Marine Climate Impacts and Adaptation
Profile
: Scott Burgess
PhD Student
Climate impacts on effective population connectivity
Project Description: In a changing environment, populations
must either shift to new suitable habitat elsewhere or adjust/adapt
to the changed conditions to avoid extinction. An understanding
of the demographic links between local populations, known as
connectivity, is therefore crucial to better predict the distribution
and persistence of benthic marine species in the future. Importantly,
effective connectivity not only involves larval dispersal, but
also includes the establishment of individuals as members (or
founders) of new populations. Using laboratory and field experiments
on benthic marine invertebrates as well as modelling approaches,
I am focusing on how temperature controls dispersal time/distance
and subsequent adult performance and ultimately the scales of
effective connectivity. Increases in ocean temperature could
act directly on larvae by increasing metabolism and shortening
the spatial scales at which connectivity is effective. Temperature
could also influence connectivity through its effects on mothers
by altering the optimal offspring phenotype that they should
produce (e.g., many small or a few large larvae). It is expected
that this work will contribute to a more process-based understanding
of potential climate impacts on Australia's coastal marine populations.
Supervisors:
Related:
Publications:
Burgess SC, Black KP, Kingsford MJ (2007) Influence
of tidal eddies and wind on the distribution of presettlement
fishes around One Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef. Marine
Ecology Progress Series. 341:233-242
Wilson SK, Burgess SC, Cheal AJ, Emslie M, Fisher R, Miller
I, Polunin NVC, Sweatman HPA (2008) Habitat
utilization by coral reef fish: Implications for specialists
vs. generalists in a changing environment. Journal
of Animal Ecology. 77:220-228
Fabricius KE, De'ath G, Puotinen ML, Done T, Cooper TF, Burgess
SC (2008) Disturbance gradients on inshore
and offshore coral reefs caused by a severe tropical cyclone. Limnology
and Oceanography. 53(2):690-704
Contact: email: scott.burgess@uq.edu.au
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