Peter L. Harrison

Peter L. Harrison is an Australian marine biologist and ecologist. He is a Distinguished Professor at Southern Cross University, Australia, and is also the founding director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre.[1] He is a leading expert in coral reproduction ecology and larval restoration.

World first discovery

While conducting his PhD at James Cook University in Townsville in 1981, Harrison worked with a small group of other PhD researchers that first discovered the phenomenon known as Mass Coral Spawning.[2] This occurred following detailed monitoring of hundreds of corals and during night dives at Magnetic Island where through torchlight the team observed millions of coral sperm and eggs filling the waters around them in a synchronized mass multi-species spawning event. This discovery was the first scientific documentation of a mass coral spawning event, and Harrison and the team published their first paper on the occurrence 3 years later in 1984.[3] The publication was titled Mass Spawning in Tropical Reef Corals[4] by Peter Harrison, Russell Babcock, Gordon Bull, James Oliver, Carden Wallace and Bette Willis.[3] His current major research focus is coral and reef restoration and he leads large multidisciplinary projects developing the world’s first larger-scale successful coral larval restoration projects using millions of coral larvae to restore damaged reefs in the Philippines and on the Great Barrier Reef.[5][6]

Recognition

Harrison has received many research and University teaching awards throughout his career. Harrison and the team were awarded a Eureka Prize for Environmental Research in 1992 for their groundbreaking discovery of mass coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef.[7] Harrison led a United Nations funded mission to assess the impacts of the first Gulf War on the coral reefs of Kuwait, and has a new coral species discovered in the Arabian Gulf named after him (Porites Harrisoni). Peter has been appointed to a range of national and international scientific committees including ten years as a member of the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee and various expert panels. He has appeared in more than 30 television documentaries and given hundreds of media interviews highlighting science research discoveries to promote conservation and environmental management. Most recently, a sculpture of Peter Harrison was created by Jason deCaires Taylor for the Museum of Underwater Art[8] as part of the Ocean Sentinels above the surface exhibition in 2022.[9] This was to recognize his contributions to research in the marine environment.

Publications

Harrison has published over 200 scientific research papers, reports and books.[10] His work has been cited almost 15,000 times.[11]

References
  1. "Marine Ecology Research Centre - Southern Cross University". www.scu.edu.au. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  2. "Peter Harrison". Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA). Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  3. Harrison, Peter L.; Babcock, Russell C.; Bull, Gordon D.; Oliver, James K.; Wallace, Carden C.; Willis, Bette L. (16 March 1984). "Mass Spawning in Tropical Reef Corals". Science. 223 (4641): 1186–1189. Bibcode:1984Sci...223.1186H. doi:10.1126/science.223.4641.1186. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17742935. S2CID 31244527.
  4. Mass Spawning in Tropical Reef Corals
  5. "Peter Harrison". Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  6. "2019 - Millions of coral babies 'turbo-charged' in floating nurseries to restore damaged parts of the Great Barrier Reef - Southern Cross University". www.scu.edu.au. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  7. Distinguished Professor Peter L. Harrison, Southern Cross University, retrieved 5 May 2022
  8. Prof Peter Harrison at the Museum of Underwater Art
  9. Museum of Tropical Queensland (2022). "Ocean Sentinels above the surface". mtq.qm.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  10. "Professor Peter L. Harrison - Southern Cross University". www.scu.edu.au. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  11. "Peter L. Harrison".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.