C3Climate Change ClusterAnnual Report

20 18

Director’s ReportThis year we had the privilege of celebrating the Climate Change Cluster’s 10th anniversary. Our committed teams have been outstanding in the delivery of world class research to address Australia’s most challenging environmental problems.

C3 is unique amongst environmental institutes in being one of the few to sustain investment from both our host organisation and industry partners for over a decade. This has been a testament to our vision and problem centred approach to research, ultimately leading to a stability that has allowed C3 to move confidently into new areas of research.

Once again our multidisciplinary teams have been delivering solutions through leading-edge research tackling tough problems and shining a light on complex issues. We have done a lot in 2018 to articulate our culture within these teams, to build our skills in communication, to improve efficiency and emphasise the importance of soft skills in our careers. One continuing goal for 2018 was to maintain C3 as the preferred employer for researchers in our discipline. This goal was integrated into HR hiring practices as we welcomed new members to C3.

Our continuing longevity can be attributed to an ongoing ability to produce nationally and internationally significant solutions to global challenges. International recognition has been paramount in increasing the intensity, excellence, impact and reputation of our research. Benchmarking was used to understand the institute’s recognition relative to other institutes both across Australia and around the globe. C3’s Field-Weighted Citation Impact scored consistently >1.6 with an average ~2.0, double the world average. Additionally, I was pleased to see over 60% of our papers published in the top 10% of most-cited journals indexed by Scopus. These achievements have placed C3 on track to position us within the top 10 in chosen fields globally by 2020.

As C3 enters into the next 10 ten years of research our commitment to world leadership in climate science remains unwavering. The institute is well equipped to continue delivering innovative research and solutions for the biggest environmental and societal issues facing the world today.

Institute ManagerCatriona Reid

Research OfficersMelissa OeyJohn Moore

Student Promotional RepresentativeGemma Gillette 

Industry Engagement ManagerLucy Buxton

Grants EditorSabina Belli

DGBH ManagerAlex Thomson

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Professional Technical Officer Paul Brooks

Senior Scientific OfficerKun Xiao

Assistant Technical OfficerScott AllchinLochlan de BeyerJoel Burke

TECHNICAL STAFFEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Peter Ralph

David SuggettShauna Murray

ARC FUTURE FELLOW/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PROFESSOR

CHANCELLOR’S POSTDOCTOAL

RESEARCH FELLOW/DECRA

Justin SeymourMartina Doblin

Jean-Baptiste RainaJustin Ashworth

CHANCELLOR’S POSTDOCTORAL

RESEARCH FELLOW

Penelope Ajani

DECRA FELLOW

Manoj Kumar

EMERITUS PROFESSOR

SENIOR RESEARCH

FELLOW

RESEARCH FELLOW

Nahshon SiboniMathieu Pernice

Tim Kahlke

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Alonzo ZavaletaArjun VermaAudrey CommaultBernhard TschitschkoChris HallEmma CampJanice McCauleyJean-Baptiste RainaJennifer MatthewsLeen LabeeuwMichaela LarssonMichele FabrisMilan SzaboNahshon SiboniPhoebe ArgyleRaffaela Abbriano BurkeTim KalkheUnnikrishnan Kuzhiumparambil

VISITING PROFESSOR

John Raven

DISTINGUISHED RESEARCH

PROFESSOR

Michael Kuhl

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Marco GiardinaNahshon Siboni

Paul WordenRichard Carney

VISITING FELLOW

Jim Franklin

Mathieu PerniceAnthony Larkum

PUBLICATIONS

An Empirical Process Model to predict Miroalgal Carbon Fixation Rates in Photobioreactors

Tamburic B; Evenhuis CR; Crosswell JR; Ralph PJ

Algal ResearchIF:4.1

Seasonal Performance of a Full-scale Wastewater Teatment Enhanced Pond System

Sutherland DL; Heubeck S; Park J; Turnbull MH; Craggs RJ

Water ResearchIF:4.66

Effects of Nutrients and Processing on the Nutritionally Important Metabolites of Ulva sp. (Chlorophyta)

