We’re helping the Great Barrier Reef resist, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change as part of an Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) project.
The Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP) is a consortium dedicated to helping the Great Barrier Reef resist, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.
The program aims to provide reef managers and decision-makers with an innovative toolkit of safe, acceptable and cost-effective interventions in conjunction with best-practice reef management and the reduction of carbon emissions.
Researchers within QUT are working on the following RRAP sub-programs:
- Stakeholder and Traditional Owner Engagement
- Cooling and Shading
- Moving Corals
- Rubble Stabilisation
- Integrated Logistics and Automation
- Translation to Deployment
- Coral Aquaculture and Deployment
- Modelling & Decision Support
Latest news
- These scientists have a novel way of solving the Great Barrier Reef’s coral rubble problem: glue (2023)
QUT researchers are searching for quicker ways to stabilise coral rubble, enabling coral regrowth. “Having a very stable, solid seabed is really important for reef recovery” said Professor Scott Bryan who is leading the research. - Research investigates role of coral rubble in reef ecology (2023)
QUT PhD researcher Tanya Dodgen, from the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is conducting an experiment on the Great Barrier Reef looking at ways to deal with areas of coral rubble. - From little things, big things can grow- prompting climate action (2023)
Promotion of simple behaviours such as recycling plastic waste can lead to positive spill-over into a wider range of climate-related, sustainable behaviours, QUT researchers have found. - New decision tool to help restore coral reefs (2023)
QUT researchers have used mathematics to guide decisions on growing coral to help restore the Great Barrier Reef. - Create world-first way to count coral babies to save the reef (2022)
QUT researchers are developing world-first techniques to help breed a million baby corals every year to help repopulate the Great Barrier Reef after bleaching events caused by climate change. - QUT 2022 Reef Showcase – a place to celebrate the success of our reef research (Link to be added)
QUT Centre for the Environment hosted the QUT Reef showcase event in December 2022 to celebrate the success of our reef research. Hearing from our panel members discussing the challenges our reef is facing from the impact of climate change and the actions we are taking to manage the risk. - Back from the brink: Helping coral reefs recover (2022)
QUT and UQ researchers are trialling methods to stabilise coral rubble so that it can provide a solid platform for natural coral recovery - Multi-robot reef restoration field trip at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef (2022)
Another successful multi-robot reef restoration field trip completed at Lizard Island using our second-generation AI-enabled reconfigurable robot boats to help scale the collection of coral larvae and then precision deploy them back onto degraded reef as part of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program. - Temporary small coral settlement devices deployed at Heron Island (2022)
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science have been diving at Heron Island this month to deploy temporary small coral settlement devices onto the Reef to test how the specially designed devices can help baby corals survive to early adulthood.
- How we predict Reef threats like coral bleaching – Great Barrier Reef Foundation (2022)
- Novel misting trial aims to prevent coral bleaching (2022)
An empty sports field, a giant misting cannon and a drone saw QUT scientists test a natural and novel way to protect the Great Barrier Reef’s coral from bleaching, that’s now expanded to real-world early testing from a scientific ship on the Reef.
- Read more about QUT’s reef research.
Collaboration
The program brings together Australia’s leading experts to help the Great Barrier Reef resist, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.
RRAP partners include:
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF)
- James Cook University (JCU)
- The University of Queensland (UQ)
- Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
- Southern Cross University (SCU)
- Other specialist research, private sector and international organisations.
What we’re working on
QUT research team
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Professor Karen Vella -
Professor Michael Bode -
Dr Matthew Adams -
Professor Matthew Dunbabin -
Professor Zoran Ristovski -
Professor Scott Bryan -
Associate Professor Paul Corry -
Dr Luke Nothdurft -
Dr Joel Alroe -
Dr Lalehvash Moghaddam -
Dr Dorian Tsai -
Dr Catherine Kim -
Dr Julio Salcedo-Castro -
Dr Umberto Baresi -
Dr Annah Piggott-McKellar
Program partners
