Catherine K. King | |
|---|---|
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| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Awards | 2006 CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Antarctic ecotoxicology |
| Institutions | Australian Antarctic Division |
| Website | Catherine King at antarctica.gov.au |
Catherine K. King is an Australian ecotoxicologist who studies sub-Antarctic and Antarctic regions, with a focus on climate change and the impacts of contaminants and environmental stressors in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. [1]
She has supervised over 30 postgraduate research students. [2]
King's multi-disciplinary ecotoxicology research program focuses on the ecotoxicity of metals, fuels, contaminant mixtures and other environmental stressors associated with a changing climate, on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species. [3] [4] Her goal is to develop environmental risk assessment and remediation guidelines for Antarctic and sub-Antarctic marine and terrestrial environments. She delivers strategically important robust scientific research, which contributes to evidenced-based decision making in policy and operations, both for the Australian Antarctic program, and the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP). [5] [6]
King has also acted as the Manager of the Science Planning and Coordination section at the Australian Antarctic Division, which oversees the administration and governance of all projects within the Australian Antarctic science program. This primarily involves the coordination of project applications, assessments, approvals, planning and reporting, as well as providing research, governance and communications for the Science Branch. [7]
Previous to her role at the Australian Antarctic Division, King was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Environmental Contaminant Research at CSIRO, where her research in ecotoxicology contributed to the Handbook for Sediment Quality Assessment for Australia (2005). [8] King has been working in Antarctic science since her first summer at Casey Station in 1997 where she worked as part of a team investigating the impact of leachates from a legacy waste tip and wastewater discharge on nearshore benthic communities. [9]
King has been a Chief Investigator and Co-investigator on over 20 Australian Antarctic Science (AAS) Research Grants. [10]
King received the 2006 CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement, for her research advances in assessment and regulation of contaminants in aquatic sediments. [11]
King was part of the CSIRO's Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research (CECR) team that was awarded the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Water Research in 2006. This was awarded in recognition of the contribution to research advancing the assessment and regulation of contaminants in aquatic sediments. [12]
King hosted and was the Conference Chair for the SETAC-AU 2016 Conference held in Hobart. [13]
The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. It was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War, setting aside the continent as a scientific preserve, establishing freedom of scientific investigation, and banning military activity; for the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, which implements the treaty system, is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Antarctic is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately 32 to 48 km wide varying in latitude seasonally. The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent is the surface area of the Antarctica continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System. Biogeographically, the Antarctic realm is one of eight biogeographic realms of Earth's land surface.
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is a division of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The Division undertakes science programs and research projects to contribute to an understanding of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It conducts and supports collaborative research programs with other Australian and international organisations, such as the Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia, as well as administering and maintaining a presence in Australian Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories.
The Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora is a set of environmental protection measures which were accepted at the third Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Brussels in 1964. The Agreed Measures were formally in force as part of the Antarctic Treaty System from 1982 to 2011, when they were withdrawn as the principles were now entirely superseded by later agreements such as the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The Agreed Measures were adopted in order to further international collaboration within the administration of the Antarctic Treaty System and promote the protection of natural Antarctic ecological systems while enabling scientific study and exploration.
The Australian Department of the Environment was a department of the Government of Australia that existed between September 2013 and July 2016. The department was charged with responsibility for developing and implementing national policy, programs and legislation to protect and conserve Australia's environment and heritage.
Ecotoxicology is the study of the effects of toxic chemicals on biological organisms, especially at the population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecotoxicology is a multidisciplinary field, which integrates toxicology and ecology.
The Australian Minister for the Environment and Water is a position which is currently held by Tanya Plibersek in the Albanese ministry since 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022.
Emma Letitia Johnston is the Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales and President of Science & Technology Australia. She is an authority in marine ecology and a former Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UNSW.
Temperature change due to climate change in Antarctica is not stable over the whole continent. West Antarctica is warming rapidly, while the inland regions are cooled by the winds in Antarctica. Water in the West Antarctic has warmed by 1 °C since year 1955. Further increase in temperature in water and on land will affect the climate, ice mass and life on the continent and have global implications. Present-day greenhouse gas concentrations are higher than ever according to ice cores from Antarctica, which indicates that warming on this continent is not part of a natural cycle and attributable to anthropogenic climate change.
Toxicological databases are large compilations of data derived from aquatic and environmental toxicity studies. Data is aggregated from a large number of individual studies in which toxic effects upon aquatic and terrestrial organisms have been determined for different chemicals. These databases are then used by toxicologists, chemists, regulatory agencies and scientists to investigate and predict the likelihood that an organic or inorganic chemical will cause an adverse effect on exposed organisms.
Nerida Gaye Wilson is an invertebrate marine molecular biologist at the Western Australian Museum who has interests in diversity, systematics, phylogeny, phylogeography and behavior. Wilson has been instrumental in demonstrating the level of marine cryptic species complexes in Antarctic waters, testing the circumpolar distribution paradigm with molecular data, and using interdisciplinary approaches to show how Antarctic diversity may have been generated. Her work with NOAA on Antarctic Marine Living Resources has been used to regulate exploratory benthic fisheries.
In-Young Ahn is a South Korean scientist. She is known for being the first South Korean woman to visit Antarctica and the first Asian woman to become an Antarctic station leader. She is a benthic ecologist and is currently working as a principal research scientist for Korea Polar Research Institute.
Elizabeth Marchant Truswell is a former Chief Scientist at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation and is known for her application of recycled palynomorph distribution as an indicator of sub-ice geology.
Dana Michelle Bergstrom is a senior researcher at the Australian Antarctic Division most notable for her work on identifying and mitigating risks against Antarctic and Sub Antarctic Ecosystems.
Barbara Wienecke is a Senior Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. She is a seabird ecologist who uses satellite tracking to investigate seabird population dynamics and ecology. Wienecke has played a key role in enhancing the quality of, and overseeing the implementation of, a number of Antarctic Specially Protected Area management plans for wildlife concentrations in East Antarctica.
Roumiana Panayotova Metcheva is a Bulgarian Antarctic researcher, best known for her work on ecotoxicology and biodiversity protection in the Antarctic. She is the Head of Department of Ecosystem Research, Environmental Risk Assessment and Conservation Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Mount Mecheva was named after Metcheva for recognition of her work.
Justine Shaw is an Australian Antarctic researcher, best known for her conservation work on subantarctic islands, currently working at the Queensland University of Technology. She has a wide global research network, having worked in Australia, South Africa, sub-Antarctic/Antarctic and the Arctic.
Jennifer Lee is an Antarctic researcher, best known for her work on invasion biology. She is the Environment Officer in the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Gwen Fenton was the Chief Scientist of the Australian Antarctic Division and is the first woman to hold this position. She discovered that the fish species Hoplostethus atlanticus can live to over 100 years old, leading to significant changes to the management of the species.
Valery E. Forbes is an American ecologist and professor specializing in environmental toxicology. She currently the Dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Her research expertise is in ecotoxicology, where she primarily studies effects of environmental stresses on organisms at different levels of biological organization.
| Authority control: Academics |
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