McCauley JI; Winberg PC; Meyer BJ; Skropeta D

Algal ResearchIF:4.1

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS

AND BIO-TECHNOLOGY

Defining the Core Microbiome of the Symbiotic Dinoflagellate, Symbiodinium

Lawson CA; Raina J-B; Kahlke T; Seymour JR; Suggett DJ

Environmental Microbiology Reports

IF:2.71

Utility of Photochemical Traits as Diagnostics of Thermal Tolerance Amongst Great Barrier Reef Corals

Nitschke MR; Gardner SG; Goyen S; Fujise L; Camp EF; Ralph PJ; Suggett DJ

Frontiers in Marine Science

FUTURE REEFS

60.8%Publications in the top 10% of journals

CiteScore

How can “Super Corals” Facilitate Global Coral Reef Survival Under Rapid Environmental and Climatic Change?

Camp EF; Schoepf V; Suggett DJ

Global Change BiologyIF:6.91

PRODUCTIVE COASTS

Information Content of In Situ and Remotely Sensed Chlorophyll-a: Learning from Size-structured Phytoplankton Model

Laiolo L; Matear R; Baird ME; Soja-Wozniak M; Doblin M

Journal of Marine SystemsIF: 2.66

Thermal Niche Evolution of Functional Traits in a Tropical Marine Phototroph

Baker KG; Radford DT; Evenhuis C; Kuzhiumparambil U; Ralph PJ; Doblin MA

Journal of phycologyIF: 2.24

Systematic, Continental Scale Temporal Monitoring of Marine Pelagic Microbiota by the Australian Marine Microbial Biodiversity Initiative

Brown MV; van de Kamp J; Ostrowski M; Seymour JR; Ingleton T; Messer LF; Jeffries T; Siboni N; Laverock B; Bibiloni-Isaksson J

Scientific data

The Microbiome of the Cosmopolitan Diatom Leptocylindrus reveals Significant Spatial and Temporal Variability

Ajani PA; Kahlke T; Siboni N; Carney R; Murray SA; Seymour JR

ToxinsIF: 2.13

Quantifying Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation by Synechococcus Using Bulk and Single-Cell Mass Spectrometry: A Comparative Study

Giardina M; Cheong S; Marjo CE; Clode PL; Guagliardo P; Pickford R; Pernice M; Seymour JR; Raina J-B

Frontiers in microbiologyIF: 3.94

Bloom drivers of the potentially harmful dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum (Pavillard) Schiller in a south eastern temperate Australian estuary

Ajani PA; Larsson M; Woodcock S; Rubio A; Farrell H; Brett S; Murray SA

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf ScienceIF: 2.32

Diarrhetic Shellfish Toxin Monitoring in Commercial Wild Harvest Bivalve Shellfish in New South Wales, Australia

Farrell H; Ajani PA; Murray SA; Baker P; Webster G; Brett S; Zammit A

ToxinsIF:2.13

qPCR Assays for the Detection and Quantification of Multiple Paralytic Shellfish Toxin-Producing Species of Alexandrium

Ruvindy R; Bolch CJ; MacKenzie L; Smith KF; Murray SA

Frontiers in microbiologyIF:3.94

A New Mechanistic Understanding of Light-limitation in the Seagrass Zostera muelleri

Davey PA; Pernice M; Ashworth J; Kuzhiumparambil U; Szabó M; Dolferus R; Ralph PJ

Marine Environmental Research

IF:2.34

Living at the Margins - The Response of Deep-water Seagrasses to Light and Temperature Renders them Susceptible to Acute Impacts

Chartrand KM; Szabó M; Sinutok S; Rasheed MA; Ralph PJ

Marine Environmental Research

IF:2.34

Seagrass Rhizosphere Microenvironment Alters Plant-associated Microbial Community Composition

Brodersen KE; Siboni N; Nielsen DA; Pernice M; Ralph PJ; Seymour JR; Kühl M

Environmental MicrobiologyIF:5.76

OCEAN MICROBES

AND HEALTHY OCEANS

SEAFOOD SAFETY

SEAGRASS HEALTH

Shaping up for Stress: Physiological Flexibility is Key to Survivorship in a Habitat-forming Macroalga

Clark JS; Poore AGB; Doblin MA

Journal of plant physiologyIF:2.7

In 2018 C3 achieved an increase in scale, quality and impact of research in all areas of discipline. The institute produced new insights into problems facing a range of ecosystems around the world, drawing on their extensive breadth of skill to expand further into new areas of research and scientific discovery.

