Nature and Biodiversity
How coral resilience can improve ocean conservation – Experts explain
A Nobel-winning stock market theory is being used to pick 50 reefs as ‘sanctuaries’ to survive climate crisis and revive coral elsewhere.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Over the past 10 years he was Founding Director of the Global Change Institute and is Deputy Director of the Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies (www.coralcoe.org.au, since 2006) and Affiliated Professor in Tropical Marine Biology at the University of Copenhagen (2016-present). Ove’s research focuses on the impacts of global change on marine ecosystems and is one of the most cited authors on climate change. In addition to pursuing scientific discovery, Ove has had a 20-year history in leading research organisations such as the Centre for Marine Studies (including 3 major research stations over 2000-2009) and the Global Change Institute, both at the University of Queensland. These roles have seen him raise more than $150 million for research and infrastructure. He has also been a dedicated communicator of the threat posed by ocean warming and acidification to marine ecosystems, being one of the first scientists to identify the serious threat posed by climate change for coral reefs in a landmark paper published in 1999 (Mar.Freshwater Res 50:839-866), which predicted the loss of coral reefs by 2050. Since that time, Ove led global discussions and action on the science and solutions to rapid climate change via high profile international roles such as the Coordinating Lead Author for the ‘Oceans’ chapter for the Fifth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Coordinating Lead Author on the Impacts chapter of the IPCC Special report on 1.5oC. In addition to this work, Ove conceived and led the scientific XL-Catlin Seaview Survey which has surveyed over 1000 km of coral reefs across 25 countries and which captured and analysed over 1 million survey images of coral reefs. These images and data are available to the scientific community and others via an online database.
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