School of Marine and Tropical Biology > Disciplines > Marine Biology > Marine Biology Staff

Associate Professor Sean Connolly

Australian Professorial Fellow

Australian Professorial Fellow (2008 – Present)

Associate Professor (2007- Present)

Senior Lecturer, JCU (2003-2006)

Lecturer, JCU (2000-2002);

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona (1998-2000).

BA (Earlham College, USA), PhD (Stanford University, USA).

Member of the: Ecological Society of America (ESA); Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS); Paleontological Society; American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO); American Society of Naturalists (ASN); American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAS); Sigma Xi.

Research Interests

Biogeography
Marine Community Ecology
Theoretical & Statistical Modelling
Population Dynamics
Physiological Ecology
Paleobiology

Recent and Current Projects Include

My research group uses a combination of mathematical modelling and empirical work to examine the causes of large-scale patterns in marine community structure and diversity. Increasingly, we are moving beyond the use of traditional “canned” statistical models, integrating theory and data by confronting process-oriented ecological models directly with empirical data. Ongoing work falls into four areas: biogeography, community strucute & dynamics, population dynamics, and coral survival & energetics.

Species Richness Gradients on Coral Reefs.—We are investigating the effects of historical and contemporary environmental factors on coral reef biodiversity. Increasingly, we are moving beyond the use of correlation and randomisation-based approaches, and towards more process-based approaches in which predicted species richness gradients are generated from models in which species ranges develop in response to the geographical distribution of environmental conditions (habitat availability, temperature, etc.).
Commonness, Rarity, and Biodiversity on Coral Reefs.—We are using patterns of species richness and relative abundance in coral reef assemblages to test a variety of general models of community dynamics, such as models based on neutral and niche theory.
Population Dynamics, Marine Protected Areas, and Extinction Risk on Coral Reefs.—Coral reef fisheries provide sustenance and income to millions of people worldwide. Increasing human population size, and the globalisation of fish markets, are increasing the pressure on many coral reef species, including those that are directly targeted or indirectly affected by fishing activities. We are using population models to investigate a variety of questions related to the viability of coral reef species subject to fishing pressure. Currently, this work focuses on two main aims: estimating rates of population decline in coral reef shark populations, and determining the effects of no-take marine reserves on sustainable yields of reef fish species.
Survival and Energetics of Reef Corals.—Effects of human activities, such as terrestrial runoff and global warming, on coral reefs requires that we understand both the physiological effects of environmental stressors on corals, and the population-level consequences of those physiological effects. We are using a combination of field, laboratory, and modelling approaches to understand how environmental conditions affect the distribution and abundance of corals. This work includes both larval energetics (understanding how environmental conditions affect provisioning of eggs, energy use, and thus settlement competence and survival in coral larvae), and adult survival and energetics (understanding how colony survival, energy acquisition, and energy allocation to growth and reproduction vary along environmental gradients). Many of the environmental effects that we investigate, such as temperature, severe wave events, and turbidity, are subject to regional and global effects of human activities.

Recent and Currently Supervised Projects

Resilience in coral reef and model ecosystems
Energetic dynamics of reef corals along gradients of light and flow
Connectivity and metapopulation dynamics on coral reefs
Coral assemblages and neutral theory
Biogeography and macroecology of benthic marine algae
Population viability of whitetip and grey reef sharks on the Great Barrier Reef
Palaeoecological dynamics of coral communities along a disturbance gradient
Settlement competence and survival in azooxanthellate scleractinian coral larvae
Effects of marine reserves on the long-term sustainable yields of structured populations

Future PhD Directions

I develop PhD projects collaboratively with students. Most students in my research group combine empirical work with theoretical or statistical modelling. Broadly, any topic that addresses some sort of question related to biological turnover is potentially of interest to me (energetics, population dynamics, species interactions, large-scale patterns of biodiversity and community structure, and even macroevolutionary dynamics). These include conservation-related topics such as population viability, marine reserves, habitat fragmentation, and coral bleaching.

