Dr. Kathy Townsend | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Queensland |
Occupation | Academic marine biologist |
Employer | University of Queensland |
Website | www |
Dr. Kathy Townsend is an academic marine biologist at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. [1] [2]
Kathy Townsend was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She enrolled in the University of Calgary in 1990, before moving to Australia in 1991 to pursue marine biology studies at the University of Queensland. [3] [4] She credits the Jacques Cousteau documentaries as the inspiration for her passion for marine biology. [2]
Townsend obtained her BSc and PhD, both in marine biology, from UQ. [5] She is best known for her work on manta rays, the ecology of coral reefs, and the impact of ingested marine rubbish on sea turtles, with particular reference to Queensland's marine environments and organisms. She also works with the Earthwatch Institute. [5]
Townsend assisted in the production of, and appeared in, David Attenborough's series Great Barrier Reef . [6]
Townsend's awards include: [1]
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labelled it one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or wildlife is strictly regulated, and commercial shipping traffic must stick to certain specific defined shipping routes that avoid the most sensitive areas of the park. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem in the world. Its reefs, almost 3000 in total, represent about 10 per cent of all the coral reef areas in the world. It supports an amazing variety of biodiversity, providing a home to thousands of coral and other invertebrate species, bony fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, marine turtles, sea snakes, as well as algae and other marine plants.
The Coral Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) down the Australian northeast coast. The sea was the location for the Battle of the Coral Sea, a major confrontation during World War II between the navies of the Empire of Japan, and the United States and Australia.
Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 80 kilometres north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 460 km (290 mi) north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The island is situated on the leeward (western) side of Heron Reef, a fringing platform reef of significant biodiversity, supporting around 900 of the 1,500 fish species and 72% of the coral species found on the Great Barrier Reef. During the summer months Heron Island is also home to over 200,000 birds including Noddy Turns and Mutton Birds.
Dorothy Hill, AC, CBE, FAA, FRS was an Australian geologist and palaeontologist, the first female professor at an Australian university, and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.
Sir Charles Maurice Yonge, CBE, FRS FRSE was an English marine zoologist.
Henry Caselli (H.C) Richards, was an Australian professor of geology, academic and teacher.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef systems, stretching along the East coast of Australia from the northern tip down to the town of Bundaberg, is composed of roughly 2,900 individual reefs and 940 islands and cays that stretch for 2,300 kilometres (1,616 mi) and cover an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Hugh Phillip Possingham, FAA, is Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy, best known for his work in conservation biology. He is also an ARC Laureate Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, is a biologist and climate scientist specialising in coral reefs, in particular bleaching due to global warming and climate change. He has published over 500 journal articles and been cited over 50,000 times.
Penelope Anne Wensley, is a former Australian public servant and diplomat who served as the 25th Governor of Queensland from 2008 to 2014. She was previously High Commissioner to India from 2001 to 2004 and Ambassador to France from 2005 to 2008.
Tryon Island is a coral cay located in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 86 km northeast of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 465 km north of the state capital Brisbane. The island is a protected area and forms part of Capricornia Cays National Park. It is part of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area. The cay covers an area of 0.21 square kilometres and is surrounded by a coral reef that is partially exposed at low-tide.
Carden Wallace is an Australian scientist who was the director of the Museum of Tropical Queensland from 1997 to 2003. She is an expert on corals having written a "revision of the Genus Acropora". Wallace was part of a team that discovered mass spawning of coral in 1984.
Ernest James Goddard, was an Australian professor of biology.
Heron Island Research Station is a marine research station located on Heron Island, an island within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, 80 km from Gladstone, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is located at the leeward end of a coral cay on a 10 x 5 kilometre platform reef. Although the island had been used as a turtle cannery in the 1920s, after this was abandoned, it was taken over as a resort in the 1930s, by Captain Christian Poulsen. A number of researchers travelled to the island from the 1930s using the resort facilities. The island became a National Park in 1943, and following the end of World War II, saw the first groups of university students from the University of Queensland arrive. Today the island is divided into three sections - the resort, research station and National Park.
Professor Helene Denise Marsh FAA FTSE is an Australian scientist who has provided research in the field of Environmental Science, more specifically Zoology and Ecology. The focal point of her research has been the biology of dugongs, with particular foci in the areas of population ecology, history, reproduction, diet, and movements. She is the Dean of Graduate Research Studies and the Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, and also a Distinguished Professor in the College of Marine and Environmental Science. Marsh is also a program leader for the Marine and Tropical Research Science Facility. In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE).
Robert Endean (1925–1997) was an Australian marine scientist and academic at the University of Queensland.
Nicholas Justin Marshall is a British-Australian neuroscientist-ecologist whose research focuses on decoding how animals use color to communicate. He is known for discovering the most complex animal visual system known of any organism. – that of the mantis shrimp, which has 12 color channels.
Nicole Webster is an Australian marine scientist who works as a principal research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and research fellow at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics. Her work revolves around sponge-microbial symbiosis, how environmental pressures affect symbiosis, and the role that microorganisms play in reef ecosystem health. She has more than 120 scientific publications.
Alan Cribb is an Australian botanist and mycologist and an expert in marine and freshwater algae and seaweeds. He has also written on native and wild foods of Australia. The standard author abbreviation Cribb is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.