July news update

The first semester and exam period has come to an end. Sarah Tesolin, our BSc Advanced student gave her final seminar – she was researching syngnathids (sea horses, pipefish and sea dragons) as a potential flagship species for conservation and sustainability. Bronwyn is about to head to Timor Leste with a group of 16 undergraduate students – there are likely to be several news posts about that shortly.

Bronwyn gave a talk on giant Australian cuttlefish in South Australian waters to the Underwater Explorers Club of SA. The club has been going for 63 years and were about to head up to Point Lowly near Whyalla for a dive trip. We have a page devoted to our research on this amazing creature.

Congratulations to Jasmin Martino whose Honours research paper has just been accepted. The paper is titled “Elevated carbon dioxide and temperature affects otolith development, but not chemistry, in a diadromous fish” and is published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. This is Jasmin’s first research paper, and it’s available for free download for 50 days here.

Alice Jones is off to Darwin to present some of our research on the Spencer Gulf project at the annual Australian Marine Science Association conference. Alice’s talk is titled “Are you sure? Capturing expert's uncertainty in marine spatial cumulative impact assessments”.

Alice has also been busy with field work for our coastal carbon project. She has coordinated field work in seagrass beds and mangrove habitats collecting sediment cores and setting up surface elevation tables. After a somewhat rocky start the vast majority of the work was completed. The team comprising researchers from the EPA, Edith Cowan University and the University of Adelaide arrived in Wallaroo to find the electronics on the boat had been ripped out and the dive gear stolen! After a few hasty phone calls etc our colleagues at SA Water, who are also involved in the project, came to the rescue and assisted meaning we only lost a day. Special thanks in particular to Tim! Alice has also been busy processing mangrove samples that were being cleared for a new road north of Adelaide – they are then delivered to us at a site near Bolivar for weighing and processing. Thanks to Jackson and Matt for assisting with processing. Our tallest mangrove tree is 6.8m and shows some lovely growth increments!