Potential Student Research Projects

Below are some potential research topics that could be completed by PhD, Masters or Honours or special research topic

  • General

    If you are interested in working as part of a collaborative, supportive, multi-disciplinary team that links different disciplines across academia, governments, industry and NGOs, on the topics below please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss it further.

    Collaboration/Supervision possible with: Chris Roelfsema, Dylan Cowley, Nick Hammerman, Nikki Brown UQ, Julie Vercelloni QUT/AIMS, Emma Kennedy, Juan Carlos Ortiz AIMS and relevant others

    Coral Reef research can focus on work on the Heron Reef but are not limited to that.

    Funding

    These project do not have funding or scholarships currently, but are supported by extensive pre-existing data archives of fully corrected satellite image archives and field data sets, a collective group of researchers working on the site, and ability to be supported in scholarship and funding applications.

    Background

    Since 2002 UQ Team have used Heron Reef as basis to develop integrated earth observation and field data monitoring, modelling and mapping approaches. Part of that work was establishing a detailed field-based baseline of the reef, which is completed annually and has produced a 20+ year annual data set. Since 2011, the Reef Check Australia Coral Watch Field teams have joined the surveys and collected their associated data sets. Iin 2023 we collected orthomosaics of 20-50 m for 10 sites around Heron Reef, this provide the possiblity to get more detail benthic information and higher spatial scale locally.

    PhD Topics

    The data sets themselves provide a wealth of information for interested students to work on, hence we aim to engage with those interested in building coral reef science and management related , knowledge, skills, network, experience and development opportunities to enhance existing, or develop new careers.

    If you are interested, please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss how to develop a research project for special topic, masters or PhD research that might suit you focussing on:

    1. Ecological assessment of the benthic field data reviewing not only coral cover but also coral morphologies, or algae cover or other

    2. Developing approaches for time series analysis to link field data to image date to get high resolution thematic maps of Heron reef.

    3. Ecological assessment over time of benthic components, but also impacts, fish, inverts and general coral healthy using coral health chart, reef check data and geolocated photos

    4. Any other topic that promotes the use of the existing field data and/or high resolution image data.

    5. Or any other related topic.

    See related information in:

    Title: Benthic and coral reef community field data for Heron Reef, Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, 2002–2018

    Title: Use of a semi-automated object based analysis to map benthic composition, Heron Reef, Southern Great Barrier Reef

    Title: Fine-scale time series surveys reveal new insights into spatiotemporal trends in coral cover (2002–2018), of a coral reef on the Southern Great Barrier Reef

    Title: Remote Sensing Reveals Multidecadal Trends in Coral Cover at Heron Reef, Australia

  • General

    If you are interested in working as part of a collaborative, supportive, multi-disciplinary team that links different disciplines across academia, governments, industry and NGOs, on the topics below please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss it further.

    Collaboration/Supervision possible with: Chris Roelfsema, Dylan Cowley, Nikkie Brown, Carissa Klein, Nick Hammerman UQ, Julie Vercelloni QUT/AIMS, and relevant others

    Seagrass research can focus on work in the Moreton Bay but are not limited to that.

    Funding

    These project do not have funding or scholarships currently, but are supported by extensive pre-existing data archives of fully corrected satellite image archives and field data sets, a collective group of researchers working on the site, and ability to be supported in scholarship and funding applications.

    Background

    Since 2000 the UQ Team have used Moreton Bay as basis to develop integrated earth observation and field data monitoring, modelling and mapping approaches. Part of that work was establishing a detailed field-based baseline of the seagrass in the Moreton Bay and specificly Eastern Banks. In the last 20+ years seagrass has been mapped regulary in this region.

    PhD Topics

    The data sets themselves provide a wealth of information for interested students to work on, hence we aim to engage with those interested in building seagrass science and management related , knowledge, skills, network, experience and development opportunities to enhance existing, or develop new careers.

    If you are interested, please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss how to develop a research project for special topic, masters or PhD research that might suit you focussing on:

    1. Ecological assessment of the benthic field data reviewing not only coral cover but also seagrass species, composition and biomass or other

    2. Developing approaches in GEE or other for time series analysis to link field data to image date to get high resolution thematic maps of Eastern Banks Moreton Bay.

    3. Ecological assessment over time of seagrass composition, but also impacts, fish, inverts and geolocated photos or other field data for the Eastern Banks or the Moreton Bay Marine Parks

    4. Any other topic that promotes the use of the existing field data and/or high resolution image data.

    5. Or any other related topic.

    See related information in:

    Multi-Temporal Mapping of Seagrass Cover, Species and Biomass: A Semi-Automated Object Based Image Analysis Approach.

    A Multi-date seagrass species and percentage cover field data set, derived from georeferenced photo transects for the Eastern Banks, Moreton Bay

    Challenges of Remote Sensing for Quantifying Changes in Large Complex Seagrass Environments

  • General

    If you are interested in working as part of a collaborative, supportive, multi-disciplinary team that links different disciplines across academia, governments, industry and NGOs, on the topics below please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss it further.

    Collaboration/Supervision possible with: Chris Roelfsema(UQ), Dylan Cowley(UQ) Tiny Remmers (UQ/AIMS) Nick Hammerman(UQ), Nikkie Brown (UQ) Julie Vercelloni AIMS, Emma Kennedy AIMS, Juan Carlos Ortiz AIMS and relevant others

    Coral Reef research can focus on work on the Heron Reef but are not limited to that.

    Funding

    These project do not have funding or scholarships currently, but are supported by extensive pre-existing data archives of fully corrected satellite image archives and field data sets, a collective group of researchers working on the site, and ability to be supported in scholarship and funding applications.

    Background

    Since 2020 orthophotomosaics were collected on coral reefs in Moreton Bay Marine Park and since 2023 around Heron Reef to understand the site level changes in benthic composition. The work can be supported by detailed field-based baseline of the different study areas. For 7 reefs in Moreton Bay Marine park 8 seasons orthomosaic data has been collected as part of SUSMB project. For Heron Reef in 2023 we collected orthomosaics of 20-50 m for 10 sites, this provide the possiblity to get more detail benthic information and higher spatial scale locally.

    Research Topics

    The data sets themselves provide a wealth of information for interested students to work on, hence we aim to engage with those interested in building coral reef science and management related , knowledge, skills, network, experience and development opportunities to enhance existing, or develop new careers.

    If you are interested, please contact c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au to discuss how to develop a research project for special topic, masters or PhD research that might suit you focussing on:

    1. Ecological assessment of the benthic field data reviewing not only coral cover but also coral morphologies, or algae cover or other at site level scale over time and space

    2. Developing approaches for time series analysis of the orthophoto mosacis.

    3. Any other topic that promotes the use of the existing field data and/or high resolution image data.

    4. Or any other related topic.

    See related information in:

    Benthic and coral reef community field data for Heron Reef, Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, 2002–2018

    Close-range underwater photogrammetry for coral reef ecology: a systematic literature review

    Fine-scale time series surveys reveal new insights into spatiotemporal trends in coral cover (2002–2018), of a coral reef on the Southern Great Barrier Reef

    RapidBenthos: Automated segmentation and multi-view classification of coral reef communities from photogrammetric reconstruction

  • See more Honours and Masters Projects on the School of Environment Website

    Search on Roelfsema

    https://environment.uq.edu.au/current-students/apply-honours-or-research-project