Renae K Hovey

University of Western Australia | UWA · School of Biological Science and Oceans Institute

Historical and contemporary processes drive spatial patterns of genetic diversity. These include climate-driven range shifts and gene flow mediated by biogeographical influences on dispersal. Assessments that integrate these drivers are uncommon, but critical for testing biogeographic hypotheses. Here, we characterize intraspecific genetic diversit...

The seed bank of Halophila ovalis is crucial for resilience to disturbance through re-establishment. Understanding seasonal changes in abundance and quality of seeds in natural seed banks is critical for seed-based restoration. We selected an estuary in southwestern Australia and investigated the seasonal changes of seed distribution and viability...

Ecklonia radiata is the main foundation species in Australian temperate reefs, yet little has been published on its reproduction and how this may change across its depth range (1 - 50+ m). In this study, we examined the differences in sporophyte morphology and zoospore production during a reproductive season and across four depths (7, 15, 25 and 40...

There is a growing emphasis on formally recognizing the connection to the marine environment of Indigenous peoples and the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) these strong connections cultivate. The potential for TEK to significantly enrich the scientific comprehension of the marine environment, whilst also celebrating the rich bio-cultural know...

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have been documented around the world, causing widespread mortality of numerous benthic species on shallow reefs (less than 15 m depth). Deeper habitats are hypothesized to be a potential refuge from environmental extremes, though we have little understanding of the response of deeper benthic communities to MHWs. Here, we sh...

Across the globe, remote image data is rapidly being collected for the assessment of benthic communities from shallow to extremely deep waters on continental slopes to the abyssal seas. Exploiting this data is presently limited by the time it takes for experts to identify organisms found in these images. With this limitation in mind, a large effort...

Underwater imaging is being extensively used for monitoring the abundance of lobster species and their biodiversity in their local habitats. However, manual assessment of these images requires a huge amount of human effort. In this article, we propose to automate the process of lobster detection using a deep learning technique. A major obstacle in...

A central question in contemporary ecology is how climate change will alter ecosystem structure and function across scales of space and time. Climate change has been shown to alter ecological patterns from individuals to ecosystems, often with negative implications for ecosystem functions and services. Furthermore, as climate change fuels more freq...

Across the globe, remote image data is rapidly being collected for the assessment of benthic communities from shallow to extremely deep waters on continental slopes to the abyssal seas. Exploiting this data is presently limited by the time it takes for experts to identify organisms found in these images. With this limitation in mind, a large effort...

Aim: To investigate how changing grid size can alter model predictions of the distribution of mesophotic taxa and how it affects different modelling methods. Location: Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia. Taxon: Benthic mesophotic taxa: corals, macroalgae and sponges. Methods: We determined the distributions of the major benthic taxonomic...

Movement is fundamental to the ecology and evolutionary dynamics within species. Understanding movement through seed dispersal in the marine environment can be difficult due to the high spatial and temporal variability of ocean currents. We employed a mutually enriching approach of population genetic assignment procedures and dispersal predictions...

Despite a growing understanding of the importance of mesophotic ecosystems, they remain relatively unexplored globally, and particularly in the Indian Ocean. The composition of benthic communities of the Ningaloo Marine Park in deeper water (> 20 m) was determined using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Environmental variables collected by the...

The coastal waters of southern and south-western Australia are home to almost 30,000 km2 of seagrass, dominated by temperate endemic species of the genera Posidonia and Amphibolis. In this region, seagrasses are common in estuaries and sheltered coastal areas including bays, lees of islands, headlands, and fringing coastal reefs. Additionally, exte...

Seagrass seascapes are 100s m² to 1000s of km² coastal regions in nearshore, sandy to muddy benthic environments that are characterized by the presence of seagrasses. Here we explore the development of seagrass seascape research in Australia. Determining the distribution of seagrasses started with mapping their extent, but improvements in remote se...

Numerous machine-learning classifiers are available for benthic habitat map production, which can lead to different results. This study highlights the performance of the Random Forest (RF) classifier, which was significantly better than Classification Trees (CT), Naïve Bayes (NB), and a multi-model ensemble in terms of overall accuracy, Balanced Er...

Healthy coral reefs play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity in tropical marine ecosystems. Remote imaging techniques have facilitated the scientific investigations of these intricate ecosystems, particularly at depths beyond 10 m where SCUBA diving techniques are not time or cost efficient. With millions of digital images of the seafloor coll...

This chapter presents a summary of the use of deep learning for underwater image analysis, in particular for coral species classification. Deep learning techniques have achieved the state-of-the-art results in various computer vision tasks such as image classification, object detection and scene understanding. Marine ecosystems are complex scenes a...

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) occur at depths beyond those typically associated with coral reefs. Significant logistical challenges associated with data collection in deep water have resulted in a limited understanding of the ecological relevance of these deeper coral ecosystems. We review the trends in this research, covering the geographic s...

Accurate estimation of connectivity among populations is fundamental for determining the drivers of population resilience, genetic diversity, adaptation and speciation. However the separation and quantification of contemporary versus historical connectivity remains a major challenge. This review focuses on marine angiosperms, seagrasses, that are f...