Here we feature a small selection of our total publications that are informing industry and working to solve Australia’s leading ecosystem problems.

Toxicology of Gambierdiscus spp. (Dinophyceae) from Tropical and Temperate Australian Waters

Larsson ME; Laczka OF; Harwood DT; Lewis RJ; Himaya SWA; Murray SA; Doblin MA

Marine drugsIF:3.98

Soft Corals are Significant DMSP Producers in Tropical and Temperate Reefs

Haydon TD; Seymour JR; Suggett DJ

Marine Biology IF:2.47

A new diatom species P. hallegraeffii sp. nov. belonging to the toxic genus Pseudo-nitzschia (Bacillariophyceae) from the East Australian Current

Ajani PA; Verma A; Lassudrie M; Doblin MA; Murray SA

PloS oneIF:3.73

Low Oxygen Affects Photophysiology and the Level of Expression of Two-carbon Metabolism Genes in the Seagrass Zostera muelleri

Kim M; Brodersen KE; Szabó M; Larkum AWD; Raven JA; Ralph PJ; Pernice M

Photosynthesis ResearchIF:3.15

Impact of Flue Gas Compounds on Microalgae and Mechanisms for Carbon Assimi-lation and Utilization

Vuppaladadiyam AK; Yao JG; Florin N; George A; Wang X; La-beeuw L; Jiang Y; Davis RW; Ab-bas A; Ralph PJ

ChemSusChemIF:7.48

Thermal refugia against coral bleaching throughout the northern Red Sea

Osman EO; Smith DJ; Ziegler M; Kürten B; Conrad C; El-Haddad KM; Voolstra CR; Suggett DJ

Global Change BiologyIF: 6.91

69.5%International Collaboration 21.9%

Only National Collaboration

6.7%Only Institutional

Collaboration

105Publications in 2018

1.9%Single Authorship

VISITORS

ChinaXuanlong Ma

IndiaSindhuja Sankaran

Saudi Arabia Shady Amin

MalaysiaLik Theng Ho

United StatesAhmed ShiblNicholas Hill

Susan Moran Zbigniew Kolber

David Kramer

New ZealandMatthew Nitschke

Abu DhabiMichael Ochsenkuhn

Wenjie ZhangRoss JeffreeHazel FarrellTim O’Meara

Deepa VarkeyMichael Borowitzka

Bojan Tamburic

Australia

Czech RepublicTomas ZavrelJan Cerveny

DenmarkMickael Kuhl

FinlandHenna Savela

FranceBertrand Lorme-Bernet

Marine Thierion

HungaryTomas ZlamalMilan Szabo

Each year C3 hosts visitors from around the world who in turn contribute to the integrated and interdisciplinary nature of our research.

GermanyRolf GademannGurjeet Kohli

ScotlandSinead Collins

John Raven

James Cook University23rd Mar 2018Tom Bridge

Coral Biodiversity and the Persistence of Coral Reef Ecosystems

Our rapidly changing understanding of reef coral evolution and phylogenetic relationships, including why coral systematics is important for conservation.

