Gemma Galbraith

Dr Gemma Galbraith is a marine ecologist at James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland. Her research interests span the fundamental ecology of coral reef organisms, marine biogeography and conservation biology. As a postdoctoral researcher Gemma has been involved in the ecological monitoring of two of Australia’s largest marine parks since 2021; the Coral Sea Marine Park and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park both situated off Australia’s east coast. Gemma has spent many hours underwater conducting detailed surveys of reef fishes and benthic habitats on shallow coral reefs but has always been fascinated by what else lies below the depths accessible to scientific SCUBA divers (> 30m).

Gemma has a passion for exploring, and, motivated by global progress in deep-sea research, she has embraced the use of new remote technologies to expand her own research to the study deep coral reefs and their unique biodiversity. As the global environmental continues to change, monitoring and understanding how coral reef organisms respond will be critical to predicting future changes in the essential ecological functions they provide. Given that the majority of global habitat for coral reefs exists at depths below those typically surveyed by scientific coral reef monitoring projects (> 30m), Gemma is using micro-Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs or small underwater drones) to collect new information on the biodiversity and ecology of Australia’s deep reefs (30 -150m).

Gemma believes that concurrent monitoring and studying of both shallow and deep reefs is key for a more holistic approach to predicting and mitigating future changes to global coral reefs. Despite the often challenging restrictions to scientific diving or large financial costs associated with deep-sea exploration, she is working to find an accessible approach to studying deep coral reefs by using small, cost-effective remote underwater technologies.