个人简介

B.Sc. University of Queensland, Australia 1983 Ph.D. James Cook University, Australia 1993 I have worked on the coral reefs of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans since 1982, and have written more than 150 scholarly research articles on coral reefs. My area of expertise is in the population and community ecology of scleractinian corals. I was the Environmental Editor for the international journal Coral Reefs from 2006 to 2013 and have been Director of the Institute for Research on Global Climate Change since 2009. My research interests are broad but ultimately linked to the ecology of reef-building corals, including the effects of land-use change and global-climate change. Most recently, my students and I have been particularly interested in examining which processes capture population performance under climate change, and the degree to which these processes vary with habitat, region, and across time. As in the past, under certain circumstances adaptation is expected. But success will depend on a number of conditions, including the nature of the regional gene pool, the life-history characteristics of the organisms involved, the frequency and strength of the disturbances, and the local and regional oceanography. Essentially, we are striving to understand coral-reef systems and identify important processes to provide information that will give corals' their best chance of survival through this modern period of extensive human pressure.

研究领域

van Woesik's research interests are population and community ecology of scleractinian corals, including the spatial and temporal assessment of coral communities and the application of this ecology to the management of coral reefs. His approach uses a combination of empirical and mathematical techniques to examine processes underlying coral community structure and diversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales.

van Woesik's primary scientific goal is to assess the dynamics of coral populations and identifying key processes that regulate those dynamics. He is particularly interested in climate change, thermal stress, adaptation, reef recovery, and refugia from climate change.  Understanding reef systems and key processes on coral reefs will lead to predictive and accurate models of changes in coral-reef communities.

近期论文

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Cacciapaglia C and R van Woesik (2016) Climate-change refugia: shading reef corals by turbidity. Global Change Biology 22(3): 1145-1154 Randall CJ and R van Woesik (2015) Contemporary white-band disease in the Caribbean has been driven by climate change. Nature Climate Change 5: 375-379 Cacciapaglia C and R. van Woesik (2015) Reef-coral refugia in a rapidly changing ocean. Global Change Biology 21, 2272-2282 Robert van Woesik, William J. Scott IV, Richard B. Aronson (2014) Lost opportunities? Coral recruitment does not translate to reef recovery in the Florida Keys. Marine Pollution Bulletin 88: 110-117 Mumby PJ and R. van Woesik (2014) Consequences of ecological, evolutionary and biogeochemical uncertainty for coral reef responses to climatic stress. Current Biology 24(10): 413-423 Randall, C.J., A. Jordan-Garza, E. Muller, R. van Woesik (2014) Relationships between the history of thermal stress and the relative risk of Caribbean coral diseases. Ecology 95(7): 1981-1994 van Woesik R (2013) Quantifying uncertainty and resilience on coral reefs using a Bayesian approach. Environmental Research Letters 8 (4): doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/044051 Roth L, E.M. Muller, R. van Woesik (2013) Tracking Acropora fragmentation and population structure through thermal-stress events. Ecological Modelling 263: 223-232 Graham J and van Woesik R (2013) The effects of partial mortality on the fecundity of three common Caribbean corals. Marine Biology DOI 10.1007/s00227-013-2248-y Houk P & van Woesik R (2013) Progress and perspectives on question-driven coral-reef monitoring. BioScience 63(4): 297-303 Rongo T & van Woesik R (2013) The effects of natural disturbances, reef state, and herbivorous fish densities on ciguatera poisoning in Rarotonga, southern Cook Islands. Toxicon 64: 87-95 Muller E & R. van Woesik (2012) Caribbean coral diseases: primary transmission or secondary infection? Global Change Biology 18: 3529-3535 van Woesik R, E. C. Franklin, J. O’Leary, T. R. McClanahan, J. Klaus, A.F. Budd (2012) Hosts of the Plio-Pleistocene past reflect modern-day coral vulnerability. Proc Royal Society B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2621 Mosblech N.A, M.B Bush, W.D Gosling, L. Thomas, P. van Calsteren, A. Correa-Metrio, B.G. Valencia, J. Curtis, R. van Woesik. (2012) North Atlantic forcing of Amazonian precipitation through the last ice age. Nature Geosciences 5: 817-820 van Woesik R, P. Houk, A. L. Isechal, J. W. Idechong, S.Victor, Y. Golbuu (In Press) Climate-change microrefugia: nearshore reefs bleach less than outer reefs during a 2010 regional thermal stress event in Palau. Ecology and Evolution 2(10): 2474-2484 Toth LT, Aronson RB, Vollmer SV, Hobbs JW, Urrego DH, Cheng H, Enochs IC, Combosch DJ, van Woesik R, Macintyre IG (2012). ENSO-drove 2,500-year collapse of eastern Pacific coral reefs. Science 337: 81-84 van Woesik R and A. G. Jordan-Garza (2011) Coral populations in a rapidly changing environment. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 408: 11-20 van Woesik R, K. Sakai, A. Ganase, Y. Loya (2011) Revisiting the winners and loser a decade after coral bleaching. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 434: 67-76 Jordan-Garza A G, EM Muller, SG Burma, R. van Woesik (2011) Susceptibility of coral-disease models. PNAS: 1102711108v1-201102711 Mosblech NA, Bush, MB, R. van Woesik (2011) On Metapopulations and Microrefugia: paleoecological insights. J Biogeography. 38(3): 419-429 van Woesik R (2010) Calm before the spawn: global coral-spawning synchronization is explained by regional wind fields. Proc Royal Society B, 277: 715-722 Thompson D and van Woesik R (2009) Corals escape bleaching in regions that recently and historically experienced frequent thermal stress. Proc Royal Society B: 276(1669): 2893-2901 Rongo T, Bush M, van Woesik R (2009) Did Ciguatera prompt the late Holocene Polynesian voyages of Discovery? J Biogeography 36(8): 1423-1432