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Program 5i - Climate Change: Great Barrier Reef

Program Leader:  Dr Julian Caley, Australian Institute of Marine Science 

Program 5i addresses specific information gaps of direct relevance and importance to users of the Great Barrier Reef and those charged with its sustainable management.  The Program will address high priority issues for climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, including:

  • an evaluation of possible futures for the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem on the basis of our present knowledge and forecasted climate variations;

  • an early warning and assessment system for thermal stress on the Great Barrier Reef;

  • an evaluation of the resilience of coral reef ecosystems to climate change; and

  • tools to support resilience-based management in the face of climate change.

Understanding the potential impacts of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef and management options for minimising its impacts is critical to the long-term sustainable use of this valuable natural asset.  Program 5i will incorporate a large-scale, integrated approach to understanding how environmental conditions will change in the near future, how these changes will impact the species that make up the reef, how resilient these species are likely to be to such impacts, and what are the best management options for minimising the risks of climate change to these reef communities.

Program 5i involves four Projects:

Project 2.5i.1 - Regional climate scenarios (Research Providers:  CSIRO, AIMS)

Project 2.5i.2 - Early warning and assessment system for thermal stress on the Great Barrier Reef (Research Providers:  AIMS, UQ)

Project 2.5i.3 - Resilience to climate change (Research Providers:  JCU, AIMS)

Project 2.5i.4 - Tools to support resilience-based management in the face of climate change (Research Providers:  AIMS, CSIRO, CQU)

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Program 5i Downloads

Project 2.5i.3 JCU Hughes, T. (2007) Herbivory by fishes on the Great Barrier Reef: A review of knowledge and understanding
Preliminary status and trends report completed in June 2007 by C. Cvitanovic, R. J. Fox and D. R. Bellwood, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University. [pdf 266.2 kb]


Project 2.5i.3 JCU Hughes, T. (2007) Project Milestone Report June
Report prepared by James Cook University researchers which provides an overview of progress against project milestones for Year 1. [pdf 64.9 kb]


Project 2.5i.4 AIMS Wooldridge, S. (2007) Linking land-use change scenarios with predicted water quality improvements within the GBR lagoon
A project progress report outlining modelling methodology that enables end-of-river values of DIN to be spatially extrapolated across the inner-shelf region of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. Importantly this allows the end-of-river outcomes of modelled land-use improvement scenarios to be tested for their relevance in terms of improving inshore reef water quality. [pdf 1.8 Mb]


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