.

A new, $37 million experimental sea simulator will enable Australian scientists to recreate ocean conditions and study how both human activities and natural events will affect our marine environment in the future.

Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr and Senator for Queensland Jan McLucas opened the National Sea Simulator (SeaSim), at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville today.

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About SeaSim, the National Sea Simulator

Media background information, 1 August 2013

What is SeaSim?

SeaSim is a research aquarium. It comprises a seawater processing plant, several controlled environment rooms, and open plan spaces for large tanks and long-term experiments.

In short, it brings together a reliable, consistent supply of high quality seawater with the technology to enable precise control over environmental factors, such as temperature, light, acidity, salinity, sedimentation and contaminants. [continue reading…]

The National Sea Simulator – Reaction comments

Luke Smith, Environment Manager from Woodside Energy, Russell Reichelt, Chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and scientists from CSIRO, the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Western Australian and James Cook University in Townsville tell what the new Sea Simulator facility means to them. More comments will be added during the day. [continue reading…]

Modelling Darwin Harbour’s extreme tides

$5.6 million upgrade to Arafura Timor Research Facility

Launched by Federal Science and Research Minister Don Farrell

Media call 9.30 am, Friday 24 May 2013, 23 Ellengowan Drive, Brinkin

Darwin Harbour has extreme tidal rises and falls of up to eight-metres. So the ebbing and flowing currents in the channels are strong and fast, all of which makes it difficult for pilots to berth bulk carriers or manoeuvre dredges. [continue reading…]

Remote reefs can be tougher than they look

Scott Reef had largely recovered from a catastrophic mass bleaching of corals within twelve years of the disturbance, despite the lack of connectivity to other reefs in the region. The rate of recovery was attributed to the lack of many local anthropogenic pressures affecting reefs around the world, such as degraded water quality and overfishing of herbivores (credit: N Thake).

WA’s Scott Reef has recovered from mass bleaching in 1998

Isolated coral reefs can recover from catastrophic damage as effectively as those with nearby undisturbed neighbours, a long-term study by marine biologists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has shown.

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Scott Reef images

Below are a series of photos and videos taken from Scott Reef. To access the high resolution version of the images, click on them to open them in high res then right/command click and select save as.
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