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Institution

James Cook University

EducationTownsville, Queensland, Australia
About: James Cook University is a education organization based out in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Coral reef. The organization has 9101 authors who have published 27750 publications receiving 1032608 citations. The organization is also known as: JCU.
Topics: Population, Coral reef, Reef, Coral, Coral reef fish


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dynamics of abundance in this coral community can be largely understood through the variation in types and scales of disturbances that occurred, and the processes that took place where disturbances were rare.
Abstract: Observations over a 30-yr period revealed a considerable degree of natural variation in the abundance of corals on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. Cover ranged from 80%, with a similar large range in colony density, at several temporal and spatial scales. Much of this variation was due to the type, intensity, and spatial scale of disturbances that occurred. Coral assemblages usually recovered from acute disturbances, both on Heron Island and on other Indo-Pacific reefs. In contrast, corals did not recover from chronic disturbances of either natural or human origins, or from gradual declines. Recovery was slower after acute disturbances that altered the physical environment than after disturbances that simply killed or damaged corals. The space and time scales of declines and recoveries in abundance were much smaller on the wave-exposed side of the reef than on the side protected from storms. Recruitment rates were reduced by preemption of space by corals or macroalgae, and by storms that altered the substratum. Thus, the dynamics of abundance in this coral community can be largely understood through the variation in types and scales of disturbances that occurred, and the processes that took place where disturbances were rare.

726 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
12 Jun 2013-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: This study presents a framework for assessing three dimensions of climate change vulnerability, namely sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity, and finds that high concentration areas for species with traits conferring highest sensitivity and lowest adaptive capacity differ from those of highly exposed species.
Abstract: Climate change will have far-reaching impacts on biodiversity, including increasing extinction rates. Current approaches to quantifying such impacts focus on measuring exposure to climatic change and largely ignore the biological differences between species that may significantly increase or reduce their vulnerability. To address this, we present a framework for assessing three dimensions of climate change vulnerability, namely sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity; this draws on species’ biological traits and their modeled exposure to projected climatic changes. In the largest such assessment to date, we applied this approach to each of the world’s birds, amphibians and corals (16,857 species). The resulting assessments identify the species with greatest relative vulnerability to climate change and the geographic areas in which they are concentrated, including the Amazon basin for amphibians and birds, and the central Indo-west Pacific (Coral Triangle) for corals. We found that high concentration areas for species with traits conferring highest sensitivity and lowest adaptive capacity differ from those of highly exposed species, and we identify areas where exposure-based assessments alone may over or under-estimate climate change impacts. We found that 608–851 bird (6–9%), 670–933 amphibian (11– 15%), and 47–73 coral species (6–9%) are both highly climate change vulnerable and already threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List. The remaining highly climate change vulnerable species represent new priorities for conservation. Fewer species are highly climate change vulnerable under lower IPCC SRES emissions scenarios, indicating that reducing greenhouse emissions will reduce climate change driven extinctions. Our study answers the growing call for a more biologically and ecologically inclusive approach to assessing climate change vulnerability. By facilitating independent assessment of the three dimensions of climate change vulnerability, our approach can be used to devise species and areaspecific conservation interventions and indices. The priorities we identify will strengthen global strategies to mitigate climate change impacts.

722 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the relationship between the geographic extent from which pseudo-absences are taken and model performance, and shape and importance of predictor variables using the MAXENT modeling method.

717 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the variability observed in wave attenuation provided by marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs and therefore also in coastal protection.
Abstract: Natural processes tend to vary over time and space, as well as between species. The ecosystem services these natural processes provide are therefore also highly variable. It is often assumed that ecosystem services are provided linearly (unvaryingly, at a steady rate), but natural processes are characterized by thresholds and limiting functions. In this paper, we describe the variability observed in wave attenuation provided by marshes, mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs and therefore also in coastal protection. We calculate the economic consequences of assuming coastal protection to be linear. We suggest that, in order to refine ecosystem-based management practices, it is essential that natural variability and cumulative effects be considered in the valuation of ecosystem services.

711 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work presents a new statistical method to compare entire colour patterns rather than comparing multiple pairs of patches, and presents tests of the method's ability to detect a variety of kinds of differences between natural colour patterns.
Abstract: Colour patterns and their visual backgrounds consist of a mosaic of patches that vary in colour, brightness, size, shape and position. Most studies of crypsis, aposematism, sexual selection, or other forms of signalling concentrate on one or two patch classes (colours), either ignoring the rest of the colour pattern, or analysing the patches separately. We summarize methods of comparing colour patterns making use of known properties of bird eyes. The methods are easily modifiable for other animal visual systems. We present a new statistical method to compare entire colour patterns rather than comparing multiple pairs of patches. Unlike previous methods, the new method detects differences in the relationships among the colours, not just differences in colours. We present tests of the method's ability to detect a variety of kinds of differences between natural colour patterns and provide suggestions for analysis.

709 citations


Authors

Showing all 9184 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
Christopher J L Murray209754310329
Hui-Ming Cheng147880111921
Joseph T. Hupp14173182647
Graeme J. Hankey137844143373
Bryan R. Cullen12137150901
Thomas J. Meyer120107868519
William F. Laurance11847056464
Staffan Kjelleberg11442544414
Mike Clarke1131037164328
Gao Qing Lu10854653914
David J. Williams107206062440
Tim J Peters106103747394
Michael E. Goddard10642467681
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg10642563750
John C. Avise10541353088
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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
202334
2022170
20211,840
20201,737
20191,671
20181,691