Stephen Lewis

Stephen Lewis is a geochemist who focuses primarily on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchment area and lagoon, including evaluating the sources, transport and risks of various pollutants in freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. A Townsville original, Stephen completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and PhD in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at James Cook University in 2000 and 2005, respectively. Stephen’s work includes examining water quality issues for a variety of land use types – including agriculture, industry and urban – and considering potential improvements that can be made to reduce runoff to receiving ecosystems. This is achieved through a combination of various monitoring and modelling activities. Some of these include the Paddock to Reef Program and the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program, which span paddock, tributaries, river catchments and GBR lagoon. Other research interests include examining sea-level change on the east coast of Australia over the past 20,000 years and the development and growth of fringing reefs in the GBR. Stephen’s work also explores the use of trace elements and stable isotopes in coral core records to investigate changes in water quality since the time of European settlement in north Queensland (c.1850).