Molly Moustaka

• PhD
• Research Scientist (Tropical Marine Ecosystems) at Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions

Context Landscape structure and environmental conditions influence the distribution and abundance of adult fish, with significant implications for ecosystem functioning. However, our understanding of seascape effects on juvenile fish remains comparatively limited. Objectives We examined how habitat composition, seascape configuration, and environm...

Understanding the sources of primary production supporting marine food webs is important for conserving critical habitats. However, the importance of allochthonous versus autochthonous production is often unclear. We identify the sources of primary production supporting three species of predatory fish (Lutjanus carponotatus, Lutjanus fulviflamma, a...

Corals are critical reef-building organisms, providing essential habitat and ecosystem services. Tracking coral growth over time indicates coral reef health, which can be measured using various established techniques. Several coral growth-related studies have successfully applied photogrammetry to a particular coral of various types. While the focu...

The distribution of animals is influenced by a complex interplay of landscape, environmental, habitat, and anthropogenic factors. While the effects of each of these forces on fish assemblages have been studied in isolation, the implications of their combined influence within a seascape remain equivocal. We assessed the importance of local habitat c...

Herbivorous fishes, and the productivity of algal turfs, are widely viewed as central to the functioning of coral reefs. This understanding is largely based on clear-water reefs. Our knowledge of herbivorous fishes and the nature of their nutritional resources on turbid reefs, by contrast, remains relatively limited. We therefore explored the natur...

Coral communities can survive in stressful environments; however, the mechanisms corals employ to endure challenging conditions are poorly understood. This study assessed how the heterotrophy of three coral genera (Acropora spp., Porites spp. and Platygyra spp.) varies among sites in the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia, exposed to different...

Understanding ecological processes that shape contemporary and future communities facilitates knowledge-based environmental management. In marine ecosystems, one of the most important processes is the supply of new recruits into a population. Here, we investigated spatiotemporal variability in coral recruitment at 15 reefs throughout the Dampier Ar...

Understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of coral assemblages and the processes structuring those patterns is fundamental to managing reef assemblages. Cross-shelf marine systems exhibit pronounced and persistent gradients in environmental conditions; however, these gradients are not always reliable predictors of coral distribution or th...

Understanding environmental drivers of fish assemblage composition is fundamental to designing useful management plans for anthropogenic activities. This study investigated the influence of suspended sediment on reef fish assemblages and habitat composition over a cross-shelf turbidity gradient in the nearshore Pilbara region of Western Australia....