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CReefs marine science project inspiring BHP Billiton staff

May 8, 2009

The Australian resources company, BHP Billiton, has a growing pool of marine science knowledge and appreciation in its ranks, thanks to a successful employee engagement program in the Australian node of the international CReefs project.

BHP Billiton is a partner in the four-year $3.4 million project, along with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and AIMS. CReefs is the coral reef component of the Census of Marine Life, a decade long global scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life.

AIMS leads a consortium of scientists from the Australian Museum, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum Victoria, the Queensland Museum, the South Australian Museum and the Western Australian Museum, the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University, the South Australian Herbarium and the Smithsonian Institution.

On the eve of the next CReefs exploratory expedition, BHP Billiton's Townsville-based superintendent of health, safety, environment and community for the Cannington mine, Mr Mark Daniell, reflected on his recent trip to Lizard Island in the northern reaches of the Great Barrier Reef, accompanying the CReefs scientists.

Providing a global context for his work at BHP Billiton is a big plus, he said. "It made me more aware of the potential downstream impacts and influences that need to be considered by any resources company," Mr Daniell said. "I think it aligns well with our global charter on the environment and sustainability," he said.

Mr Daniell had the rare opportunity for a resources industry professional of helping CReefs scientists collect animals and plants from the reefs around Lizard Island and generally pitching in to help.

He was directly involved in collecting the innovative Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) that had been placed there on the first CReefs trip to Lizard last year and within which a huge variety of reef creatures had since taken up residence.

"It was a wonderful trip, not only because it involved meeting interesting people in a lovely place but also because it gave me an insight into some of the detail of the CReefs project and a renewed appreciation of the potential power of multi-disciplinary teams," he said.

As part of his work at Cannington, 700km west of Townsville, Mr Daniell has become involved with several marine-based environmental groups and stewardship programs. He is also a keen snorkeller, so when the opportunity to join CReefs was made available, he put his hand up.

Since participating in CReefs, he has come to fully appreciate why BHP Billiton chose to sponsor the program as it fits with the company's stated aim of actively enhancing its contribution to biodiversity protection.

The leader of the Australian node of the CReefs project, AIMS scientist Dr Julian Caley, has been delighted with the success of the BHP employee engagement program. "It's great to have the BHP people along, getting real hands-on experience. It is a unique opportunity that gives them insights into marine science," he said.

Several BHP Billiton employees will be joining the next CReefs trip, this time for a return visit to Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, which gets under way on Wednesday 13 May and runs for three weeks. A blog from a journalist accompanying the CReefs expedition will operate at http://www.aims.gov.au/creefs/latest-field-trip.html, where blogs from previous expeditions may also be found.

For further information, please contact:

Mr Mark Daniell, BHP Billiton Cannington
Phone:07 4722 5837
E-mail:Mark.Daniell@bhpbilliton.com

Dr Julian Caley, AIMS
Phone: 0439 472 148
E-mail: j.caley@aims.gov.au

Ms Judy Stewart, Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Phone:0418 781 787

Wendy Ellery, AIMS Media Liaison
Phone:4753 4409; 0418 729 265
E-mail:w.ellery@aims.gov.au

