Dr Alastair Harborne

Biosciences
College of Life and Environmental Sciences
Hatherly Laboratory
University of Exeter
Prince of Wales Road
Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK
Email: a.r.harborne@ex.ac.uk

Currently: Visiting Academic, Marine Spatial Ecology Lab
School of Biological Sciences
University of Queensland
St. Lucia Campus Brisbane,
Qld 4072
Email: a.harborne@uq.edu.au

Tel: +61-(0)7 336 51671
Skype: al_harborne
Exeter website: http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=alastair_harborne

Research Overview

My PhD research examined patterns of ecological communities at seascape scales on coral reefs, and included some consideration of the processes that control these patterns. The goal of my current and future research is to expand consideration of the processes controlling both individual populations and entire communities of fishes across seascapes by both a holistic approach of building statistical models to examine the interactions and relative importance of multiple processes, and experimental approaches to better understand specific processes (particularly predator-prey interactions). I also aim to clearly link this research to reef conservation by, for example, providing a more detailed overview of the key processes controlling populations of commercially important species and examining the effects of marine reserves on fish and benthic communities.

Career

1st December 2008 – 30th November 2011: Natural Environment Research Council Independent Research Fellow, University of Exeter
1st October 2004 – 30th November 2008: Research / Teaching Assistant, University of Exeter
1st May 1996 – 31st December 2001: Coral Cay Conservation Marine Science Co-ordinator
13th September 1993 – 1st May 1996: Coral Cay Conservation Assistant Science Co-ordinator

Qualifications

January 2002 – December 2006: PhD at the University of Exeter. “The ecology of coral reef communities at seascape scales”.
October 1990 – July 2003: Degree at the University of Southampton. First Class BSc joint honours degree – Oceanography with Biology.

Responsibilities

Recent grants / projects

Natural Environment Research Council Independent Research Fellowship, £247,243, is entitled “A holistic model of the factors controlling reef-fish populations, including both pre- and post-settlement processes”.

Earthwatch Project “Mangroves and coral reefs as effective fish nurseries: the effects of fishing, climate change, and altering coasts”, US$136,050 – 206,100 (depending on volunteer numbers), 2011-2014

