Mikaela Nordborg

Australian Institute of Marine Science

Application of oil toxicity modelling for assessing the risk of spills to coral reefs remains uncertain due to a lack of data for key tropical species and environmental conditions. In this study, larvae of the coral Acropora millepora were exposed to six aromatic hydrocarbons individually to generate critical target lipid body burdens (CTLBBs). Lar...

The risks posed by petroleum spills to coral reefs are poorly understood and quantifying acute toxicity thresholds for aromatic hydrocarbons to reef-building corals is required to assess their sensitivity relative to other taxa. In this study, we exposed Acropora millepora to toluene, naphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene (1-MN) in a flow-through sys...

The water quality component of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program reports on the annual and long-term condition in inshore water quality of the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) with reference to data over 17 years of monitoring. This year the water quality program is reporting in a summary report format: all of the core analyses have be...

Oil pollution remains a prominent local hazard to coral reefs, but the sensitivity of some coral life stages to oil exposure remains unstudied. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR), ubiquitous on coral reefs, may significantly increase oil toxicity towards these critical habitat-forming taxa. Here we present the first data on the sensitivity of...

During an oil spill, shallow, tropical coral reefs are likely to be simultaneously exposed to high intensities of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), which can exacerbate the toxicity of petroleum oils. While successful recruitment of corals is critical for reef recovery following disturbances, the sensitivity of several early life stages of coral to petr...

Oil pollution remains a significant local threat to shallow tropical coral reef environments, but the environmental conditions typical of coral reefs are rarely considered in oil toxicity testing and risk assessments. Here we review the effects of three environmental co-factors on petroleum oil toxicity towards coral reef organisms, and show that t...

Coral reefs are at risk of exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons from shipping spills and uncontrolled discharges during extraction. The toxicity of petroleum hydrocarbons can substantially increase in the presence of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), therefore spills in shallow coral reef environments may be particularly hazardous to reef species. Here we...

Exposure to polycyclic aromatic carbons (PAHs) poses a growing risk to coral reefs due to increasing shipping and petroleum extraction in tropical waters. Damaging effects of specific PAHs can be further enhanced by the presence of ultraviolet radiation, known as phototoxicity. We tested phototoxic effects of the PAHs anthracene and phenanthrene on...

Successful recruitment in corals is important for the sustenance of coral reefs, and is considered a demographic bottleneck in the recovery of reef populations following disturbance events. Yet several factors influence larval settlement behaviour, and here we quantified thresholds associated with light attenuation and accumulated sediments on sett...

The marine environment is changing and becoming less stable as a result of direct (e.g. lower pH) and indirect (e.g. salinity fluctuations from changing rainfall) effects of climate change. The larval stages may be a bottleneck for reproductive success and recruitment, therefore the potential for environmental stressors to impact upon larval recrui...