Just before sunset on the night of the new moon (27 September 2011) Mike Emslie, Lyle Vail and Anne Hoggett visited a known spawning aggregation site for coral trout not far from the research station.
Dr Nichola Raihani is a scientist at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London and she is last year's John and Laurine Proud Fellow. She has recently completed her third annual field season at Lizard Island. During her six-week visit, she and several others formed an impromptu band and live music accompanied many a sunset, with ukeleles, guitars, harmonicas and a marimba. Here Nikki shares her experience. (Note that Nikki is excessively modest about her achievements. She already has a paper in Science from last year's field work!)
The Station's new solar power system was switched on at 3.00 pm on Thursday 24th February 2011. It was designed to reduce by about 50% the amount of diesel used for generating electricity and hence reduce carbon emissions by that proportion. In its first month of operation, it has been working much better than that.
Most Acropora species at Lizard Island spawned on the night of 25 November this year, the third night after the full moon. On the following night, many goniasterid and favid corals spawned, and on the night after that it was the turn of Porites corals.
Last night we had a terrific talk in the beach house by Prof Phil Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University: "Fish in hot water: how will climate change affect coral reef fishes?".
Lizard Island is now a node for the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System (GBROOS). Solar and wind-powered sensors in the lagoon relay water and weather data continuously.
Life at Lizard Island Research Station is never dull. Fabulous coral reef environment, exciting discoveries, interesting visitors, amazing natural events! This post includes giant clam spawning, just to get you started.
