Professor David Bellwood

Contact Details

Campus:	Townsville
Phone:	+61 7 4781 4447
Fax:	+61 7 4725 1570
Email:	David.Bellwood@jcu.edu.au

Research Interests

• Evolution of fishes on coral reefs

• Reef resilience and ecosystem function

• Trophic biology of reef fishes

• Coral reef biogeography

My research interests lie in the combination of the evolution and ecology of reef fishes. The central theme of my research is to understand the role that fishes play on coral reefs; from the origins of herbivory in the Cenozoic to the role of fishes in maintaining reef resilience. The approach is largely based on functional morphology although it encompasses behavioural ecology, molecular phylogenetics, and palaeontology. At larger scales my interests include global biogeography and the conservation of coral reefs, particularly the role of biodiversity in ecosystem processes.

Click to see the Bellwood laboratory website!

Click here for the official website of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Recent and Currently Supervised Projects

• Algal-fish interactions on coral reefs

• Ecology and life history of cryptobenthic reef fishes

• The evolutionary history of biodiversity hotspots

• The ecosystem role of parrotfishes

• Quantifying the impacts of herbivorous fishes

• Ecomorphology of feeding in Chaetodontoid fishes (angelfishes and butterflyfishes)

• Hybridization in coral reef fishes: an example from Thalassoma (Family: Labridae)

• Flow refuging by coral reef fishes in wave-swept habitats

• Wave energy and the role of swimming in reef fish ecology

Future PhD Directions

• Reef resilience and the role of herbivory on coral reefs

• Ecosystem function on coral reefs

• Reef fish biogeography

• The origins of diversity in reef fishes

Teaching

MB2050 Functional Biology of Marine Organisms

MB2070 Evolution and Biogeography of Marine Organisms

MB5070 Evolution and Biogeography of Marine Organisms (Post-Grad course)

MB3160 Evolution and Ecology of Reef Fishes

MB3169 Evolution and Ecology of Reef Fishes (Advanced)

MB5160 Evolution and Ecology of Reef Fishes

Selected Publications

HughesTP, Rodrigues MJ, Bellwood DR, Ceccarelli D, Hoegh-Guldberg O, McCook L, Moltschaniwskyj N, Pratchett MS, Steneck R, Willis B (2007) Phase Shifts, Herbivory, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs to Climate Change. Current Biology 17: 360-365.

Hughes TP, Bellwood DR, Folke CS, McCook LJ, Pandolfi JM (2007) No-take areas, herbivory and coral reef resilience. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22: 1-3

Bellwood DR, Hughes TP, Hoey AS (2006) Sleeping functional group drives coral reef recovery. Current Biology 16: 2434-2439

Hughes TP, Bellwood DR, Folke CS, McCook LJ and Pandolfi JM (2006) No-take areas, herbivory and coral reef resilience. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22(1): 1-3

Depczynski M and Bellwood DR (2006) Extremes, plasticity and invariance in vertebrate life history traits: insights from coral reef fishes. Ecology 87: 3119-3127

Bellwood DR, Hoey AS, Ackerman JL, Depczynski M (2006) Coral bleaching, reef fish community phase shifts and the resilience of coral reefs. Global Change Biology 12: 1587-1594

Bellwood DR, Wainwright PC, Fulton CJ, Hoey AS (2006) Functional versatility supports coral reef biodiversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B 273: 101-107

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

Connolly S, Hughes TP, Bellwood DR and Karlson R (2005) Community structure in corals and reef fishes at multiple scales. Science 309: 1363-1365

Depczynski M and Bellwood DR (2005). Shortest recorded vertebrate lifespan found in a coral reef fish. Current Biology 15: R288-9

Bellwood DR, Hughes TP, Folke C and Nystrom N (2004) Confronting the Coral Reef Crisis. Nature 429: 827-833

Bellwood, D.R., A. Hoey, and J.H. Choat (2003). Limited functional redundancy in high diversity systems: resilience and ecosystem function on coral reefs. Ecology Letters 6: 281-285

Hughes TP, Baird A, Bellwood DR et al. (2003). Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs. Science 301: 929-933