Brett Taylor Ph.D.

Institution:
Australian Institute of Marine Science

Profile

My research investigates how large-scale drivers, regional environmental factors and disturbance events such as coral bleaching influence fish somatic growth across trophic levels.

A recent doubling of marine heat waves is putting unprecedented pressure on coral reefs and is transforming these ecosystems at a rapid pace. Therefore, understanding how coral reef-associated organisms respond to heat stress and associated changes to habitat structure represents a management priority. Extensions of this work across the Indo-Pacific region informs the capacity for local adaptation and the level of biological synchrony within and among species.

Collectively, this research will facilitate the predictive forecasting of fish population dynamics under future bleaching events.

To address this issue, I use a suite of techniques including chronological reconstruction of fish growth histories, fish monitoring and oceanographic remote sensing.

Coral reef communities are facing threats at a magnitude never experienced before. Today’s marine scientists have challenging questions to answer, that require innovative approaches and multi-disciplinary collaborations.

Brett Taylor

Biography

2018 Present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Marine Science
2018 2018
Chief Scientist of the Mariana Archipelago Life History Research Cruise, NOAA PIFSC
2014 2018
Supervisory Research Scientist at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
2011 2014
Ph.D. Student within the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
2009 2012
Research Associate at the University of Guam Marine Laboratory

My Project

  • Island Reef Connections
    Coral Reef Fish in the Indian Ocean Region

Other interests

I have worked extensively on coral reef fish population dynamics across the Indo-Pacific region, including work on movement ecology, reproduction, life histories, phenotypic variability, population genetics, and coral reef fisheries. I am particularly interested in understanding why features of populations change from one area to another and the implications of this to resource management.