College of Science & Engineering

Sophia Love

Sophia Love

Romain Vaucher

Romain Vaucher

Jenny Fisher

Jenny Fisher

Ambili Narayanan

Ambili Narayanan

Sarfaraz Ali

Sarfaraz Ali

Mikaeylah Davidson

Mikaeylah Davidson

Liuxin Chen

Liuxin Chen

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Rafael Cabral Carvalho

Tom Lloyd

Tom Lloyd

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

Mohamadreza Chalak Qazani

SNAPP Governing Changing Oceans
Sarah Lawless
How can improved marine governance guide more responsible, equitable, and effective interventions in climate-impacted oceans? Novel blue economy, blue carbon, and blue conservation interventions are being trialed and implemented to support climate-vulnerable oceans across the globe. Transitions in governance are needed to keep pace with novel interventions: to realize new opportunities, manage competing and escalating demand for marine resources, and mitigate risks and unintended consequences. How can marine governance transition to meet these new challenges? Answering this question is urgent, because while investment in climate-impacted oceans is accelerating, most interventions remain ad hoc, uncoordinated, and potentially ungovernable. OUR APPROACH: Researchers in marine governance, fisheries, and climate science are collaborating with government and non-government experts in blue carbon, blue finance, blue conservation, Indigenous governance, co-management, and community resilience. The team’s mission is to collaboratively deliver governments, industries, NGOs, donors and ocean user groups and rights holders with practical insight on governance transitions that are fit for novel and rapidly emerging interventions in climate-impacted oceans.
AIMS@JCU Research Fellowship
Sarah Lawless
01 May 2023 - 30 Apr 2026
Sarah’s research is supported under a AIMS@JCU fellowship. The AIMS@JCU program is a strategic partnership between JCU and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Sarah is the first social scientist engaged under this program, where she contributes to a key research area of common interest - improving governance of changing oceans.
Early Career Researcher Grant - Blue carbon markets: preventing or fuelling marine tenure insecurity?
Sarah Lawless
01 Jun 2024 - 27 Dec 2024
Internal grant awarded by the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture (CSTFA) at James Cook University to support my investigation of blue carbon markets, including where markets may enable tenure security, leading to improved stewardship of blue carbon ecosystems, food and livelihood security, poverty reduction, and social equity.
Marine sediment geochemical survey: Coastal waters of southeastern Brazil
Alex McCoy-West
This project involves comprehensive geochemical fingerprinting of sediments from a marine environment to trace the potential distribution of exogenous components from a tailings dam failure. JCU is leading the systematic multi-instrument (XRD, XRF, ICP-MS, MC-ICP-MS) geochemical and isotopic characterization of approximately 200 samples. This includes quantifying the mineralogy, major, trace and volatile element concentration analysis, coupled with high-precision O-Sr-Nd-Fe isotope composition analyses.
TERN FNQ OzFlux
Michael Liddell
01 Jul 2011 - 30 Jun 2028
TERN FNQ OzFlux sites are funded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. TERN EP Robson Creek site - Rainforest in the Lamb Range on the Atherton Tablelands. TERN EP Cow Bay site - Daintree Rainforest.
AIMS@JCU Pilot Research Funding
Peter Doll
Research Masters student Karl Jensen on feeding selectivity in herbivorous juvenile CoTS
David Yellowlees Excellence in Research Award 2022
Peter Doll
Project: Molecular-based method for the quantification of in situ crown-of-thorns starfish settlement rates
Effective sampling of Acanthaster cf. solaris to provide early-warning of new and renewed outbreaks (Old ID 26779)
Peter Doll
01 Jun 2020 - 31 May 2022
This project aims to develop a holistic monitoring program that will not only help to deliver an early-warning syste, but will increase the viability of culling CoTS populations even during non-outbreak periods with the ultimate goal of reducing the frequency and severity of future outbreaks. Perhaps even more importantly, this project will deliver (for the first time) spatially and temporally explicit information about the structure and dynamics of crown-of-thorns starfish within the “initiation zone” and in the lead-up to a new population irruption, which is a critical knowledge gap that limits understanding of the initiation and causes of population outbreaks.
Pre-outbreak monitoring of the density, distribution and size-structure of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) in the Great Barrier Reef (Old ID 27501)
Peter Doll
01 Jan 2021 - 01 Jun 2024
This project will conduct annual field surveys (diver-based and eDNA) across reefs in the primary outbreak initiation region to reveal how the density, distribution and size-structure of COTS populations changes, providing field data to inform early warning and response in the lead up to the 2025 outbreak.
Quantifying predation rates on CoTS relative to fisheries management zones and corresponding differences in abundance of putative predators (Old ID 27504)
Peter Doll
01 Jan 2022 - 30 Jun 2024
The purpose of this research is to quantify rates of predation on CoTS at reefs within contrasting Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) management zones. More specifically, we will quantify predation and mortality rates for CoTS, as well as differences in the abundance and composition of potential predators, between reefs where fishing is permitted (Blue zones), restricted (Yellow zones) or effectively prohibited (Green zones). The focus of this project is unequivocally on relatively large and conspicuous post-settlement life stages of CoTS (e.g., sub-adults and adults) and the relatively large predators (mainly fishes) that might be consuming them.

Estuary Restoration

Watersheds and coral reefs: conservation science, policy, and implementation

Protective functions of coastal forests and trees against natural hazards

Influence of landscape heterogeneity on spatial patterns of wood productivity, wood specific density and above ground biomass in Amazonia

Changing realities for tropical forest managers

The influence of wetlands, decaying organic matter, and stirring by wildlife on the dissolved oxygen concentration in eutrophicated water holes in the Seronera River, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Papyrus wetlands a lunar-modulated refuge for aquatic fauna

A survey of zoonotic diseases contracted by South African veterinarians

Zoonoses in the face of acquired immune deficiency syndrome

The use of a bactrin vaccine in broiler breeders for the control of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale in commercial broilers

Title: JCU reef scientist goes global after plumbing the depths, Townsville Bulletin
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 10 Nov 2024
Title: Deep dive: How I use robots to survey coral reefs, Nature
Reseracher: Gemma Galbraith (AIMS@JCU Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reef Connectivity)
Start Date: 31 Mar 2025
Title: Bengali
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: English
Reseracher: Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad (Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering and Related Technologies))
Title: Wet Tropics Management Authority - Scientific Advisory Committee
Reseracher: Nathan Waltham (Associate Professor, Blue Carbon)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
Title: Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF), Australia
Reseracher: Simon Das (Research Fellow - Grouper Nutrition)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2027
Title: ARC Future Fellow ($680,000), Global Change: Rainforest responses to experimental drought
Reseracher: Susan Laurance (Professor, Personal Chair)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: American Society of Naturalists
Reseracher: Megan Higgie (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2003
Title: PhD, James Cook University
Reseracher: Alana Grech (Professor)
End Date: 01 Jan 2010
Title: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Led "Super Gurus" team on the CSIRO ON Prime #15 program from 03/03/2024 to 25/06/2024 conducting customer discovery for the “Digital Twin Student” Educational Technology Project.
Reseracher: Kranthi Addanki (Lecturer, Information Technology)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2024
End Date: 01 Jan 2024