Dr Patrick Laffy1,2, Dr Marko Terzin1,2,3,4, Dr Jin Yan Lim1, Dr Juliano Morais1, Dr Michael Emslie1, Professor Kim-Anh Lê Cao4, Professor David Bourne1,2,3, Dr Yun Kit Yeoh1,2, Dr Neal Cantin1
1Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia, 2AIMS@JCU, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, 3College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, 4Melbourne Integrative Genomics and School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Dr Patrick Laffy is a Senior Research Scientist and Bioinformaticist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville, QLD. Dr Laffy contributes to a wide range of projects at AIMS, with a particular interest in the role that Microbial communities have in tropical marine ecosystems under growing climate stresses. Dr Laffy has been leading research investigating the potential that molecular monitoring techniques have in ecosystem management, with a particular focus on how microbial monitoring techniques can be applied to reef management and intervention activities. Dr Laffy also has a background in viral community analysis, the transcriptional responses of reef invertebrates and microbial communities to environmental stressors, and a range of reef restoration and adaptation projects. Dr Laffy also plays a key role in equity and gender diversity initiatives at AIMS and was the submitting author of AIMS successful Athena-Swan Bronze award application. Dr Laffy is also the current Australian Deputy Ambassador to the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS).
Abstract:
Coral reefs are threatened by rising global sea-surface temperatures, and a greater understanding of macro and micro-scale community responses to these impacts is needed. While traditional reef monitoring methods evaluate observable ecosystem changes under stress conditions, these changes can take time to manifest and may not capture early warning signs of stress. Seawater microbial communities respond rapidly to environmental changes and analysis of reef-associated seawater microbiomes has identified microbial indicators that inform shifting physicochemical variability and can also predict reef health and fisheries protection status. During the 2023-24 Austral summer, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was exposed to above average sea-surface temperatures (1-2.5°C) with some sites experiencing up to 12.47 Degree heating week thermal exposure. Prevalent coral bleaching was observed at 73% of reefs surveyed in the marine park, with very high or extreme bleaching reported at 39% of surveyed reefs. Seawater was collected at 71 reefs across the GBR throughout the duration of the sustained bleaching event, and microbial eDNA metagenomes were generated from these samples. The thermal stress event shifted the seawater microbiome composition and impacted microbial processes. Using integrative multi-omics these microbial changes were correlated with water chemistry and site-specific bleaching severity, coral mortality and recovery metrics to identify microbial indicators that forecast and predict reef recovery outcomes. With further development, these novel eDNA techniques could support adaptive reef monitoring by providing rapid, early indicators of thermal stress responses.