Download - ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

National and International LinkagesIn 2006, the ARC Centre produced 88publications with cross-institutional coauthorship(28 more than 2005), involvingresearchers from 93 institutions in 29countries. The ARC Centre hosted 51international visitors from 17 countries, andCentre personnel traveled to 20 countries.The ARC Centre participated in or hosted7 national and 17 international workinggroups during 2006. Centre personnel areactively involved in many internationalactivities (including consultancies andend-user engagement, see p.32), includingmembership of editorial boards for nineinternational journals.Nationally, the Centre Chief Investigatorscontribute to five ARC Networks, reflectingtheir broad range of expertise. The Centreis represented at the Australian Academyof Sciences by two Fellows, Terry Hughes(JCU) and Malcolm McCulloch (ANU). Thethree main University nodes are linked toresearch and industry partners throughoutAustralia. In 2006, co-funding agreementswere established for 4 shared postdoctoralfellows, with AIMS, CSIRO and TheResilience Alliance. Two more will followin 2007. Internationally, major linkageswere developed and strengthened duringthe past year, including collaborationswith The Resilience Alliance, The BeijerInternational Institute for EcologicalEconomics, and The World Bank Coral ReefTargeted Research Program, which aredescribed briefly below.The Resilience Alliancewww.resalliance.orgThe ARC Centre of Excellence for CoralReef Studies is a Member Organizationof the Resilience Alliance (RA). The RA isa multi-disciplinary research group thatexplores the dynamics of linked social andecological systems in order to discoverfoundations for sustainability. It is anextensively networked organization, with17 member organizations in Australia,Canada, France, the Netherlands, Sweden,Thailand, the USA and Zimbabwe.RA members are world-leaders in theecological, mathematical, and socialsciences, covering a broad range ofdisciplinary expertise. The ARC Centre isrepresented by Hughes on the RA’s Boardof Directors, and on the editorial board oftheir journal, Ecology & Society. In March2006, the ARC Centre hosted a workinggroup meeting of the RA in Townsville,funded by the Packard Foundation. TheCentre also funded a working group inAugust, held at the University of Maine, incollaboration with Professor Bob Steneck,a Centre Partner Investigator. The RAwill host its next meeting in Corsica inSeptember 2007. The Resilience Alliancehas also agreed to co-fund a postdoctoralposition based at the Centre’s Townsvillenode in 2006-2007. A series of jointresearch funding initiatives are alsoplanned for next year.The Beijer International Institute forEcological Economicswww.beijer.kva.seThe Beijer Institute operates under theauspices of the Royal Swedish Academy,working at the interface of ecology andeconomics, co-directed by Profesor CarlFolke, who is a Partner Investigator inthe ARC Centre. It conducts researchand training internationally, funded bySwedish and international researchcouncils. The ARC Centre Director, TerryHughes, was appointed to the Boardof Directors of the Beijer Institute in2006, for a period of 3 years. The BeijerInstitute and two additional Swedishpartners received 22 million Eurosin funding in 2006 from the SwedishFoundation for Strategic EnvironmentalResearch (MISTRA) to establish a majornew Centre of Excellence, to be calledthe Stockholm Resilience Centre. Withpending support from the State ofQueensland, we plan to establish aframework within which collaborationbetween the new Australian and SwedishCentres can develop further in 2007.A major outcome will be the developmentand application of policy guidelinesand processes that further the globaldevelopment of adaptive governancesystems. The Australian Academy ofScience has formally endorsed the ARCCentre’s growing engagement with RoyalSwedish Academy.Global Coral Reef Targeted Research(CRTR) Program www.gefcoral.orgThe ARC Centre of Excellence is the singlelargest contributor of expertise to thisglobal research partnership, which includesthe World Bank, The IntergovernmentalOceanographic Commission, US NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA), the University of Queensland, and60 other research groups. The consortiumof researchers aims to conduct specific,targeted research to fill critically importantinformation gaps in the fundamentalunderstanding of coral reef ecosystems sothat management and policy interventionscan be strengthened globally. FiveInternational Working Groups, each withapproximately a dozen leading researchers,form the scientific basis for the program.In 2005, the Centre is represented on fourgroups which dove-tail well with Programs3 and 4 of this proposal: (a) DiseasesWorking Group: Willis (Co-chair), (b)Connectivity Working Group: Jones, Planesand Steneck, (c) Bleaching Working Group:Hoegh-Guldberg, (Chair), (d) ModellingWorking Group: Bradbury (Chair). In 2006,the ARC Centre contributed to workinggroup meetings on Heron and OrpheusIslands, and in Brisbane, Miami, Paris andTownsville. The Centre Director, TerryHughes, met with the CRTR SteeringCommittee in Mexico in October 2006, todevelop additional collaborative activities,which will include a major workshop inTownsville during 2007.36