Andrew Baird

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
ARC Future Fellow, James Cook University (2010-2013)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My research interests include biogeography, community ecology, evolution, larval ecology, reproductive biology, systematics and coral bleaching. My recent work has documented the effects of the Asian tsunami on coral reefs in Aceh, Indonesia (Baird et al. 2005). My PhD research highlighted the role of larval ecology in determining patterns of adult distribution from depth zonation (Baird et al. 2003) to geographical range size (Baird 2004). My APD research on the reproductive biology of tropical corals has demonstrated that, contrary to the prevailing paradigm, multi-specific spawning is a feature of all speciose coral assemblages (Guest et al. 2005). My coral bleaching research has identified the hierarchy of species susceptibility to thermal stress (Marshall & Baird 2000), dynamic and varied response of different coral species to thermal stress (Baird & Marshall 2002), and a recent review on the future of coral reefs (Hughes et al. 2003). I have pioneered the use of coral larval as a model system to investigate many aspects of coral symbioses, such as the source of anti-bacterial compounds (Marquis et al. 2005) and sunscreens in coral eggs (Yakovleva & Baird 2005). I am currently working to describe two new Acropora species discovered during my APD research in Indonesia.

HOME PAGE
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/research/andrewbaird2.html