Blog posts for Development of a Reef Resiliency Index
Participants at the Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index Workshop at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia

Developing an Index of Resilience to Climate Change Impacts to the Great Barrier Reef – Workshop 3, Townsville, Australia.

Heath Kelsey ·
23 March 2015
| Environmental Report Cards | 

This is part two of a three part series of blog posts about developing a reef resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef at a workshop in Townsville in March 2015 … The Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index … As part of a joint project of UMCES and Charles Darwin University, Jane Thomas, Bill Dennison and I traveled to Townsville, Australia to continue the development of the Great Barrier Reef Resilience Index.

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Eva Abal, Great Barrier Reef Foundation, providing workshop overview

Resilience based management of the Great Barrier Reef

Bill Dennison ·
19 March 2015
| Applying Science | 

This is part one of a three-part series of blog posts about developing a reef resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef at a workshop in Townsville in March 2015. 'Resilience Based Management' was one of the concepts that arose during our workshop with resource managers at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Townsville, Australia on 2 Mar 2015.

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Conceptualization shows that coastal wetlands are likely to be affected by their ability to migrate landward or grow upwards as sea levels rise, and will be protected by underwater grasses and oyster habitat, which reduce wave action and erosion during storms. Image from the Chesapeake Bay Report Card 2013

Climate Change and resilience create new challenges in tracking ecosystem health status

Heath Kelsey ·
26 August 2014
| Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

Understanding resilience to climate change effects is critical to the future of environmental assessment and reporting. Changing air and water temperature, precipitation patterns and storm frequencies, CO2 concentrations, and sea level rise will add significant pressure to the natural and engineered systems that provide us services. Understanding system resilience to these changes is important to developing relevant monitoring, assessment, and reporting frameworks.

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Bill Dennison at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in 1985 (left) and visiting again in 2014 (right).

A visit to the Australian Institute of Marine Science

Bill Dennison ·
25 February 2014
| Science Communication | 

My first visit to the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) was in 1985, when I joined Doig Capone and Linda Duguay on a collaborative project sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation. I was on a Coastal Marine Scholar postdoctoral fellowship at the Marine Sciences Research Center (now the School of a Marine and Atmospheric Sciences) at Stony Brook University.

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Group photo at Great Barrier Reef climate change resilience index workshop, James Cook University.

Developing a climate change resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef: Part 2

Bill Dennison ·
20 February 2014
| Science Communication | 

Following a day of scientific talks where the various climate change resilience indicators were presented, we had dinner at a nice restaurant on The Strand, a popular Townsville promenade overlooking the harbor. On the second day, we sketched a few conceptual diagrams, generated a prototype reef resilience index and storyboarded a trifold document.

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Climate change resilience index workshop at James Cook University.

Developing a climate change resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef: Part 1

Bill Dennison ·
18 February 2014
| Science Communication | 

Heath Kelsey and I traveled to Townsville, Australia to facilitate a workshop to develop a climate change resilience index for the Great Barrier Reef. The workshop, sponsored by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, was at James Cook University on 10-11 Feb 2014. On the first day, we had a series of presentations by scientists developing various indicators and then on the second day we designed and drafted a trifold publication for internal use by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

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