Journal publications

  1. Mumby, P.J., A.R. Harborne, and D.R. Brumbaugh. 2011. Grouper as a natural biocontrol of invasive lionfish. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21510. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021510. download pdf
  2. Perry C.T., M. Salter, A.R. Harborne, S.F. Crowley, H.L. Jelks, and R.W. Wilson. 2011. Fish as major carbonate mud producers and new components of the tropical carbonate factory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108, 3865-3869. download pdf
  3. Harborne A.R., P.J. Mumby, E.V. Kennedy, and R. Ferrari. 2011. Effect on coral-reef fishes of biotic and multi-scale abiotic controls of habitat quality. Marine Ecology Progress Series 437, 201-214. download pdf
  4. Harborne A.R., P.J. Mumby. 2011. Novel ecosystems: Atlantic fish assemblages in warming waters. Current Biology, 21, R822-R824. download pdf
  5. Harborne A.R., P.J. Mumby, and R. Ferrari. 2011. The effectiveness of different meso-scale rugosity metrics for predicting intra-habitat variation coral-reef fish assemblages. Environmental Biology of Fishes, In press.
  6. Mumby, P.J., R.S. Steneck, A.J. Edwards, R. Ferrari, J.P. Gibson, A.R. Harborne, R. Coleman. In press. Fishing down a Caribbean food web relaxes trophic cascades. Marine Ecology Progress Series
  7. Mumby P.J. and A.R. Harborne. 2010. Marine reserves enhance the recovery of corals on Caribbean reefs. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8657. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008657  download pdf
  8. Wilson S.K., M. Adjeroud, D.R. Bellwood, M.L. Berumen, D. Booth, Y.-M. Bozec, P. Chabanet, A. Cheal, J. Cinner, M. Depczynski, D.A. Feary, M. Gagliano, N.A.J. Graham, A.R. Halford, B.S. Halpern, A.R. Harborne, A.S. Hoey, S. Holbrook, G.P. Jones, M. Kulbiki, Y. Letourneur, T. Lison De Loma, T. McClanahan, M.I. McCormick, M.G. Meekan, P.J. Mumby, P.L. Munday, M.C. Öhman, M.S. Pratchett, B. Riegl, M. Sano, R.J. Schmitt, C. Syms. 2010. Critical knowledge gaps in current understanding of climate change impacts on coral reef fishes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 213, 894-900.  download pdf
  9. Harborne A.R., P.G. Renaud, E.H.M. Tyler, and P.J. Mumby. 2009. Reduced density of the herbivorous urchin Diadema antillarum inside a Caribbean marine reserve linked to increased predation pressure by fishes. Coral Reefs 28, 783–791.   download pdf
  10. Harborne, A.R. 2009. First among equals: why some habitats should be considered more important than others during marine reserve planning. Environmental Conservation, 36, 87-90.   download pdf
  11. Harborne, A.R., P.J. Mumby, C.V. Kappel, C.P. Dahlgren, F. Micheli, K.E. Holmes, and D.R. Brumbaugh. 2008. Tropical coastal habitats as surrogates of fish community structure, grazing, and fisheries value. Ecological Applications, 18, 1689-1701.   download pdf
  12. Harborne, A.R., P.J. Mumby, C.V. Kappel, C.P. Dahlgren, F. Micheli, K.E. Holmes, J.N. Sanchirico, K. Broad, I.A. Elliott, and D.R. Brumbaugh. 2008. Reserve effects and natural variation in coral reef communities. Journal Of Applied Ecology, 45, 1010-1018.   download pdf
  13. Mumby, P.J., K. Broad, D.R. Brumbaugh, C.P. Dahlgren, A.R. Harborne, A. Hastings, K.E. Holmes, C.V. Kappel, F. Micheli, and J.N. Sanchirico. 2008. Coral reef habitats as surrogates of species, ecological functions, and ecosystem services. Conservation Biology, 22, 941-951.   download pdf
  14. Mumby, P. J., A. R. Harborne, J. Williams, C. V. Kappel, D. R. Brumbaugh, F. Micheli, K. E. Holmes, C. P. Dahlgren, C. B. Paris, and P. G. Blackwell. 2007. Trophic cascade facilitates coral recruitment in a marine reserve. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104:8362-8367.   download pdf
  15. Harborne, A. R., P. J. Mumby, F. Micheli, C. T. Perry, C. P. Dahlgren, K. E. Holmes, and D. R. Brumbaugh. 2006a. The functional value of Caribbean coral reef, seagrass and mangrove habitats to ecosystem processes. Advances in Marine Biology 50:57-189.   download pdf
  16. Harborne, A. R., P. J. Mumby, K. Żychaluk, J. D. Hedley, and P. G. Blackwell. 2006b. Modeling the beta diversity of coral reefs. Ecology 87: 2871-2881.   download pdf
  17. Mumby, P. J., C. P. Dahlgren, A. R. Harborne, C. V. Kappel, F. Micheli, D. R. Brumbaugh, K. E. Holmes, J. M. Mendes, K. Broad, J. N. Sanchirico, K. Buch, S. Box, R. W. Stoffle, and A. B. Gill. 2006a. Fishing, trophic cascades, and the process of grazing on coral reefs. Science 311:98-101.   download pdf
  18. Mumby, P. J., F. Micheli, C. P. Dahlgren, S. Y. Litvin, A. B. Gill, D. R. Brumbaugh, K. Broad, J. N. Sanchirico, C. V. Kappel, A. R. Harborne, and K. E. Holmes. 2006b. Marine parks need sharks? Response. Science 312:527-528.
  19. Mumby, P. J., J. D. Hedley, K. Zychaluk, A. R. Harborne, and P. G. Blackwell. 2006c. Revisiting the catastrophic die-off of the urchin Diadema antillarum on Caribbean coral reefs: fresh insights on resilience from a simulation model. Ecological Modelling 196:131-148.   download pdf
  20. Hedley J. D. , Harborne A. R., Mumby P. J. 2005. Simple and robust removal of sun glint for mapping shallow-water benthos. International Journal Of Remote Sensing 26:2107-2112.   download pdf
  21. Hoyle M. and Harborne A. R. 2005. Mixed effects of habitat fragmentation on species richness and community structure in a microarthropod microecosystem. Ecological Entomology 30:684-691.   download pdf
  22. Beger, M., A. R. Harborne, T. P. Dacles, J. L. Solandt, and G. L. Ledesma. 2004. A framework of lessons learned from community-based marine reserves and its effectiveness in guiding a new coastal management initiative in the Philippines. Environmental Management 34:786-801.  download pdf
  23. Mumby, P. J., A. J. Edwards, J. E. Arias-González, K. C. Lindeman, P. G. Blackwell, A. Gall, M. I. Gorczynska, A. R. Harborne, C. L. Pescod, H. Renken, C. C. C. Wabnitz, and G. Llewellyn. 2004. Mangroves enhance the biomass of coral reef fish communities in the Caribbean. Nature 427:533-536.   download pdf
  24. White, W. H., A. R. Harborne, I. S. Sotheran, R. Walton, and R. L. Foster-Smith. 2003. Using an Acoustic Ground Discrimination System to map coral reef benthic classes. International Journal of Remote Sensing 24:2641-2660.   download pdf
  25. Harborne, A. R., D. C. Afzal, and M. J. Andrews. 2001. Honduras: Caribbean coast. Marine Pollution Bulletin 42:1221-1235.  download pdf
  26. Mumby, P. J., and A. R. Harborne. 1999. Development of a systematic classification scheme of marine habitats to facilitate regional management and mapping of Caribbean coral reefs. Biological Conservation 88:155-163.   download pdf
  27. Mumby, P.J., K.R. Clarke, and A.R. Harborne. 1996. Weighting species abundance estimates for marine resource assessment. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 6, 115-120. download pdf
  28. Mumby, P. J., A. R. Harborne, P. S. Raines, and J. M. Ridley. 1995. A critical assessment of data derived from Coral Cay Conservation volunteers. Bulletin of Marine Science 56:737-751.   download pdf

Book chapters and conference proceedings

  1. Mumby, P. J., and A. R. Harborne. 2006. A seascape-level perspective of coral reef ecosystems. Pages 78-114 in I. M. Côté and J. D. Reynolds, editors. Coral Reef Conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  2. Harborne, A. R., M. D. McField, and E. K. Delaney. 2000. Belize. Pages 501-516 in C. R. C. Sheppard, editor. Seas at the Millennium: An Environmental Evaluation. Pergamon, Amsterdam.
  3. Harborne A. R., Afzal D. C., Andrews M. J., Ridley J. M. 2000. Beyond data: the expanded role of a volunteer program assisting resource assessment and management in the Bay Islands, Honduras. In: Moosa M. K., Soemodihardjo S., Soegiarto A., Romimohtarto K., Nontji A., Soekarno, Suharsono (eds) Proceedings of the Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium Vol 2, pp667-673.   download pdf
  4. Harborne A. R., Mumby P. J., Raines P. S., and Ridley J.M. 1995. The Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve: a case study in government and NGO collaboration in conservation projects In. The Peaceful Management of Transboundary Resources (Eds. Blake G. H., Hildesley W. J., Pratt M. A., Ridley R. J., and Schofield C.H.) Graham and Trotman, London. pp 301-306.