SCHOOL OF MARINE BIOLOGY AND AQUACULTURE
Aquaculture
The research activities in this discipline focus on the aquaculture of tropical animals, as is appropriate to the University’s location in northern Australia. There are collaborative research programs with Australian government organisations and with overseas countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
Larval Nutrition
Artificial diets for fish, crustacean and bivalve larvae.Nutrition requirements of fish, crustacean and bivalve larvae.
Bivalve Mariculture
Black pearl culture in the Pacific.Silver pearl culture in Indonesia.
Bivalve feeding and energetics.
Pearl oyster spat collection and growth.
Pearl broodstock management.
Larval culture techniques.
Endocrinology and Growth of Fish
Amino acid nutrition of herbivorous fish.Regulation of growth in fish.
Controlling reproduction and sex-change in fish.
Stress in fish.
Fish and Crustaceans with Potential
Enhancing survivorship of coral trout.Redclaw crayfish aquaculture.
Culture of seahorses, eels and mudcrabs.
Marine Biology
Present research activities are as follows.
Tropical Fisheries Biology
Fisheries science with an emphasis on studies of growth, reproduction and recruitment in tropical fishes of commercial importance.The methods of ageing tropical fishes has a high research priority.
Coral Biology and Coral Reef Ecology
Reproductive biology, growth patterns and demography of scleractinian and soft corals.Evolutionary biology and biogeography of corals.
Special emphases on modelling of population processes in corals and the consequences of mass spawning.
Responses of corals to environmental disturbances.
Population and Community Modelling
Exploring the dynamics of coral reef systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales.Community assembly rules and biogeography.
Recruitment, dispersal and meta-population models.
Sampling and Monitoring Programs and Marine Conservation Biology
The influence of human and natural disturbance on coastal and coral reef ecosystems.The design of sampling, experimental and long-term monitoring programs in shallow marine environments.
Tropical Ichthyology
Taxonomy, phylogeny and population biology of coral reef fishes.Behavioural ecology of reef fishes.
The biology of herbivorous fishes.
Larval biology of fishes.
Functional biology of tropical fishes.
Invertebrate Biology
Biodiversity of invertebrates in tropical habitats.Crustacean biology with an emphasis on functional anatomy and neurophysiology.
Phylogenetic studies on Crustacea.
Planktonic and pelagic invertebrates.
Taxonomy of marine invertebrates, especially molluscs.
Mangrove, Coastal and Estuarine Biology
Shallow water benthic organisms, especially those of soft bottoms. Tropical intertidal organisms. Mangrove and estuarine fishes and their life histories.
Ecophysiology of Fishes
Factors influencing growth and development patterns of fishes.Responses of reef fish to physiological stress.