Future Reefs

CSIRO 2nd Feb 2018 Claudia Vickers

Synthetic Biology Tools for Engineering Metabolic Pathways and Networks

New tools and techniques that aid metabolic regulation of pathway flux in pursuit of understanding and achieving controlled cellular behaviour.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

CSIRO20th July 2018Briardo Llorente

Taming the Shape-shifter Plastid

An examination of the mechanism underlying differentiation of chloroplasts into chromoplasts, and exploring carotenoid-related signals as the long-sought primary regulators of this process.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

Western Sydney University8th Aug 2018Alexander Watson-Lazowski

Which C4 subtype has the most effective carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM)? Genomic, biochemical and physiological analyses of C4 grasses at sub ambient CO2 to explore the CCM efficiency of C4 subtypes

An updated model for C4 photosynthetic subtype, NAD-ME, that allow us to begin to understand the plasticity of each subtype, both within the C4 cycle and on a whole plant basis, especially in regards to the efficiency of the CCM.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

University of Western Australia7th Sep 2018Peta Clode

New Perspectives: Imaging and Analysis of Cells and Tissues in ≥ 3 dimensions

Recent advances in imaging and characterisation, offering opportunities to begin to better understand both structure and function at a single cell level.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

Macquarie University31st Oct 2018Katherine Dafforn

Stress Responses to Land-based Discharges in Urban Waterways

An examination of two studies linking ecological change to human impacts along the coast and the significant implications for future biomonitoring and management of human impacts in estuaries.

Productive Coasts

C3 UTS16th Nov 2018Anna Bramucci

Phaeobacter Inhibens Pathogenesis of Emiliania Huxleyi

Prominent findings from three studies investigating the mechanism of the pathogenic interaction between roseobactPhabacter inhibens and

coccolithophore E. huxleyi.

Ocean

Microbes and Healthy Oceans

University of Sydney28th Nov 2018Nick Coleman

Biodegradation of 1,2-dichloroethane: from Microbial Ecology to Synthetic Biology

An introduction to The Coleman lab and research developing bioremediation methods for the cleanup of Dichloroethane.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

Victoria University of Wellington 12th Nov 2018Simon Davy and Clint Oakley

Multiple–omics Investigations of Thermal Stress and Symbiont Diversity in the Cnidarian–dinoflagellate Symbiosis

Exploration of research into developing and applying metabolomics and proteomics approaches to the cnidarian-

dinoflagellate symbiosis, describing how metabolic and acclimatory networks interact to elicit change in each partner of the symbiosis during thermal stress or when novel symbiont strains are introduced.

Future Reefs

Songkla University-Phuket 11th Dec 2018Raymond J. Ritchie

Separately Measuring Photosynthesis of Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Organisms using Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) Fluorometry

A review of two new types of PAM machines: one exclusively

measuring oxygenic photosynthesis and the other measuring RC-2 type

anoxygenic photosynthesis.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

King Abdullah University of

Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

11th Nov 2018Sebastian Schmidt-Roach

Understanding Thermal Tolerance Capacities of the Common Brain Coral

Platygyra daedalea in Saudi Arabia Waters

An exploration of preliminary data from some of the warmest coral reefs in the world. A project that aims to elucidate the genomic drivers of thermal tolerance capacities of the common brain coral Platygyra daedalea in Saudi Arabian waters.

Future Reefs

Utrecht University, Netherlands9h Nov 2018Erik van Sebille

Chasing Water: Lagrangian Tracking of Plastic and Plankton Through the Global Ocean

An overview of recent work with Lagrangian particles, applications to marine microbiology and ecology, palaeoclimatology and plastic pollution. Central to these studies was the question on how connected the different ocean basins are, and on what time scales water flows between the different regions of the ocean.

Productive Coasts

SEMINARS

In 2018 C3 held a variety of seminars in collabortion with speakers and institutions from across the globe, propelling research forward through the exchange and integration of novel areas of thought leadership.

GRANTS

Harnessing chain-forming diatoms for improved lipid biofuel production

A project to improve biofuel yields and increase the robustness of species by investigating the relationship between chain formation and biofuel lipid productivity in Chaetoceros diatoms, and to discover genes and molecules that encode and influence these traits.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

A synthetic diatom mini-chromosome for specialised, synthetic biology functions in microalgae

A pursuit to bioengineer a modular synthetic mini-chromosome that carries interchangeable genetic componentry.

Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

Oyster industry transformation : Building sustainability and profitability in the Australian Oyster Industry

Supporting the development of models for harmful algal bloom and disease prediction and risk management through the deployment of real time salinity sensors, which will enable researchers to collect detailed data on the microbial communities associated with salinity and temperature in each estuary.

Seafood Safety

Phytoplankton Composition Assessment of Warringah Lagoons

Consultancy project to assist Council’s understanding of microalgae communities and tracking of key indicator species in Northern Beaches Lagoons.

Seafood Safety

New Tools to Decipher, Predict and Manage Pacific Oyster Mortality Episodes

Delivering to the Australian oyster industry a powerful platform to predict, manage and prevent costly disease outbreaks by combining cutting edge genomic and molecular biological tools with novel quantitative modelling analyses to identify the mechanisms behind oyster disease events.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

Improving seagrass conservation using molecular toolkit

Helping conserve Australia’s seagrass meadows through the development of novel protocols and toolkits to mea-sure seagrass health in real-time, for prompt management responses.

Seagrass Health

The role of marine microbes in the global carbon cycle

To deliver a transformative new understanding of the microbe-mediated chemical cycling processes that control the productivity of marine fisheries and the climate of our planet. Achieved by combining new approaches in microfluidics, chemistry and oceanography to quantify carbon uptake by individual microbes in their natural environment.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

Pelagic symbioses: Teasing apart phytoplankton-bacteria relationships

Vital research to refine knowledge of ecological processes that shape the base of the marine food-web. Thus enhancing forecasting and decision making capacity among ecosystem and fisheries managers, helping to safeguard our valuable marine estate and the ecosystem services and food security it provides.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

Identifying keystone microbes and planktonic guilds in Australia’s oceans

A project to remove traditional methodological biases and limitations to unveil the ocean’s hidden sentinels, the “keystone microbes”, and provide definitive evidence of their celluar level biogeochemical and metabolic capacity.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

C3 has delivered a strong track record of research excellence in Category 1 grants since 2008, and in our tenth year has continued to achieve high level grant funding for meaningful research to solve some of Australia’s most pressing environmental and societal issues.

Here we highlight a small percentage of C3’s grants that are awarded to our scientists for their innovative project design and far-reaching research impact.

Increasing participation in ocean science through data visualisation

A creative project to equip citizen scientists by inspiring new perspectives on ocean data using intuitive and playful visualisation tools.

Productive Coasts

Future Oysters CRC-P

An investigation prepared in consultation with representatives from Biosecurity NSW and UTS, to explain the mortality of Pacific oysters in Port Stephens and Shoalhaven.

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

Defining the evolvable phenotype landscape for marine phytoplankton

Understanding the role evolution plays in shaping our future marine microbial populations in a changing ocean and facilitating the incorporation of evolved trait-based functional groups in marine biogeochemical models.

Productive Coasts

Minitaturising and Mechanising Outplanting of Adult Nubbins and/or Larval-Reared Juvenile Coral

Massive upscaling of coral larval and thermally-tolerant symbiont co-culturing to supply hundreds of millions of symbiotic larvae to rapidly replenish corals on damaged GBR reefs.

Future Reefs

Biological bet hedging in a variable ocean

Providing the food and environment sectors with critical knowledge to adapt to the impacts of environmental change on phytoplankton via research on the changing function of photosynthetic plankton as they respond to increasing environmental variation, a significant uncertainty in ocean forecasts.

Productive Coasts

Can “super-corals” upgrade coral reef resilience to climate change

Investigating the complex biology of stress-resistant ‘super-corals’ adapted to present day extremes on the Great Barrier Reef, and the value of these corals to securing a future to Australia’s reefs, this research will inspire a new direction for coral research that can target local management.

Future Reefs

Microbial metabolic networks: the hidden key to resilience of coral algal endosymbionts

Unlocking how ‘microbiomes’ (diverse bacterial assemblages) regulate the microalgae species Symbiodinium’s functional performance and exploring the largely unknown key biological traits that underpin successful coral growth or susceptibility to stress.

