Nicola Browne

Coral reef ecology

Nikki is the co-ordinator for the Coral Reef Ecology Course taught on Heron Island. Nikki obtained her PhD from James Cook University in Marine Sciences in 2011. Shortly afterwards, she moved to Singapore for a 2-year postdoctoral position investigating the impact of ship-wake induced sediment resuspension on coral reefs and sea grass communities. On return to Australia in 2014, Nikki took up a teaching-focused position in Experimental Biology at Curtin University in Western Australia (WA) before she was awarded an ARC DECRA in 2018. Nikki’s research focuses on carbonate budgets on coral reefs as well as reef-associated island stability. This involves the quantification of all biological sources of carbonate (corals, calcareous algae, foraminifera etc.) as well as estimating rates of carbonate loss through physical, chemical and biological erosion. The ARC DECRA focused on the development of a dynamic data-driven model to predict reef island resilience to tropical cyclones and rising sea level. This involved the application of carbonate budgets as well as palaeoecology, sedimentology, oceanography and geomorphology. She has also worked on turbid reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, Pilbara WA, Borneo, Madagascar and Singapore investigating increased resilience of turbid water corals to rising sea surface temperatures using various measures of coral physiology and growth.