Project Phoenix has just returned from a collecting trip to Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island (29.03° S; 167.95° E) is one of the most isolated reefs in the Pacific Ocean according to an index developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The size of the reef surrounding the island is likely to have fluctuated widely … Continue reading November 2021 Norfolk Island
Field Notes
October 2021 Port Noarlunga Jetty, South Australia
South Australia might not seem like an obvious destination to collect reef-building corals, but it is, in fact, the type location for four nominal species: Caryophyllia australis Milne-Edwards & Haime 1849; Cylicia magna Tenison-Woods, 1878; Homophyllia incrustans Dennant 1906 and Plesiastrea proximalis Dennant 1904. Caryophyllia australis is currently accepted as Homophyllia australis; Cylicia magna is … Continue reading October 2021 Port Noarlunga Jetty, South Australia
October 2021 Vernon Islands
Project Phoenix has just returned from a field trip to the Vernon Islands north of Darwin, Australia. The Top End is a vastly under-explored area for coral reef research. Indeed, there have been only two papers on the coral fauna published to date despite extensive and flourishing reefs: a checklist of the corals in Darwin … Continue reading October 2021 Vernon Islands
May 2021 Palms Islands Group Field Trip
Andrew Baird, Tom Bridge, Pete Cowman, Augustine Crosbie, Jeremy Horowitz and Julia Hung have just returned from two weeks on James Cook University’s Orpheus Island Research Station. The aims of the trip were two-fold. Firstly, the hunt for topotypes continues. The Palm Islands group is an important location in the history of coral taxonomy being … Continue reading May 2021 Palms Islands Group Field Trip
May 2021 Low Isles Field Trip
The hunt for topotypes at Project Phoenix continues with Andrew Baird, Gus Crosbie and Hanaka Mera spending four days at the research station on Low Isles off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Low Isles is an important site in the history of coral reef ecology, being the site of the GBR Expedition … Continue reading May 2021 Low Isles Field Trip
March 2021 Lord Howe Island
Andrew Baird and Tom Bridge have just returned from a week sampling the corals of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (LHIMP), the world’s southernmost coral reef. Andrew, along with many colleagues from Project Phoenix, has been working to quantify the biodiversity of the corals of the island for over 10 years. On his first … Continue reading March 2021 Lord Howe Island
March 2021 Solitary Islands
Andrew Baird has just returned from a field trip to the Solitary Islands Marine Park (SIMP). The weather and sea conditions were brilliant, with light winds and the deep warm blue of the East Australia Current bathing the outer islands of the group. Project Phoenix have been working in the SIMP since 2010 to document … Continue reading March 2021 Solitary Islands
Changing coral taxonomy: What can we do in the meantime?
Author: Hanaka Mera As a PhD student, if someone told me that the species I am working with (or planning on) for my research project actually might be something entirely different or might be five different species, it would be quite overwhelming, maybe feel a bit devastated. This could be true for any researcher or … Continue reading Changing coral taxonomy: What can we do in the meantime?
Heron Island Field Trip
Author: Andrew Baird Project Phoenix recently visited Heron Island Research Station in the Capricorn Bunker Group on the Great Barrier Reef in their ongoing hunt for coral topotypes and new species. At least 7 nominal species of Scleractinia have type locations in the region and we are confident we found representatives of most of these, … Continue reading Heron Island Field Trip
Myrmidon Reef
Author: Andrew Baird After a 10 hour steam on the Kalinda and a quiet night full of stars; Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and then Venus were all on display, we woke to a glass out in the lagoon on Myrmidon. [Image: Glass out at Myrmidon Reef] We were targeting topotypes of a couple of nominal species, … Continue reading Myrmidon Reef
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