IAN is committed to producing practical, user-centered communications that foster a better understanding of science and enable readers to pursue new opportunities in research, education, and environmental problem-solving. Our publications synthesize scientific findings using effective science communication techniques.

Combining Landsat ETM plus and Reef Check classifications for mapping coral reefs: A critical assessment from the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Page 1)

Combining Landsat ETM plus and Reef Check classifications for mapping coral reefs: A critical assessment from the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Joyce KE, Phinn SR, Roelfsema CM, Neil DT, and Dennison WC ·
2004

While the remote-sensing community attempts to find measures of reef ‘‘health’’ able to be detected and mapped using satellite image data, internationally recognized field assessments are already in place to document benthic cover, among other parameters, as an indicator of coral reef status. Reef Check is one such program, designed in 1996 as a globally applicable, rapid, field-survey protocol for coral reef health monitoring by volunteer divers (Hodgson 1999).

Read more

Effects of land-use change on solute fluxes to floodplain lakes of the central Amazon

Williams MR, Filoso S, and Lefebvre P ·
2004

A time-series analysis of airborne photographs and Landsat thematic mapper (TM and ETM+) images and hydrochemical data were used to examine the effects of land-use change from 1930 to 2001 on solute inputs to Lake Calado, a floodplain lake in the central Amazon. Deforestation from slash-and-burn agricultural activities has dramatically decreased the amount of primary growth upland and flooded forests in the basin.

Read more

Nitrogen ecophysiology of Heron Island, a subtropical coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Page 1)

Nitrogen ecophysiology of Heron Island, a subtropical coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Schmidt S, Dennison WC, Moss GJ, and Stewart GR ·
2004

Coral cays form part of the Australian Great Barrier Reef. Coral cays with high densities of seabirds are areas of extreme nitrogen (N) enrichment with deposition rates of up to 1000 kg N ha(-1) y(-1). The ways in which N sources are utilised by coral cay plants, N is distributed within the cay, and whether or not seabird-derived N moves from cay to surrounding marine environments were investigated.

Read more

Dynamic parameterization to simulate DIN export due to gypsy moth defoliation

Wang P, Linker LC, and Eshleman KN ·
2003

A module of dynamic parameterization is added into the HSPF watershed software for simulation of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) export from forest associated with gypsy moth defoliation. It simulates a changing ecosystem following the breakout of defoliation, such as increasing mineralization and nitrification rates and soil temperature, and decreasing interception of precipitation, plant nitrogen uptake rate and evapotranspiration.

Read more

Photosynthetic responses of the coral Montipora digitata to cold temperature stress (Page 1)

Photosynthetic responses of the coral Montipora digitata to cold temperature stress

Saxby TA, Dennison WC, and Hoegh-Guldberg O ·
2003

Coral bleaching events have become more frequent and widespread, largely due to elevated sea surface temperatures. Global climate change could lead to increased variability of sea surface temperatures, through influences on climate systems, e.g. El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Field observations in 1999, following a strong ENSO, revealed that corals bleached in winter after unusually cold weather.

Read more

Using multiple antibiotic resistance and land use characteristics to determine sources of fecal coliform bacterial pollutiion (Page 1)

Using multiple antibiotic resistance and land use characteristics to determine sources of fecal coliform bacterial pollutiion

Kelsey RH, Scott GI, Porter DE, Thompson B, and Webster L ·
2003

Multiple Antibiotic Resistance ( MAR) analysis and regression modeling techniques were used to identify surface water areas impacted by fecal pollution from human sources, and to determine the effects of land use on fecal pollution in Murrells Inlet, a small, urbanized, high-salinity estuary located between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown, South Carolina. MAR analysis was performed to identify areas in the estuary that are impacted by human-source fecal pollution.

Read more

An in situ study of photosynthetic oxygen exchange and electron transport rate in the marine macroalga Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta) (Page 1)

An in situ study of photosynthetic oxygen exchange and electron transport rate in the marine macroalga Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta)

Longstaff BJ, Kildea T, Runcie JW, Cheshire A, Dennison WC, Hurd C, Kana T, Raven JA, and Larkum AWD ·
2002

Direct comparisons between photosynthetic O-2 evolution rate and electron transport rate (ETR) were made in situ over 24 h using the benthic macroalga Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta), growing and measured at a depth of 1.8 m, where the midday irradiance rose to 400-600 mumol photons m(-2) s(-1). O-2 exchange was measured with a 5-chamber data-logging apparatus and ETR with a submersible pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorometer (Diving-PAM).

Read more

Development of Indicators for Assessing and Monitoring Nutrient Influences in Coastal Waters (Page 1)

Development of Indicators for Assessing and Monitoring Nutrient Influences in Coastal Waters

Costanzo SD ·
2002

With increasing human pressures on coastal ecosystems, there is a need to develop better approaches to assess and monitor anthropogenic influences in these systems. The aims of this thesis were to a) develop indicators that describe and predict nutrient input effects, b) synthesise and interpret these indicators in assessment programs, and c) provide cost-effective methods for use in regular monitoring programs.

Read more