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Dr Paige Strudwick

@pstrud

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Postdoc Research @coralnurtureprogram x @future_reefs_lab
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

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A word from our co-found Associate Professor Emma Camp:

Over 8 years ago, David Suggett, John Edmondson of Wavelength Reef Cruises and I founded the Coral Nurture Program around a simple idea: could we bring together science, tourism and Traditional Owner knowledge to support coral restoration at high-value sites on the Great Barrier Reef?
What followed has been one of the highlights of my career.
We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with brilliant scientists and researchers including Lorna Howlett, Paige Strudwick, Christine Roper, Gemma Gillette, Rachael Scott, Kathryn Cobleigh, Tali Fishpool, Hadley England, Rachel Alderdice, Owen Burt and, most importantly, with the Traditional Owners, tourism operators, rangers and communities who have continually challenged and shaped our thinking.
Importantly, we haven’t always got it right. Some approaches worked. Some didn’t. Some worked in one place but not another. And that’s perhaps been the most valuable part of the journey. Every setback has given us another opportunity to adapt, test and learn, and those lessons have fundamentally shaped how we approach Coral Nurture Program activities today.

continued in the comments…

#GenerationRestoration by @pstrud

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6 days ago

We are sailing home after four days onboard @liquid_desire with @wavelengthreefcruises setting up a new @coralnurtureprogram (@future_reefs_lab ) study tagging, fragging, phenotyping and genotyping four key species.

We ran 50 coral colonies through a rapid heat stress test to get an idea of their potential heat tolerance and attached over 400 coral fragments from these colonies to coral nurseries at two sites on Opal Reef, northern GBR.

We then collected images of the reef area (which we were collecting the corals from) and will construct 3D models (or reef maps 🗺️) from these with the help of the experts at @wildflow.ai .

Yes it’s cold enough for a double hood (23*C and I would have been wearing a dry suit if it wasn’t being repaired 🫠) but we anticipate the summer is going to be quite warm for these corals with the strong El Niño which has set in! It will be a team effort to monitor all the parent colonies and nursery fragments across the two sites to compare bleaching outcomes.

After 12.5hrs underwater in the past 4 days I am ready to dry out in the sun like Pippa in the last slide 🌞

A massive thank you to the awesome @utsscience and @wavelengthreefcruises crew who as always came together to pull off a ridiculous amount of work in a short space of time. Big shoutout to @taliunderwater troubleshooting the heat-stress device on her first time solo at the helm👩🏼‍💻💪 #girlpower

#GenerationRestoration #GreatBarrierReef #CoralResilience by @pstrud

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18 days ago

What’s in a scientific researchers dive bag!?

#coralreefresearch #greatbarrierreef by @pstrud

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19 days ago

Survivorship counts are more fun with friends!

Day 2 of our @future_reefs_lab @coralnurtureprogram fieldwork campaign revisiting and surveying newly established studies at Hastings Reef with @passionsofparadise, stay tuned to see what we have on the agenda next week.

🪸

#generationrestoration by @pstrud

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a month ago

My mum would call this a Bus man’s holiday (where you go on holiday and do things that you usually do at work), never the less we did more than just look at coral, we spent many hours sat beside rice paddies eating yummy food and coffee, went for a midnight hike, scootered around, read a good murder mystery, sketched and watercolour painted, and swooned over countless sleepy doggos - with a side of muck diving and coral garden snorkelling! 🤿🌴

#Amed by @pstrud

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a month ago

Meet Dr Paige Strudwick (@pstrud) who is conducting research that helps us understand which corals are more resilient to heat stress, and how that resilience can be harnessed for reef restoration. This #NationalScienceWeek, we’re celebrating the many facets of Coral Nurture Program research that contributes to our broader goals of helping prepare coral reefs for the future.

#GenerationRestoration by @pstrud

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2 months ago

For #NationalScienceWeek I am trading in #FalconTubeFridays to bring you #FalconTubeFunFacts! I hope you learn a thing or two we aren’t just talking about corals this week but all things ocean science.

Don’t believe everything you see in the movies! 🎬 Is there anything else you spotted in Finding Nemo that didn’t quite add up? I remember in my undergraduate course one of my lecturers pulled it up and asked us what they had missed! Not to make fun of the movie, it’s an absolute classic, but to test our knowledge on the ecosystem. 🪸🐟

Thanks @desireehobbins for showing us your anemone fish! by @pstrud

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2 months ago

For #NationalScienceWeek I am trading in #FalconTubeFridays to bring you #FalconTubeFunFacts! I hope you learn a thing or two we aren’t just talking about corals this week but all things ocean science.

Did you know that roughly every second breath you take is made possible by processes in the ocean? This is just one reason why we depend on healthy oceans! 😮‍💨🌊 by @pstrud

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2 months ago

Hope everyone is enjoying science week so far!! Here’s a quick fire recap of coral reproduction if you’re following along on @coralnurtureprogram #ScienceWeek we are going to talk more about how these natural forms of reproduction can be harnessed to help coral reefs!

#generationrestoration #nationalscienceweek by @pstrud

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2 months ago

For #NationalScienceWeek I am trading in #FalconTubeFridays to bring you #FalconTubeFunFacts! I hope you learn a thing or two we aren’t just talking about corals this week but all things ocean science.

Thank you @andreaasunsolo for the beautiful shark video. Make sure to give Andrea a follow to learn about the interesting research she is conducting on sharks during her PhD. 🦈 by @pstrud

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2 months ago

🧪🌊 STEM in the Tropics is happening NOW! 🌴🔬

@fnqstemhub

Come down to the Cairns Botanic Gardens Tanks (Tank 5) from 10am–2pm for a fun day of science, technology, engineering and maths as part of National Science Week!

I’ll be there with the @cpdreefhub @tropwater_jcu stall representing the Coral Nurture Program (@coralnurtureprogram ), sharing how science and innovation are helping us protect the Great Barrier Reef. 🪸💙

Come say hi, learn something new and celebrate tropical science with us!

📍 Tank 5, Cairns Botanic Gardens
🕙 10am–2pm today (August 15th)
🔬 National Science Week

#NationalScienceWeek #STEMInTheTropics #Cairns #GreatBarrierReef by @pstrud

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2 months ago

Belated catch up part 2/3 for World Oceans Month (June 2026)!

For the Coral Nurture Program team June kicked off in the Whitsundays with field expeditions - next the activities moved to the Cairns and Port Douglas region. We were lucky enough to spend 4 nights out on reef to establish new studies championed by @future_reefs_lab HDR students Tali Fishpool and Dr Paige Strudwick in collaboration with the passionate team at @passionsofparadise including Matt, @renee_joan and @traveling.lea onboard Passions III and Allure @cairnsboatcharters !

Tali is evaluating how outplanting across distinct reef habitats such as the reef crest and slope influences coral-associated bacterial community dynamics, with an array of environmental sensors she hopes to disentangle relationships between key environmental conditions and outplant success. Ultimately further informing species selection suited to not only site conditions but fine-scale habitat differences. Her environment-coral match making continues!

Paige’s evaluating how 8 years of lessons learnt from CNP activities can be incorporated into outplanting practices to enhance resilience to future climate stress. This study includes diverse coral growth forms that provide a range of reef functions from branching and bushy to foliose and massive corals. Other considerations included colour morphs, heat-stress assay performance and fragment sizing. These corals will be monitored closely over the pending strong El Niño summer to validate the approach.

#worldoceansmonth #worldoceansday #marinebiology #generationrestoration

📷 @pstrud by @pstrud

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2 months ago