Herbivores and Heron Island

Alyssa, Chris and Jez have been up at Heron Island for the past couple of weeks. They lucked out with amazing weather, so have decided to take full advantage of it. Working on Alyssa’s surgeonfish grazing and Chris’s coral recruitment projects, the three MSEL bandits and their two volunteers (Julia and YY) have been diving up a storm. Currently, Alyssa is quantifying herbivorous fish distribution and abundance, surgeonfish grazing rates, and turf algal productivity around the reef. Chris is doing the final field trip for his PhD, where he has been quantifying coral settlement, early growth rates, and survivorship, on the reef slope and flat at Heron for the past 3 years, which Jez will continue and expand upon as part of his Post-doc.