Future Reefs

Bosting Coral Abundance using larval and symbiont co-culturing

An exciting step change in both scale and quality of enhanced larval supply to rapidly replenish corals on damaged Great Barrier Reef; restoring ecological functions and enhancing resilience of foundation coral communities at a faster rate than what would occur naturally.

Future Reefs

Identification of the Molecular Response of Seagrasses to Heavy Metal Pollution and Ocean Acidification

To provide new knowledge of how seagrasses have adapted or are able to respond to future synergistic stressors, leading the development of conservation management and restoration protocols and policy, returning value and securing healthy marine ecosystems for long-term sustainable fisheries.

Seagrass Health

1-4JUL

Australian Society of Microbiology conference

Microbial Dynamics within urban Beach

Environments: Friends Next-Door or Enemies at

the Gates?Justin Seymour -

Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans

CONFERENCES

1-5JUL

55th Annual Conference Australian Marine Sciences Association

Functional Traits of Phytoplankton along

Environmental Gradients

Martina Doblin - Productive Coasts

15-20JULY

Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Change Biology

Marine Microalgae on the Move:Temperate Range

Extension of a Neurotoxin Producing

Epibenthic Dinoflagellate in Response to a

Changing Climate

Michaela Larsson - Productive Coasts

16JULY

Gene Technologies for Restoration of the Great Barrier Reef

Modes and Mechanisms of Coral Bleaching

David Suggett - Future Reefs

21SEP

British Ecological Society Aquatic Meeting

The Future of Coral Reefs Subject to Climate Change

Emma Camp - Future Reefs

24-25MAY

NGS, dPCR and qPCR Symposium

The use of qPCR Methods for Biotoxin

Monitoring for Shellfish Safety

Shauna Murray - Seafood Safety

5-9FEB

AMOS-ICSHMO Joint 25th AMOS National Conference and 12th

International Conference for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and

Oceanography

Fluorescence Impact on Raman Remote Sensing of

Water Temperature

Shauna Murray - Seafood Safety

3-7SEP

Estuarine and Coastal Science Association Conference

2018 Modelling Harmful Algal Blooms in

the Hawkesbury River, Australia

Penny Ajani - Seafood Safety

22FEB

Advanced Diagnostics for Food Safety Workshop

Rapid qPCR Assays for On-site Harmful Algal

Detection in the Aquaculture Industry

Shauna Murray - Seafood Safety

15-20JULY

Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Change Biology

A Horizon Scan for Ocean Change Biology

Martina Doblin - Productive Coasts

27AUG

International Plant and Algal Phenomics meeting

Phenomics: How Quickly can we Establish a Platform

Technology

Peter Ralph - Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

06SEP

AlgaEurope 2018

Production Optimisation of Algal Feed, Tisochrysis lutea

for Aquaculture Industry using Large Scale Photobioreactors

Mathieu Pernice - Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

12JUN

World Seagrass Conference

How the Interactome is Opening New

Windows into Seagrass Physiology

Peter Ralph - Seagrass Health

In 2018 C3 staff and students presented research to a wide audience, engaging with the scientific community to propel conversations around adaption and mitigation strategies in a changing climate.

16-20JUN

Great Barrier Reef restoration meeting

Developing Cost-Effective Coral

Propagation Targeted to the Great Barrier Reef:

The Opal Reef Coral Nursery

Research FacilityDavid Suggett - Future Reefs

ENGAGEMENT

NSW Shellfish Committee Invited Independent Scientific Member

International Society for Harmful Algae Council Elected Member

Australian Shellfish Quality Assurance Advisory Committee Science Meeting Conference co-convenor Shauna Murray - Seafood Safety

Early Career Research Forum Coordinator .

Nature Scientific Reports Associate Editor .

