Project Phoenix, funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, has just completed a Coral Taxonomy Workshop at Orpheus Island Research Station on Goolboddi. The workshop included 13 participants from six different countries, eight different institutions and seven PhD students. The primary aim of the workshop was to produce … Continue reading Coral Taxonomy Workshop 2022
News
Coral Bleaching on Ishigaki, Japan, August 2022
The coral assemblages of the north coast of Ishigaki were not overly affected by coral bleaching in 2016 that devastated many reefs in the Yaeyama Islands. The last major disturbance on the north coast of Ishigaki was a crown of thorns outbreak about 12 years ago, according to Dr. Go Suzuki who has been working … Continue reading Coral Bleaching on Ishigaki, Japan, August 2022
Seminar recording “When does taxonomy matter?” now available
Professor Andrew Baird presented a seminar at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies on the Topic “When does coral taxonomy matter?” The full talk is available to watch at the link below. https://youtu.be/J_tWYYP_gH8
2022 Lizard Island Critical Research Grant award to Project Phoenix members
Andrew Baird, Tom Bridge, Pete Cowman and Josh Madin have just been awarded the 2022 Lizard Island Critical Research Grant to re-visit the taxonomy of the reef-building corals of Lizard Island, Australia. For an excellent summary of the project by Dr Anne Hoggett, co-director of the Lizard Island Research Station, see the link below. https://lirrf.org/2022-critical-research-grant-awarded/ The … Continue reading 2022 Lizard Island Critical Research Grant award to Project Phoenix members
FY2022 JSPS Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan
Professor Andrew Baird from James Cook University has been awarded a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Long-Term Invitation Fellowship. The purpose of the programme is to invite overseas researchers with excellent track records to collaborate with Japanese colleagues. Andrew will spend four months with his host, Dr Saki Harii, at the Tropical … Continue reading FY2022 JSPS Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan
Coral mass spawning explained
Author: Andrew Baird *This article was originally written for the Norfolk Island's Reef website. As adults, corals are sedentary or sessile animals, meaning that they are attached to the ocean floor. One consequence of being sessile is that they cannot move to find a mate with which to reproduce. When the time comes to breed … Continue reading Coral mass spawning explained
New paper: Solving the Coral Species Delimitation Conundrum
Catalina Ramírez-Portilla and colleagues from Project Phoenix have just published a paper in Systematic Biology titled Solving the Coral Species Delimitation Conundrum. In this case study, the authors focused on delineating tabular Acropora species in Okinawa (Japan) using morphology, cross-breeding trials and DNA sequences. Tabular Acropora spp. are notoriously difficult to identify, a phenomenon that … Continue reading New paper: Solving the Coral Species Delimitation Conundrum
Review for Coral Finder 2021
Coral Finder 2021 (CF2021) is a significant milestone for all those interested in coral identification. For the first time since the molecular revolution threw coral taxonomy into a state of chaos, there is now a guide that summarises all the changes at the family and genus level in a single publication. Russell Kelley, author of … Continue reading Review for Coral Finder 2021
Wepfer et al. (2021) have now written a reply to Bonito et al. (2021)
You can access the reply here. They accept that their work will need to be repeated using the approach outlined in Bonito et al. 2021 i.e. test all nominal species in the genus Galaxea using vouchered topotypes. Knowing where to look for topotypes will soon become much easier once Project Phoenix finish compiling a nomenclature for the … Continue reading Wepfer et al. (2021) have now written a reply to Bonito et al. (2021)
Workshop on the use of nomenclatures in taxonomy
Author: Andrew Baird The Project Phoenix Townsville + Sydney + Perth crew ran a workshop on the use of nomenclatures in taxonomy on 19th February 2021. The workshop outlined how to put together a useful nomenclature and how to use a nomenclature to progress coral taxonomy. The bottom line is that working within the “accepted” … Continue reading Workshop on the use of nomenclatures in taxonomy
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