JCU > Research Portfolio > A/Prof Jennifer Donelson

About

I have broad interests in the ecology and early life history of marine fishes, as well as the potential for ectotherms to cope with future climate change. Much of my research to date has focused on the ecological impacts of climate change to marine fishes and the potential for species to acclimate to the predicted environmental changes. To tackle these questions, I use state of the art environmentally controlled research aquariums systems that simulate future conditions.

My research concentrates on understanding phenotypic plasticity and parental effects. Much of my work has focused on exploring the importance and prevalence of developmental plasticity, when fish experience warmer conditions in the first months of life, as well as the potential for plasticity across generations. More recently my focus has shifted to understand when previous generations (parents and grandparents) need to experience warming to result in phenotypic changes in the current generation. I am also interested in the role that behavioural plasticity and thermoregulation could play in the response of more mobile reef fish to ocean acidification and warming.

Teaching

MB3200: Marine Conservation Biology (Level 3; TSV)
MB5004: Marine Conservation Biology (Level 5; TSV)
SC3008: Professional Placement (Level 3; CNS & TSV)
SC5008: Professional Placement (Level 5; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Research

Impacts of climate and environmental change on marine fishes
Acclimation and adaptation
Developmental plasticity
Transgenerational plasticity
Parental effects
Thermal ecology and evolution
Fish ecology
Fish reproductive biology

Research Disciplines

Socio-Economic Objectives

Honours

Awards

2021 - Emerging Leader in Marine Science Award, Australian Marine Sciences Association
2017 - Australian Society of Fish Biology Early Career Excellence Award
2016 - Australian Institute of Policy and Science Young Tally Poppy of Queensland Science Award
2013 - Virginia Chadwick Award for Excellence in Scientific Publishing
2012 - Winston Churchill Fellowship: Dr Dorothea Sanders and Irene Lee
2011 - Virginia Chadwick Award for Excellence in Scientific Publishing
2013 to 2016 - Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney
2008 to 2011 - CSIRO Marine Climate Impact and Adaptation Flagship Student Fellowship

Publications

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

Cumming G, Adamska M, Barnes M, Barnett J, Bellwood D, Cinner J, Cohen P, Donelson J, Fabricius K, Grafton R, Grech A, Gurney G, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Hoey A, Hoogenboom M, Lau J, Lovelock C, Lowe R, Miller D, Morrison T, Mumby P, Nakata M, Pandolfi J, Peterson G, Pratchett M, Ravasi T, Riginos C, Rummer J, Schaffelke B, Wernberg T and Wilson S (2023) Research priorities for the sustainability of coral-rich western Pacific seascapes. Regional Environmental Change, 23 (2).
Donelson J, Gaitan-Espitia J, Hobday A, Mokany K, Andrew S, Boulter S, Cook C, Dickson F, Macgregor N, Mitchell N, Pickup M and Fox R (2023) Putting plasticity into practice for effective conservation actions under climate change. Nature Climate Change, 13 (7). pp. 632-647
Hasenei A, Donelson J, Ravasi T and Rummer J (2023) Sharks and their relatives: can their past help predict their future? Frontiers in Marine Science, 10.
Lang B, Donelson J, Bairos-Novak K, Wheeler C, Caballes C, Uthicke S and Pratchett M (2023) Impacts of ocean warming on echinoderms: A meta?analysis. Ecology and Evolution, 13 (8).
Lang B, Caballes C, Uthicke S, Doll P, Donelson J and Pratchett M (2023) Impacts of ocean warming on the settlement success and post?settlement survival of Pacific crown?of?thorns starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris). Coral Reefs, 42. pp. 143-155
McMahon S, Munday P and Donelson J (2023) Energy use, growth and survival of coral reef snapper larvae reared at elevated temperatures. Coral Reefs, 42. pp. 31-42
Nagelkerken I, Allan B, Booth D, Donelson J, Edgar G, Ravasi T, Rummer J, Vergés A and Mellin C (2023) The effects of climate change on the ecology of fishes. PLOS Climate, 2 (8).
Roper C, Donelson J, Ferguson S, van Oppen M and Cantin N (2023) Long-term preconditioning of the coral Pocillopora acuta does not restore performance in future ocean conditions. Coral Reefs, 42. pp. 1079-1096
Silveira M, Donelson J, McCormick M, Araujo-Silva H and Luchiari A (2023) Impact of ocean warming on a coral reef fish learning and memory. PeerJ, 11.

Book Chapters

Donelson J, Romans P, Yamanaka S, Kinoshita M and Roux N (2023) Anemonefish Husbandry. In: Evolution, Development and Ecology of Anemonefishes: Model Organisms for Marine Science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, pp. 237-251
Ross P, Scanes E, Byrne M, Ainsworth T, Donelson J, Foo S, Hutchings P, Thiyagarajan V and Parker L (2023) Surviving the Anthropocene: the resilience of marine animals to climate change. In: Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review. Taylor & Francis, pp. 35-80
Schunter C, Donelson J, Munday P and Ravasi T (2023) Resilience and Adaptation to Local and Global Environmental Change. In: Evolution, Development and Ecology of Anemonefishes: Model Organisms for Marine Science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, pp. 253-273

More: ResearchOnline@JCU stores 67+ research outputs authored by A/Prof Jennifer Donelson from 2008 onwards.