Mathieu Pernice - Algal Biosystems and Biotechnology

Ocean Science and Virtual Microbes, A Citizen Science project Australian National Maritime Museum Seminar

National Science Week’s The Great Debate Panel member

PeerJ Associate Editor

MNF National Steering Committee Users Representative

Science and Technology Advisory Committee, Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System Member

C3 staff and students hold a vast range of engagement roles, from lead committee members to advisory and active research roles.

Here we display a selection of the many activities undertaken in 2018 to lead global conversations and support innovative science.

Global Change Research Institute, The Czech Academy of Sciences Advisory Panel Member

Peter Ralph - C3 Director

United Nations Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals

National Geographic, Scientist for Exploring science by the seat of your pants Online explorer connect- Skype outreach to schools across the globe

Emma Camp - Future Reefs

Global Change Biology Marine Subject Editor

International Working Group on ‘Active Chlorophyll fluorescence for autonomous measurements of global marine primary productivity”, SCOR (Scientific Committee on Ocean Research) Lead Researcher

David Suggett - Future Reefs

Martina Doblin - Productive Coasts

Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) NSW Node Leader .

Justin Seymour - Ocean Microbes and Healthy Oceans, Seagrass Health

Will Coral Reefs Survive Climate Change?

UTS Science in Focus Seminar, National Science Week

David Suggett, Emma Camp - Future Reefs

Manly SeaLife, ‘Chasing Coral’ Premiere

Expert Panel for Corals and Climate Change

David Suggett, Sam Goyen, Emma Camp - Future Reefs

Vivid Algae Lights the Way in Sydney, as Festival Kicksoff a New Way of Thinking

Algae has taken centre stage at this year’s Vivid Sydney, making history as the first living, breathing light installation.

NewsBy ABC TV News, ABC Triple J, ABC Online, RN The Science Show, 2ser 107.3

Researcher using Algae to Create Bioplastic

Doctoral student Shawn Price explores how next generation plastics could be made from algae.

NewsBy Plastics News

Steroid Synthesis Discovery Could Rewrite the Text Books

Discovery of a new central enzyme in the steroid biosynthesis pathway in some modern organisms might lead to an evolutionary re-think.

NewsBy phys.org

Algae - A New Sustainable Resource

Algae is the new ‘green gold’ . An expert panel describes the potential of algae as a game-changing sustainable resource for numerous industries.NewsBy ABC

Can New Science Save Dying Reefs?

Researchers have found a new way to help preserve Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—and coral reefs around the world—from warming seas.

NewsBy National Geographic

Protecting Reefs, Empowering Youth

Dr. Emma Camp delves into her research studying super corals and the role of youth in shaping ongoing effort to save our planet.

NewsBy Connect4Climate

Scientists Planning on Gathering Coral Spawn for Large Scale Reef Restoration Project

Drones will be deployed over the Great Barrier Reef in two months to help scientists harvest coral spawn for a “supercharged” Reef restoration effort.

NewsBy The Daily Telegraph

Simple seaweed could be major tool to fight climate change

Seaweed was a major form of storage for carbon dioxide more than a billion years ago and could become a significant environmental factor again to help fight climate change, according to an Australian research.

NewsBy XINHUANET

Potential Toxin Producing Microalgae Found Hitchhiking in the East Australian Current

Scientists tested the hypothesis that forms of toxin producing microalgae, usually found attached to surfaces, could be transported via seaweed “rafts” in the East Australian Current and, by doing so, expand their range.

NewsBy Scimes

Experts Spot Algae Rafts

Research has shown that the range of some toxic marine microorganisms is expanding, but until now, exactly how they disperse has remained largely unknown.

NewsBy GreenCareer.net

Expert Reaction: EU to Ban Single Use Plastics

Australian experts react to the news that the EU is planning to ban single use plastics, targeting straws and cotton buds.

NewsBy Scimex

History of Oxygen

Climate Change Cluster’s Christopher Hall discusses oxygen, plankton, The Great Barrier Reef and space travel.

NewsBy ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

FUTURE REEFS

Algae Entrepreneurs: Today’s Science Students, Tomorrow’s Food Security Experts

You don’t need to own land or have a farming background to get into food. Sustainable agriculture and food security is so much bigger than that – and so small it includes micro algae.

