Marine Research at UOW

Research activity by staff and research students is spread throughout the science faculty and includes both fundamental and applied research.

Biological Sciences

The Australian coastline is one of the most diverse in the world. The adjacent seas provide unparalleled opportunities for unravelling past climates, defining coastal processes and establishing baselines for marine conservation. The University of Wollongong is well placed and equipped for fundamental research in marine biology including behavioural Ecology - especially pollinator behaviour and behaviour of marine invertebrates ( David Ayre), human impacts on natural systems, including the impact of introduced marine pests (Andy Davis), how plants respond to Climate Change induced environmental stress in Antarctica (Sharon Robinson) and the population and community ecology of benthic invertebrates, insects, and plants in coastal terrestrial, marine, and estuarine habitats (rocky reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, marshes, beaches, dunes, etc.) (Todd Minchinton).

Areas of applied research can be viewed on each researchers web page.

Diving census of invertebrate populations

Current Student Research Projects Include:

Gene Flow and Morphological Variation in Barnacles Across a Biogeographic Barrier

Ecological and genetic tests of the status of the Sea Anemones at the species borders.

Species Distributions and Climate Change.

Cultivation of the green algae Ulva and its integration into Abalone Culture

Larvae collected from these colonies of the coral Pocillopora damicornis were being collected to allow genetic tests of their mode of production.

Transplanting intertidal sea anemones

Earth and Environmental Science

Research actively includes most of Australia answering questions beginning locally to those that have world wide implications. For example, how do heavy metals accumulate in coastal lagoons such as Lake Illawarra (Brian Jones, Bryan Chenhal), what are the constraints on coral reef growth at their most southerly extend on Lord Howe Island (Colin Woodroffe), is sea-level as stable as we want it to be (Gordon Murray-Wallace) and what is the signature in tropical seas of global climate change during Ice Ages (Allan Chivas)? The legacy of marine geoscientific research today is the preservation of marine environments tomorrow.

Research is focussed on nutrient transformations in estuaries, including modelling nutrient budgets, the impact of eutrophication in shallow estuarine lakes, mangroves and saltmarshes as indicators of environmental health and the Biodiversity of shallow water estuarine fish - including the effects of manipulation of entrances to intermittently open lagoons and the effects of structural differences among sea grass beds/communities.

Current Student Research Projects Include:

Holocene Sea Level Rise, Flood History & Floodplain Sedimentation on the Lower Shoalhaven

The Aeolianites of Kangaroo Island

Torres Strait reefs and carbonate production: A geospatial approach

Coastal vulnerability of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati to projected sea level rise.

Seine netting to sample sea grass fish

Collection of a vibracore sample at Middleton Reef.

Chemistry

The recent emphasis of marine projects has been in the area of Marine Bioprospecting but now includes emphasis on transformations and bioavailability of heavy metals, contamination of ports and the design of environmental monitoring programs for ports, and contaminants in processed marine products (see Dr Dianne Jolley)

Current Student Research Projects Include:

Development of whole sediment toxicity tests using copepods and amphipods to address the complex interactions between contamination mixtures

Optimising diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) for arsenic in marine waters.

Investigation of the mode of toxicity of metals to microalgae.

Copper Toxicity to marine microalgae