Applying Integrative Taxonomic Approaches to Resolve Health and Resilience of the Keystone Coral Species Complex Acropora hyacinthus throughout the Great Barrier Reef

Rassmussen, Sage Hannah

Applying Integrative Taxonomic Approaches to Resolve Health and Resilience of the Keystone Coral Species Complex Acropora hyacinthus throughout the Great Barrier Reef

Rassmussen, Sage Hannah

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2023

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Rassmussen, Sage Hannah
dc.date.accessioned	2024-10-10T04:08:15Z
dc.date.available	2024-10-10T04:08:15Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/181376
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Biodiversity underpins the Life Sciences, guiding research and conservation of the natural world. Fundamental to biodiversity is the species-level resolution of taxonomy. For hard corals (Scleractinia) much of this diversity is undescribed, with mounting evidence that we lack species-level taxonomic resolution of key genera, which raises questions about scientific understanding of coral health, abundance, and threats. In this thesis I have performed an integrated taxonomic revision, combining molecular and morphological analysis, to resolve species boundaries of a known species complex within the genus Acropora. In doing so I discovered new species of coral and resurrect several nominal species, increasing the known diversity of this group. With this revised species-level diversity I addressed key questions involving coral health and conservation. Firstly, by exploring species-specific relationships between corals and their endosymbiotic algae along the length of the Great Barrier Reef to reveal biogeographic patterns of symbiont associations. Then, through investigations of novel morphological traits to delineate between co-occurring Acropora species, offering a new morphological-based framework for species identification. Collectively, throughout this thesis I have performed a robust taxonomic revision of a keystone coral species complex, and then applied the gained knowledge to two key areas of research and conservation for coral reefs.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/181376/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2023 Sage Hannah Rassmussen
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/nph
dc.title	Applying Integrative Taxonomic Approaches to Resolve Health and Resilience of the Keystone Coral Species Complex Acropora hyacinthus throughout the Great Barrier Reef	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Biodiversity underpins the Life Sciences, guiding research and conservation of the natural world. Fundamental to biodiversity is the species-level resolution of taxonomy. For hard corals (Scleractinia) much of this diversity is undescribed, with mounting evidence that we lack species-level taxonomic resolution of key genera, which raises questions about scientific understanding of coral health, abundance, and threats. In this thesis I have performed an integrated taxonomic revision, combining molecular and morphological analysis, to resolve species boundaries of a known species complex within the genus Acropora. In doing so I discovered new species of coral and resurrect several nominal species, increasing the known diversity of this group. With this revised species-level diversity I addressed key questions involving coral health and conservation. Firstly, by exploring species-specific relationships between corals and their endosymbiotic algae along the length of the Great Barrier Reef to reveal biogeographic patterns of symbiont associations. Then, through investigations of novel morphological traits to delineate between co-occurring Acropora species, offering a new morphological-based framework for species identification. Collectively, throughout this thesis I have performed a robust taxonomic revision of a keystone coral species complex, and then applied the gained knowledge to two key areas of research and conservation for coral reefs.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/181376