Integrated Data System for Coral Reefs Enables AI Analysis
stress in the past two years.The World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has been decimated by severe bleaching events since 2016, exacerbated by ongoing crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and coastal development.A collaborative project led by the University of South Australia, with input from Queensland and Victorian researchers, is integrating remote sensing technologies with machine learning, AI and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to monitor and hopefully stall the damage.A multimodal platform will distil all research data relating to coral reefs, including underwater videos and photographs
Bacteria Used to Detect Rare Earth Elements
Researchers from Queensland University of Technology developed a prototype biosensor that can detect rare earth elements.Professor Kirill Alexandrov and colleagues have engineered proteins to create molecular nanomachines that generate easily detectable signals when they selectively bind to lanthanides, elements used in electronics, electric motors and batteries.Publishing their findings in Angewandte Chemie International, the team describe engineering a hybrid protein, or chimera, by combining a lanthanide-binding protein with an antibiotic degrading enzyme called beta-lactamase.This hybrid acts like
Whale Sharks Beware!
or females give birth is not yet known.”The research was led by the Marine Biological Association, Plymouth, and the University of Southampton and included international and Australian co-authors. Australian co authors came from James Cook University, Biopixel Oceans Foundation, The University of Queensland, Murdoch University, The University of Western Australia, ECOCEAN, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sundive Research, and Australian National University
Australia Conducts First Maintenance of US Nuclear Submarine
, McCaul was speaking during a visit to Sydney.U.S. submarine maintenance in Australia is a step helping to "better deter aggression in the region and uphold the rules-based international order", the ministers added in Friday's statement.Drills by U.S. B-2 stealth bomber aircraft in Queensland on the east coast include aerial refueling by the Royal Australian Air Force, the defense department said, after plans flagged last month for an increased rotational presence of U.S. forces.(Reuters - Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Hottest Oceans in 400 Years Threaten Great Barrier Reef
Barrier Reef have risen to their warmest in 400 years over the past decade, placing the world's largest reef under threat, according to research published on Thursday.The reef, the world's largest living ecosystem, stretches for some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) off the coast of the northern state of Queensland.A group of scientists at universities across Australia drilled cores into the coral and, much like counting the rings on a tree, analysed the samples to measure summer ocean temperatures going back to 1618.Combined with ship and satellite data going back around a hundred years, the results show
The Barrier Reef is Still in Hot Water
quality with revegetation projects and work to reduce soil erosion; and ending gillnet use in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by 2027.For at least a century, cattle, sugarcane and other farmers have relied on rivers to take animal waste and fertiliser runoff away from their properties. In much of Queensland, that means the runoff heads for the Great Barrier Reef instead. We did see some improvement under the Coalition government, which put A$443 million into trying to solve the issue. Labor has put in a further $150 million. But the water quality problem is still not solved.Ending gillnet use in the
Australia Creates Permit-Free, Autonomous Marine Tech Test Area
For the first time in Australia, autonomous marine technology developers have a location to safely test autonomous vessels without needing to apply for a permit. The Australian Institute of Marine Science’s ReefWorks inshore test range, near Townsville in north Queensland, was granted regulatory sandbox approval for uncrewed vessels from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).It’s the first approval issued under a proposed Australian Maritime Regulatory Sandbox advocated by Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS), AIMS and AMC Search. The five-year agreement allows for permit-free
CSIRO Aims to Create a 'Weather Service' for Water Quality
mangrove forests.The AquaWatch Mission brings together CSIRO with SmartSat CRC and a network of collaborators to develop and implement the system including government, the ACT Government’s Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate; NSW Department of Planning and Environment; Queensland Department of Environment and Science; South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI); Western Australia’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation; along with industry BiOceanOr; Hunter Water; universities and research organizations including ANU Institute for Water
Modeling Shows How Nuclear War Would Devastate the World’s Oceans
Biogeochemical Modelling, IMAS, University of TasmaniaCheryl Harrison, Assistant professor in oceanography and coastal sciences, Louisiana State UniversityKim Scherrer, Postdoctoral fellow at the department of Biological Sciences, University of BergenRyan Heneghan, Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology, Queensland University of Technology(Source: The Conversation
February 2025