Teaching

MB3260/MB5260

Ecological Dynamics: An Introduction to Modeling

MB3269

Selected Publications

Anthony, K. R. N., S. R. Connolly, and O. Hoegh-Guldberg. 2007. Bleaching, energetics, and coral mortality risk: Effects of temperature, light, and sediment regime.Limnology and Oceanography, in press.

Madin, J. S. and S. R. Connolly. 2006. Ecological consequences of major hydrodynamic disturbances on coral reefs.Nature 444: 477-480.

Dornelas, M. A., S. R. Connolly, and T. P. Hughes. 2006. Coral reef diversity refutes the neutral theory of biodiversity.Nature 440: 80-82.

Robbins, W., M. Hisano, S. R. Connolly, and J. H. Choat. 2006. Ongoing collapse of coral reef shark populations. Current Biology 16: 2314-2319.

Hoogenboom, M. O., K. R. N. Anthony, and S. R. Connolly. 2006. Energetic costs of photoinhibition in corals.Marine Ecology Progress Series 313: 1-12.

Madin, J. S., K. P. Black, and S. R. Connolly. 2006. Scaling water motion on coral reefs: from regional to organismal scales.Coral Reefs 25: 635-644.

Connolly, S. R., T. P. Hughes, D. R. Bellwood, and R. H. Karlson. 2005. Community structure of corals and reef fishes at multiple scales. Science 309: 1363-1365.

Connolly, S. R. 2005. Process-based models of species distributions and the mid-domain effect. American Naturalist 166: 1-11.

Bellwood, D.R., T.P. Hughes, S.R. Connolly, and J. Tanner. 2005. Environmental and geometric constraints on Indo-Pacific coral reef biodiversity. Ecology Letters 8: 643-651.

Anthony, K. R. N., M. Hoogenboom, and S. R. Connolly. 2005. Adaptive variation in coral geometry and the optimization of internal colony light climates. Functional Ecology 19: 17-26.

Anthony, K.R.N. and S.R. Connolly. 2004. Environmental limits to growth: physiological niche boundaries of corals along turbidity-light gradients. Oecologia 141: 373-384.

Connolly, S. R., D. R. Bellwood, and T. P. Hughes. (2003). Indo-Pacific biodiversity of coral reefs: deviations from a mid-domain model. Ecology 84: 2178-2190.

Connolly, S. R. and S. Muko. (2003). Space pre-emption, size-dependent competition, and the coexistence of clonal growth forms. Ecology 84: 2979-2988.

Hughes, T.P., A. Baird, D. R. Bellwood, M. Card, S. R. Connolly, et al. (2003). Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. Science 301: 929-933.

Anthony, K. R. N., S. R. Connolly, and B. L. Willis. (2002.) Comparative analysis of energy allocation to tissue and skeletal growth in corals. Limnology and Oceanography 47: 1417-1429.

Connolly, S. R. and A. I. Miller. (2002). Global Ordovician faunal transitions in the marine benthos: ultimate causes. Paleobiology 28: 26-40.

Connolly, S. R. and A. I. Miller. (2001). Global Ordovician faunal transitions in the marine benthos: proximate causes. Paleobiology 27: 779-795.

Connolly, S. R., B. A. Menge, and J. Roughgarden. (2001). A latitudinal gradient in recruitment of intertidal invertebrates in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Ecology 82: 1799-1813.

Connolly, S. R. and J. Roughgarden. (1999). Theory of marine communities: competition, predation, and recruitment-dependent interaction strength. Ecological Monographs 66: 277-296.

Connolly, S. R. and J. Roughgarden. (1998). A latitudinal gradient in Northeast Pacific intertidal community structure: evidence for an oceanographically-based synthesis of marine community theory. The American Naturalist 151: 311-326.

Contact Details

Dr Sean Connolly

Campus: Townsville

Phone: +61 7 4781 4242

Fax: +61 7 4725 1570

Email: Sean.Connolly@jcu.edu.au