Objective: Calculate the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection notifications and the influence of area-level geographic and socioeconomic factors in Queensland using real-time data from the COVID-19 Real-time Information System for Preparedness and Epidemic Response (CRISPER) project.
Design And Setting: Population-level ecological study and spatial mapping of the incidence of COVID-19 infection notifications in Queensland, by postcode, 2020-2022.
Main Outcome Measures: Proportions and distribution of COVID-19 infection notifications by year, age-group, socioeconomic disadvantage, and geospatial mapping.
The trematode superfamily Monorchioidea comprises three families of teleost parasites: the Monorchiidae Odhner, 1911, Lissorchiidae Magath, 1917, and Deropristidae Cable & Hunninen, 1942. All presently known lissorchiid and deropristid life cycles have gastropods as first intermediate hosts, whereas those of monorchiids involve bivalves. Here, we report an unexpected intermediate host for monorchiids; two species of Hurleytrematoides Yamaguti, 1954 use gastropods as first intermediate hosts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRhythms of various periodicities drive cyclical processes in organisms ranging from single cells to the largest mammals on earth, and on scales from cellular physiology to global migrations. The molecular mechanisms that generate circadian behaviours in model organisms have been well studied, but longer phase cycles and interactions between cycles with different periodicities remain poorly understood. Broadcast spawning corals are one of the best examples of an organism integrating inputs from multiple environmental parameters, including seasonal temperature, the lunar phase and hour of the day, to calibrate their annual reproductive event.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPodocotyloides stenometra Pritchard, 1966 (Digenea: Opecoelidae) is the only trematode known to infect anthozoan corals. It causes disease in coral polyps of the genus Porites Link (Scleractinia: Poritidae) and its life-cycle depends on ingestion of these polyps by butterflyfishes (Perciformes: Chaetodontidae). This species has been reported throughout the Indo-Pacific, from the Seychelles to the Galápagos, but no study has investigated whether multiple species are involved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present concept of the trematode genus Hamacreadium Linton, 1910 encompasses considerable morphological variability and includes species reported from a broad range of fishes. These include herbivores and planktivores, despite the life-cycle of the type-species, Hamacreadium mutabile Linton, 1910, being known to use fishes as intermediate hosts. Reports of H.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA total of 1523 individuals of 34 species of chaetodontids from the Great Barrier Reef were examined for faustulid trematodes. Specimens resembling Paradiscogaster glebulae Bray, Cribb & Barker, 1994 were found in nine chaetodontid species at three localities. These specimens are shown, on the basis of combined morphological and molecular analyses, to comprise a complex of morphologically similar and partly cryptic species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTropical reefs are dynamic ecosystems that host diverse coral assemblages with different life-history strategies. Here, we quantified how juvenile (<50 mm) coral demographics influenced benthic coral structure in reef flat and reef slope habitats on the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Permanent plots and settlement tiles were monitored every six months for three years in each habitat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo new species of Phyllodistomum Braun, 1899 are described from the urinary bladder of fishes of the Great Barrier Reef. Phyllodistomum hoggettae n. sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNewly settled recruits typically suffer high mortality from disturbances, but rapid growth reduces their mortality once size-escape thresholds are attained. Ocean acidification (OA) reduces the growth of recruiting benthic invertebrates, yet no direct effects on survivorship have been demonstrated. We tested whether the reduced growth of coral recruits caused by OA would increase their mortality by prolonging their vulnerability to an acute disturbance: fish herbivory on surrounding algal turf.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcology Letters (2012) 15: 338-346 ABSTRACT: Successful recruitment in shallow reef ecosystems often involves specific cues that connect planktonic invertebrate larvae with particular crustose coralline algae (CCA) during settlement. While ocean acidification (OA) can reduce larval settlement and the abundance of CCA, the impact of OA on the interactions between planktonic larvae and their preferred settlement substrate are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CO2 concentrations (800 and 1300 μatm) predicted to occur by the end of this century significantly reduce coral (Acropora millepora) settlement and CCA cover by ≥ 45%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElevated nutrients have the potential to disrupt reproduction in scleractinian corals, with consequent impacts on population dynamics. Reproduction in broadcast spawning (Montipora capitata) and brooding (Pocillopora damicornis) species was assessed following exposure to elevated ammonium in a microcosm experiment. Planulation in P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom an experiment in which corals are transplanted between two depths on a Panamanian coral reef, Baker infers that bleaching may sometimes help reef corals to survive environmental change. Although Baker's results hint at further mechanisms by which reef-building corals may acclimatize to changing light conditions, we do not consider that the evidence supports his inference.
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