Project Leader and Host
Organisation
Professor Michael Kingsford, James Cook University
Project Description and Objectives
For detailed descriptions of the outputs for
this project for Year 4 (2009/2010) of the MTSRF Research
Programme, see the Annual Research
Plan.
The purpose of this project is to minimise
the risk of exposure to Irukandji jellyfish through knowledge
of the sources of jellyfishes and changes in their abundance.
This project has focussed on North Queensland
where numbers of stings by jellyfishes have been high in recent
years. The project team has, and will obtain information on
the abundance of jellyfishes in near reef and nearshore waters
across the Great Barrier Reef between Cooktown and
Townsville.
In addition, there is a suggested link
between abundance of Carukia barnesi and proximity to
estuaries however this has never been tested critically. The
inshore zone of the Great Barrier Reef is the area of highest use
by the community and forecasting the risk of envenomation is
critical.
The team's approach involves sampling
nearshore waters near to and away from estuaries in an area of
North Queensland that experiences high usage by tourists and
locals. The coastal zone between the Daintree River and Mackay has
the highest frequency of envenomation and is the area of research
focus. Samples of C. barnesi and C. fleckeri
will be used for genetics and elemental fingerprints to determine
population structure.
Key objectives of this project are
to:
-
Collect samples for the project during the stinger season from
November to May;
-
Collect jellyfishes at different distances across the GBR and at
three latitudes in North Queensland in multiple years;
-
Use elemental chemistry and microsatellites to test for
differences in the population structure of C. barnesi
and C. fleckeri among locations;
-
Continue to develop risk maps for stingers including time of
year, geographic variation, species distribution etc. from existing
data sets and expert opinion (contingent on funding); and
-
Develop a set of response guidelines to reduce risk to human
health (contingent on funding).