NewsBy The Sydney Morning Herald

Trust Me, I’m An Expert: Food Fraud, the Centuries-old Problem that Won’t Go Away

Research into ciguatera fish poisoning, the non-bacterial illness associated with fish consumption.

NewsBy The Conversation, Australian Business, inside NMCG, viw.com

IN THE MEDIA

Each year C3’s projects and activities gain a high level of media exposure to reach an extensive national audience.

Here we highlight a selection of TV, radio, print and online publications that have allowed C3 to contribute to public knowledge through multiple levels of engagement.

PRODUCTIVE COASTSPRODUCTIVE COASTS

PRODUCTIVE COASTS FUTURE REEFS

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

THE DEEP GREENBIOTECH HUB

SEAFOOD SAFETY

CLIMATE CHANGE CLUSTER

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

FUTURE REEFS

ALGAL BIOSYSTEMS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

PARTNERSHIPS

Adrift

C3’s Productive Coasts group, led by Martina Doblin, has engaged in a unique collaboration between citizen scientists, science practitioners and information visualisation experts. Adrift has helped in understanding the way marine microbes experience the ocean. Through simulations of plankton drifting in the global ocean, citizen scientists are empowered to help discover where marine microbes are most at risk from contemporary changes in the ocean. Knowledge about changes in plankton morphology is advancing scientific understanding of how these organisms are responding to contemporary environmental change, knowledge that is critical for the development of predictive models of future ocean productivity.

Advancing Biotechnology

The partnership between GE Healthcare (GEHC) and UTS will contribute to the Australian Innovation System by expanding the pool of world class researchers solving industrial roadblocks, especially in the rapidly evolving biotechnology market. This strategic collaboration between Australia’s leading technology university and the global leader in biotechnology instrumentation will close the technology gap for research and development in the Australian biotechnology sector. As part of this ongoing collaboration, C3 and GEHC share an ARC Linkage grant that aims to deliver a scalable photo-bioreactor for the large scale production of microalgae. We’re also working with GEHC to establish a GMP Lite Laboratory at UTS. This facility will boost C3’s research into the use of innovative biotechnologies, and will also become Australia’s first GMP training facility, providing students with real-life experience in production processes.

Building Sustainability and Profitability in the NSW

Oyster Industry

The C3 Seafood Safety research program, led by Associate Professor Shauna Murray, is overseeing a project deploying real time salinity sensors to collect detailed data on salinity and temperature in each estuary of NSW. This is then correlated by researchers with data on microbial communities, phytoplankton and biotoxins from subsequent shellfish meat and water testing.

Models based on this data will be developed to improve the precision of the NSW Food Authority’s harvest management plans, reducing the number of closure events and potentially increasing industry revenue by an anticipated $3.03 million per annum across all NSW oyster farms.

Deep Green Biotech Hub

The Forefront of Algae-based Biotechnology Innovation in Australia.

Drawing on the strength of the Climate Change Cluster (C3), the New South Wales Deep Green Biotech Hub (DGBH) brings together researchers, SMEs, industry, start-ups, students and other stakeholders to drive NSW to the forefront of algae-based biotechnology innovation in Australia. Supported by the NSW Department of Industry and located at the University of Technology Sydney, the DGBH provides programs to support entrepreneurs to launch new businesses, existing companies to adopt algae biotechnologies and enables students to learn about how these biotechnologies can transform industries. In 2018 the DGBH launched Green Light – the world’s first algae biotech accelerator program, designed specifically to support industry and entrepreneurs in developing new algae biotechnology-based products, services, and businesses.

C3 is passionate about creating a positive impact through actively engaging with industry, government and business. The institute has attracted a range of industry connections that has allowed our research to be shaped, solving real world problems, to progress a circular bioeconomy.

Climate Change ClusterFaculty of Science

University of Technology Sydney

climatechangecluster@uts.edu.auwww.c3.uts.edu.au