2024 Laureate Profile: Professor Thomas Wernberg

Administering Organisation: The University of Western Australia

Fellowship Project Summary

FL240100015 - The Great Southern Reef: Surviving and Thriving in the Anthropocene

Professor Wernberg aims to integrate long-term ecological field data, seascape genomics and novel breeding and stress experiments to transform the understanding of the functions, challenges, opportunities and trajectories for Australia’s Great Southern Reef (GSR). This project will focus on climate change, marine heatwaves and kelp forest to reveal how this biodiversity hotspot will adapt to future conditions. Professor Wernberg’s research will create opportunities for conservation and sustainable management, not only for the GSR but as a model for kelp forests worldwide. Research outcomes will demonstrate the GSR’s economical, ecological and cultural importance – contributing over $10 billion per year, over 70 percent of its species are found nowhere else, and it connects over 50 Indigenous nations. By engaging with policymakers and platforms provided by the GSR Research Partnership and the GSR Foundation, Professor Wernberg will ensure real-life application of research outcomes and offer a blueprint for safeguarding the GSR and its kelp forests. 

Australian Research Council Funding: $3,608,503