Stories of science from the Australian Rivers Institute
"The calls from scientists were clear at the recent UN COP26 Climate Change Conference - global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is urgently needed to ensure a future for coral reefs."
"Seagrasses are marvellous coastal ecosystems that provide a range of critical ecosystem functions and services, including climate regulation and fisheries production, however they are under threat."
Australian Rivers Institute Director Professor Stuart Bunn. Photo Australian Rivers Institute. Author: Australian Rivers Institute Director Stuart Bun Magazine Link: Magazine - Read Time: 711words, about 6 minutes. After an unavoidable delay, I welcome you to this edition of the Australian Rivers Institute Magazine. Looking back over the past year, it is quite remarkable to [...]
“With fisheries for example, seagrasses provide nursery habitat for juvenile fish and foraging grounds for about 25% of the world’s biggest fisheries. "We identified associations between pressures and measured changes in seagrass extent and found that seagrasses are especially under threat from poor water quality and destructive fisheries like trawling."
"We’ve entered the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. As the world ramps up their restoration efforts in response to widespread environmental degradation, we need to maximise success and the benefits that the environment and humanity get from these efforts."
"We are entering a new era of science where ecosystem change is uncharted by historical observations. Observations are the foundation of predictive science, so how can we predict a future that is outside the envelope of the environments? "
"They have supported me throughout my PhD, through all the failures and successes, and I wouldn’t have made it through without them. They both provided me with guidance but also allowed me to follow through with my own ideas, even if they were possibly doomed from the beginning... All in all, I really lucked out with my supervisory team!"
"Often during flood events, water from agricultural catchments will erode productive agricultural soils and carry large loads of sediment and nutrients to downstream estuaries and coastal areas. This can threaten the provision of safe drinking water for humans and the ecology of marine ecosystems, as well as sometimes necessitating costly sediment dredging and disposal operations."
"Our research, published today, paints a grim picture. We estimate that even under the most optimistic emissions scenarios, we’ll see dramatic reductions in coral reef growth globally. The good news is that 63% of all reefs in this emissions scenario will still be able to grow by 2100."
"There has been a lot of focus on the challenge of managing overfishing with the controversial new documentary Seaspiracy on Netflix. But the overfishing issue isn’t as simple as the picture that documentary paints," Dr Chris Brown.
Catchment to Coast 