Strategic research delivers new knowledge in key areas

 Photo: A Rankin

Examples of knowledge arising from AIMS research:

• The taxonomy of reef-building corals has been described (for all reef-building corals of the world).
• The climate history of the Great Barrier Reef has been retrieved from coral skeletons.
• The natural variability of reef communities, the background to human impacts, has been measured with systematic surveys.
• The recovery of reef communities from storm damage, pest outbreaks and coral bleaching has been documented.
• The role of mangroves in coastal food webs and as critical habitats for fisheries has been determined.
• The spawning seasons of fish and coral have been determined and the natural replenishment of populations has been monitored.
• The movement of water and waves has been modelled and the transport of propagules, sediments and pollutants has been predicted.
• The nutrient fluxes in coral reef and mangrove ecosystems have been described, demonstrating why wetlands are so productive.
• Knowledge of coastal food webs has been used to measure the effect of prawn farm discharge.
• Bioactive compounds with a variety of applications have been identified and isolated as a result of ecological and physiological studies of reef organisms.
• The management of fisheries (e.g. coral reef fish and pearl oysters) has been improved through the use of genetic markers to identify stocks.
• Whole of system understanding of tropical marine ecosystems has been developed to help improve commercial practices and provide certainty to the offshore oil and gas industry and marine tourism.

The AIMS mission

• • "To generate and transfer the knowledge to support the sustainable use and protection of the marine environment through innovative world-class scientific and technological research."

November 13, 2007