Edel Sheerin spoke about Life on the seafloor of a sub-Antarctic sunken continent at Pint of Science at Heritage Exchange in Townsville and told the crowd what we know about the creatures of the remote Kerguelen Plateau and how cutting-edge genomics will reveal more about their past, present and future.

Edel wowing the crowd about the wonders of the Kerguelen Plateau.

Edel Sheerin was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the recent Kerguelen Plateau Symposium in Concarneau, France! She presented findings of her literature review on the ‘Evolutionary origin and connectivity of the Kerguelen Plateau benthos over space and time’. This work synthesises the available literature to understand what we know about the benthic invertebrates to date and emphasises the importance of further research given the position of the Kerguelen Plateau as a future gateway to Antarctica. Edel was gratefully supported by a travel grant from the KPS committee.

Joseph Perkins recently attended the eDNA Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, supported by a bursary from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. He presented his research, Toxic Traces: DNA metabarcoding detects ciguatoxin-producing dinoflagellates along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, and was honoured with an award for his oral presentation. His work highlights the power of DNA metabarcoding in monitoring toxic dinoflagellates and understanding the risks associated with ciguatera poisoning and seafood safety.

Eva Paulus was awarded $20,000 from the Threatened Species Initiative to sequence the genomes of dugongs along their Australian range, with a special focus on remote regions like the Kimberley and Gascoyne region.

This will enable her to analyse the genomes of 60 additional dugong samples, a huge leap in the knowledge of dugong population genomics in Australia, where most of the samples have so far been collected along the east coast of Queensland.

In addition, she received $8,500 from the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment & the Ecological Society of Australia, which will be used to further the collaboration with Traditional Owners who are managing dugong populations in their sea countries. 

Sally Lau was awarded the Alison Green Zoology Research Fund this year to further her research on East Antarctic marine invertebrates. The research fund supported Sally’s research at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to identify and sample important marine invertebrate specimens collected off the Shackleton Ice Shelf, East Antarctica back in the 2009-2010 season.

Sally worked together with ophuroid expert Chester Sands from the British Antarctic Survey to identify the brittlestars down to the lowest taxonomic level possible. Sally intends to genetically barcode the samples to aid in their identification.

Ira and Jan were both invited speakers at the Australian Genomic Technologies Association (AGTA) conference in October, 2024, in Cairns. Ira gave the ‘Opening Oration’ to the conference with a talk titled ‘Sequencing Rocks: How sequencing technology shapes our understanding of corals and coral reefs.’

The 2024 Australian Antarctic Research Conference in Hobart (November, 2024) drew 450 polar scientists and featured many talks, workshops and over 200 research posters. JCU PhD student Nikki Rodewald from the Marine Omics Lab was awarded both the Best Overall and Early Career Researcher poster for show casing her work on dispersal in the benthic seastars, Labidiaster radiosus and Labidiaster annulatus. Well done Nikki!

Jan and Ira were delighted to present a public lecture together at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in July, 2024. Together they tag teamed a lecture titled ‘Genomics for exploring change and connections through space and time’ about how we can use the genomes of marine animals, including corals and octopods, to investigate their evolution and adaptation to past environments, and give insights into the future.

The audience was very engaged and asked us both tough questions about genetics, corals, octopods and climate change. So how many corals ARE there Ira.?