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September 19, 2008 Multiple threats to coral biodiversity lend urgency to scientific inventory of life on Australia's famous reefs   Hundreds of new kinds of animals have surprised international researchers who have been systematically exploring waters off two islands on the Great Barrier Reef and a reef off northwestern Australia, waters long familiar to divers. Amid rising concern about the impact of multiple threats to coral habitats, the Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists today released the first results of a landmark four-year effort, led by AIMS, to record the diversity of life in and around Australia's renowned reefs. Working at Lizard and Heron Islands (part of the Great Barrier Reef) and Ningaloo Reef in northwestern Australia, researchers turned up a wealth of new insights into – and stunning images of – ocean life, much of it never seen by humans before, including: About 300 soft coral species, up to half of them thought to be new to science; Dozens of small crustacean species – and potentially one or more families – likewise thought unknown to science; A rarely sampled amphipod called Maxillipiidae, featuring a bizarre whip-like back leg about three times the size of its body. Only a few species are recorded worldwide; New species of tanaid crustaceans, shrimp-like animals, some with claws longer than their bodies; and Scores of tiny amphipod crustaceans – insects of the marine world – of which an estimated 40 to 60 per cent will be formally described for the first time. As well, the researchers deployed new methods designed to help standardise measurement of the health, diversity and biological makeup of coral reefs worldwide and enhance comparisons. Preparing for future discoveries, the divers pegged several layered plastic structures for marine life to colonise on the ocean floor at Lizard and Heron Islands. Creatures that move into these Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS), which provide shelter designed to appeal to a variety of sea life, will be collected over the next one to three years. "Corals face threats ranging from ocean acidification, pollution and warming to overfishing and starfish outbreaks," said Dr Ian Poiner, AIMS Chief Executive Officer. "Only by establishing a baseline of biodiversity and following through with later censuses can people know the impact of those threats and find clues to mitigate them." Dr Poiner also chairs the Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life (CoML) which, after a decade of research, will release its first global census in October 2010. Dr Julian Caley, Principal Research Scientist at AIMS and co-leader of CoML's CReefs project, said the three coral reef sites being studied were selected because they were thought to offer the greatest possible range of biodiversity. "These site characteristics offer insights that will help us to better predict patterns of biodiversity on reefs in areas that are well known and those that aren't," Dr Caley said. "We were all surprised and excited to find such a large variety of marine life never before described – and in waters that divers access easily and regularly. It reveals the enormous challenge faced by scientists trying to create an inventory of the vast diversity and abundance of life across all ocean realms," he said. Expeditions to the same three sites will be repeated annually over the next three years by researchers committed to establishing a baseline inventory of life inhabiting Australia's magnificent reef ecosystems. Funding for the work was provided from several sources: BHP Billiton (the global resources company), the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the Census of Marine Life, and AIMS, which leads the Australian node of the international CReefs project. 　The　Australian　Biological Resources Study (ABRS) is funding taxonomic research associated with the CReefs project.　This research may include DNA barcoding of organisms in support of the Barcode of Life initiative. Generous support has also been provided by the many consortium partners. The AIMS-led consortium includes the Australian Museum, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum Victoria, the Queensland Museum, the South Australian Museum, the Western Australian Museum, the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University, the South Australian Herbarium and the Smithsonian Institution. Issues being addressed by CReefs Australia include: How many species live on coral reefs? How many of these are unique to coral reefs? and How does this diversity respond to human disturbance? The biodiversity data generated will be made publicly available through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) (www.iobis.org), a CoML initiative. CReefs is a multi-agency collaboration, led by scientists at AIMS, the Smithsonian Institution and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which aims to strengthen tropical taxonomic expertise, conduct a census of life in coral reef ecosystems and consolidate and improve access to coral reef ecosystem information scattered throughout the world. Coral reefs are highly threatened repositories of extraordinary biodiversity and have been called "the rainforests of the sea," but little is known about the ocean's diversity compared with its terrestrial counterpart. "We don't even know to the nearest order of magnitude the number of species living in the coral reefs around the globe," said Dr Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, another principal investigator with CReefs. "Our best guess is somewhere between one and nine million species based on comparisons with the diversity found in rainforests and a partial count of organisms living in a tropical aquarium." The Australian CReefs expeditions are part of an unprecedented global census of coral reefs, CReefs, one of 17 CoML projects. CoML (www.coml.org) is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans - past, present, and future. A more detailed media document and a range of relevant images are available at http://www.coml.org/comlfiles/press/COML_CReefs_9.18.2008.pdf To see blogs from the three 2008 Australian CReefs expeditions, go to: http://www.aims.gov.au/creefs/field-program.html For further information, please contact: Dr Julian Caley Phone: 07 4753 4148 Mobile: 0439 472 148 E-mail:j.caley@aims.gov.au Ms Wendy Ellery, AIMS Media Liaison Phone: 07 4753 4409 Mobile: 0418 729 265 E-mail: w.ellery@aims.gov.au Back to top __________________________________________________________________________

March 31, 2008

First Australian CReefs expedition underway

Knowledge of life on coral reefs will be boosted from 2 April 2008when a team of scientists led by AIMS heads for LizardIsland, north of Cairns, for the first CReefs Australian expedition.

CReefs Australia, funded by $3.4 million over four years by the giant Australian resources company BHP Billiton in a deal brokered by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, will address important questions about the diversity of coral reef associated species including how many species live on reefs, how many of these only live in this habitat, and how this diversity responds to human induced disturbance.

AIMS is leading the Australian node of the international CReefs project. CReefs is the coral reef component of the Census of Marine Life (CoML), a global network of hundreds of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life—past, present, and future—will be released in 2010.

The Institute has assembled a team of 25 scientists and support staff drawn from AIMS and a group of Australian natural history museums and herbaria to head to LizardIslandfor a three-week field survey.  The expedition, led by AIMS research scientist Dr Julian Caley, will systematically search waters around LizardIslandfor species previously unknown to science.

The consortium is made up from scientists from the AustralianMuseum, the Museum and ArtGalleryof the Northern Territory, Museum Victoria, the QueenslandMuseum, the SouthAustralianMuseumand the WesternAustralianMuseum, as well as the Universityof Adelaide, MurdochUniversity, the Australian Herbarium and the Smithsonian Institution.

Later in the year, there will be similar expeditions to HeronIslandon the Great Barrier Reefand Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia.  Three expeditions to each of these locations are planned over the next four years.

"We can't protect what we don't know exists or know how well we are doing it without comprehensive knowledge that can serve as a baseline," Dr Caley said.  "Taxonomy – the science of identifying and describing the natural world – is indispensable but has been in serious decline worldwide for many years, threatening our capacity to provide this understanding of natural systems.  We hope this project can go some way to reversing this decline in capacity".

The scientists will use a variety of methods to sample habitats around LizardIsland.  Specimens collected from the sites will be analysed by taxonomic experts at a number of Australian natural history museums and herbaria who will describe and name new species, publishing their results in global, publicly available, databases and scientific publications.

As part of the BHP Employee Engagement Program linked to this project, several environmental staff of the company will be participating in each expedition, giving them unique insights into marine science.

The Lizard Island CReefs team was officially farewelled on 31 March by the CEO of AIMS, Dr Ian Poiner, Ms Bindi Perkins of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and BHP Billiton's Mr Shane Hansen, Asset Leader of the Cannington Mine.

For further information, please contact:

Dr Julian Caley, AIMS, 0439 472 148; 07 4753 4148; j.caley@aims.gov.au

Ms Wendy Ellery, AIMS Media Liaison, 07 4753 4409; 0418 729 265; w.ellery@aims.gov.au

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