Scientific Data 2:150057 doi: 10.1038/sdata.2015.57 (2015); Published 27 Oct 2015; Updated 20 Dec 2016 The authors regret that Ezequiel Marzinelli was omitted in error from the author list of the original version of this Data Descriptor.

Background and Aims: Organisms occupying the edges of natural geographic ranges usually survive at the extreme limits of their innate physiological tolerances. Extreme and prolonged fluctuations in environmental conditions often associated with climate change, and exacerbated at species’ geographical range edges, are known to trigger alternative re...

Healthy coral reefs play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity in tropical marine ecosystems. Deep sea exploration and imaging have provided us with a great opportunity to look into the vast and complex marine ecosystems. Data acquisition from the coral reefs has facilitated the scientific investigation of these intricate ecosystems. Millions of...

No turning back? Ecosystems over time have endured much disturbance, yet they tend to remain intact, a characteristic we call resilience. Though many systems have been lost and destroyed, for systems that remain physically intact, there is debate as to whether changing temperatures will result in shifts or collapses. Wernburg et al. show that extre...

A feedback between seagrass presence, suspended sediment and benthic light can induce bistability between two ecosystem states: one where the presence of seagrass reduces suspended sediment concentrations to increase benthic light availability thereby favoring growth, and another where seagrass absence increases turbidity thereby reducing growth. T...

Aims Seedling establishment is a crucial life history stage in seagrasses, yet factors that affect seedling health are poorly characterized. We investigated if organic matter (OM) additions to sediments provided nutritional benefits for seagrass seedlings through microbial degradation. Methods We tested the effects of sedimentary OM additions on P...

In a recent paper by Thomson et al. (2014), vivipary is implied for the eastern Australian Zostera, Zostera nigricaulis (revised from Zostera tasmanica; Kuo 2005). However, the definition of vivipary (production of genetically distinct offspring resulting from sexual reproduction) needs to be fully explored in terms of the experimental claims by th...

We investigated the phenology and spatial patterns in Halophila decipiens by assessing biomass, reproduction and seed density in ~400 grab samples collected across nine sites (8 to 14m water depth) between June 2011 and December 2012. Phenology correlated with light climate which is governed by the summer monsoon (wet period). During the wet period...

This Australian benthic data set (BENTHOZ-2015) consists of an expert-annotated set of georeferenced benthic images and associated sensor data, captured by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) around Australia. This type of data is of interest to marine scientists studying benthic habitats and organisms. AUVs collect georeferenced images over an...

High-latitude reefs support unique ecological communities occurring at the biogeographic boundaries between tropical and temperate marine ecosystems. Due to their lower ambient temperatures, they are regarded as potential refugia for tropical species shifting poleward due to rising sea temperatures. However, acute warming events can cause rapid shi...

Extreme climatic events will dictate the response of ecosystems to climate change, yet are understudied in marine ecosystems. The interaction of stressors from such events has the potential to amplify negative impacts and drive ecosystems into alternate states. Here, we show a drastic response of a temperate seagrass species ( Amphibolis antarctica...

Understanding the extent and impact of factors influencing the levels and structuring of genetic diversity within natural populations is a key objective of ecological genetics. For marine angiosperms, variation in abiotic environmental factors at the local scale can have a major influence on levels of clonality and spatial genetic structure, and th...

In Shark Bay, World Heritage Area, seagrass habitat has been degraded. To inform scientists and managers about strategies used in revegetation and the variability of success, we take a ‘lessons learnt’ approach from analogous systems. No discrete approach could be used with confidence to proceed with a large-scale revegetation program, particularly...

Smale, D. A., Kendrick, G. A., Harvey, E. S., Langlois, T. J., Hovey, R. K., Van Niel, K. P., Waddington, K. I., Bellchambers, L. M., Pember, M. B., Babcock, R. C., Vanderklift, M. A., Thomson, D. P., Jakuba, M. V., Pizarro, O., and Williams, S. B. 2012. Regional-scale benthic monitoring for ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) using an auto...

The western rock lobster, Panulirus cygnus, is endemic to Western Australia and supports substantial commercial and recreational fisheries. Due to and its wide distribution and the commercial and recreational importance of the species a key component of managing western rock lobster is understanding the ecological processes and interactions that ma...

Frequency distribution of the number of lobsters caught per pot. (DOCX)

We examined the root systems of 2 temperate seagrasses, Posidonia australis and P. sinuosa, testing the effects of nutrients and season on root architecture. Transplants of each species were grown in pots containing a standardised sand medium and a localised supply of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), or N and P combined. P. australis and P. sinuosa sh...

Global seagrass losses parallel significant declines observed in corals and mangroves over the past 50 years. These combined declines have resulted in accelerated global losses to ecosystem services in coastal waters. Seagrass meadows can be extensive (hundreds of square kilometers) and long-lived (thousands of years), with the meadows persisting p...

The effects of nutrients and planting season on root growth were investigated in transplants of the seagrasses Posidonia australis and P. sinuosa. Difficulties with sampling and estimating root growth of these submerged plants were overcome by growing transplants, with all roots removed initially, in pots containing a standardized sand medium. Nitr...