Coral Reefs Editorial Team

Transcription

1 Coral Reefs Editorial Team Editor in Chief Professor Rolf PM Bak works at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and holds the chair of Tropical Marine Biology at the University of Amsterdam. He started his research on coral ecology in Curaçao (Antilles) in the 1970s, subsequently broadening the scope to include other groups of organisms, pelagic/benthic interactions, aspects of reef microbiology, impacts of catastrophes and related phase shifts, effects of anthropogenic changes in the marine environment. Though starting his research in the Caribbean, he has extensive experience in reef research in Indonesia and Polynesia. At present one of his interests is in coral intra-genus variation and the mechanisms involved in the distribution of closely related corals over large depth ranges. Editorial Assistant Dr. Elizabeth H. Gladfelter is currently a Guest Investigator in the Marine Policy Center at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts. From 1974 until 1991, she held positions at West Indies Laboratory, Virgin Islands, the last few years as Director. The main focus of her research has been coral organismal biology, particularly growth and calcification; her research has also included studies on coral reef fish and benthic ecology. At WHOI, her interests include policy decisions affecting individuals and institutions engaged in scientific research and education, and some of this work has resulted in a book, Agassiz s Legacy: Scientists Reflections on the Value of Field Experience (Oxford U. Press 2002). Biology Topic Editors Dr. Hugh Sweatman is a senior research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, Australia. Initial interests in settlement behaviour of coral reef fishes and ecology of predatory fishes led to projects on fish predators and the dynamics of the crown-ofthorns starfish. Since 1995 he has been involved with monitoring reef fishes and benthic communities as part of a long-term program on the Great Barrier Reef. He has broad interests in ecology of coral reefs, including monitoring methods and interpretation of monitoring data, "reef health" and the effects of zoning in the Great Barrier Reef marine park.

2 Dr. Mark Vermeij is the scientific director of the CARMABI research station on Curaçao, an island in the Southern Caribbean. His research interests include evolutionary and ecological dynamics of benthic marine organisms, with particular emphasis on corals, algae and, more recently, microbes. Currently, his work focuses foremost on the earliest life stages of corals and the processes that operate during these earliest life stages. The results of all scientific work conducted at Carmabi are disseminated through the organization local network (i.e., parks, museums, educational programs) to stakeholder groups that are directly or indirectly involved with coral reef management and conservation. Dr. Glenn Almany is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Australia. His research is broadly focused on the ecology of coral reef fishes, particularly in areas directly relevant to conservation and management. A current focus is measuring patterns of larval dispersal and population connectivity and translating this information into improved systematic conservation plans and fisheries management strategies. These projects involve partnerships with local fishing communities, governments and NGOs in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia, as well as collaboration with researchers in a wide range of disciplines. He also conducts studies on the community ecology of coral reef fishes examining the influence of predation and competition on community structure, dynamics and diversity. Dr. Anastazia Banaszak is currently a Research Professor in the Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales (Reef Systems Academic Unit) a campus of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México located in the Mexican Caribbean. Her undergraduate education was at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia followed by her graduate degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA and a postdoctoral appointment at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland, USA.. Her research interests include the photobiology of corals and coral reef dwellingorganisms as well as temperate phytoplankton. Most recently she has become interested in coral reproductive biology and the culture of corals for use in reef restoration.

3 . Dr. Ruth D. Gates is an Associate Research Professor at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, a research unit embedded within the School of Earth and Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. This facility combines close proximity to a living reef with the capacity to support a full range of research activities that span field operations to functional genomics. Her work focuses on the mechanisms by which reef corals sense and respond to changes in the marine environment, and spansa range of scales from ecological to molecular. Within this context, her current research is aimed at obtaining a more comprehensive understanding of how the genetic composition and nature of the symbiosis between corals and their endosymbiotic dinoflagellates partners maps onto the environmental resilience of the holobiont. In addition, her research team is examining the impacts of land-based pollution on the biology of corals with the goal of developing a suite of proactive diagnostic tools for use in the management and conservation of Hawaii s reefs. Dr. Stephen E. Swearer is an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia and a research leader in the Victorian Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management. He has broad interests in marine population and community ecology, the evolution of life-history traits in fishes, aquatic ecotoxicology, and oceanography. His coral reef research focuses on the early life history of fishes and the importance of larval retention and dispersal to population replenishment. He currently is researching maternal and environmental impacts on larval behaviour and development, growth, dispersal, and survival.

4 Ecology Topic Editor Dr. Stuart A. Sandin is a quantitative ecologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, with specific interests in population and community ecology. He investigates ecological questions that can most effectively relate to, and inform, marine management. Similarly to how an engineer can provide informed solutions to practical commercial problems, an ecologist can provide the fundamental science needed to protect and to sustain the use of natural resources. With this analogy in mind, his current research focuses on how fishing alters the structure and productivity of reef fisheries, as well as how natural and anthropogenic factors influence benthic coral reef dynamics. Most of this research is conducted in the central Pacific and the southern Caribbean. D. Geology Topic Editor Professor Bernhard Riegl is Associate Professor at the Nova Southeastern UniversityOceanographic Center. He is the associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). He received his MSc degree from the University of Vienna (Austria) in 1989 and PhD degree from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in He also received the habilitation at Karl- Franzens-University Graz (Austria) in Dr. Riegl's research centers on coral reefs and other tropical benthic biota, such as seagrass and algae. He is both a biologist and geologist, his research and publications have involved the paleontology, sedimentology, spatial dynamics, ecology, taxonomy and conservation biology of coral reefs and associated organisms. He is also active in hydrographic survey, particularly sonar-based seafloor discrimination, which he integrates with optical remotesensing to provide high-resolution maps of the seafloor. He has worked in the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, Indian Ocean, South Pacific, Eastern Pacific, tropical Atlantic and Caribbean.

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