Current Funding

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Projects

Sex is important in adaptation to environmental change

Indicative Funding: $353,681 over 3 years
Summary: Plasticity is often hailed as the saviour for species in the face of rapid climate change but there is an ongoing debate of whether plasticity will be adaptive in nature. This research will generate significant knowledge using novel cross-generational experiments on the potential for plasticity to be adaptive with sexual selection and by determining how phenotypic change transfers across generations by establishing genomic mechanisms. Expected outcomes include an improved evidence base of the capacity for adaptation that will inform the management of fish and fisheries under environmental change. This will provide significant benefits to Australian and international communities that rely on fish for nutrition, economic and social values.
Investigators: Jennifer Donelson (College of Science & Engineering)
Keywords: Plasticity; Fish; Warming; Adaptation; Genomics; Climate changes

Ecological Society of Australia - Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment

Incorporating evolutionary perspectives into conservation: An assessment of local adaptation, developmental plasticity, and genetic differentiation in a reef fish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus)

Indicative Funding: $7,500 over 1 year
Summary: Many marine species are predicted to experience population declines with ocean warming, however, not all populations are expected to have the same sensitivity. Intraspecific differences in developmental plasticity in response to thermal tolerance is expected to allow some populations to respond to ocean warming more readily than others. Furthermore, thermal sensitivity may follow a pattern predicted by historical experience of thermal variation and range across latitudinal gradients. By identifying and exploring populations that are thermally tolerant, as well as the underlying evolutionary, and physiological mechanisms, it will allow for the integration of evolutionary perspectives into conservation management plans to achieving more effective outcomes.
Investigators: Elliott Schmidt, Jennifer Donelson and Gergely Torda (College of Science & Engineering)
Keywords: Local Adaption; Climate Change; Immunity; Coral Reef Fish; Ocean Warming; Thermal Performance

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Future Fellowships

Phenotypic and adaptive responses to environmental change

Indicative Funding: $710,470 over 4 years
Summary: Projecting the response of species to future environmental change is essential for appropriate human management and conservation strategies. However, we currently lack knowledge on whether populations differ in their capacity to respond to climate change. This project will explore the capacity for various populations of reef fish to acclimate and adapt to ocean warming across generations and between populations. This project will also explore whether short term heatwave experience results in any adaptive benefits.
Investigators: Jennifer Donelson (Research Division)
Keywords: acclimation; Adaptation; Fish; Plasticity; Pomacentridae

Australian Society for Fish Biology - Michael Hall Student Innovation Award

Incorporating evolutionary perspective into conservation: An assessment of local adaptation across the range of a coral reef fish

Indicative Funding: $1,000 over 1 year
Summary: The aims of this research project are to gain an increased understanding of how different populations across the species? range of Acanthochromis polyacanthus will respond to ocean warming. Specifically, I will 1) determine the levels of local adaptation across three different regions within the species range to reveal the thermal performance landscape, and 2) identify cellular mechanisms that underlie adaptive difference between populations. This research will allow identification of populations and/or reef regions that have increased adaptive ability and could be potential targets for conservation action.
Investigators: Elliott Schmidt, Jennifer Donelson and Gergely Torda (Research Division)
Keywords: Local adaptation; Coral reef fish; Climate Change; Ocean warming; Enzymes; Thermal performance

Ecological Society of Australia - Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment

Incorporating evolutionary perspective into wildlife conservation: An assessment of local adaptation, genetic differentiation, and heritability in a reef fish (Acanthaochromis polyacanthus)

Indicative Funding: $6,695 over 2 years
Summary: For many sedentary organisms with low dispersal ability, response to climate change depends on their capacity for local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity to maintain populations in changing environmental conditions. These evolutionary processes may vary across populations, resulting in uneven responses to changes within a species? range. To understand a species? evolutionary trajectory under climate change it is important to quantify the magnitude of local adaptation, genetic differentiation, heritability, and phenotypic plasticity in populations throughout its range. This project aims to understand how these evolutionary processes vary across a latitudinal gradient in a reef fish (spiny chromis damselfish; Acanthochromis polyacanthus).
Investigators: Elliott Schmidt, Jennifer Donelson and Gergely Torda (Research Division)
Keywords: Acclimation; Phenotypic plasticity; Climate change; Adaptation; Ocean warming

Supervision

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

The interplay between behavioural Plasticity and Ecophysiology of Coral Reef Fish to environmental change (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
Thermal Plasticity of Natural versus Sexually selected Traits (Masters , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
Incorporating evolutionary perspectives into conservation: an assessment of local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and interpopuation hybridization in a reef fish (Acanthochromis ployacanthus) (PhD , Primary Advisor)
The effects of marine heatwaves on phenotypic and adaptive outcomes in a marine fish (PhD , Primary Advisor)

Completed

Phenotypic plasticity to warming in coral reef fishes: the importance of sex and exposure timing within and between generations (2021, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
Cleaning symbiosis and the disease triangle (2022, PhD , Primary Advisor)
The effects of vessel noise on the antipredator behaviour of juvenile reef fishes (2022, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
The effect of cross-generational plasticity on the development of coral reef fish under multiple environmental stressors (2023, Masters , Primary Advisor)
The effects of climate change on the growth and physiology of reef snappers (2021, PhD , Primary Advisor)
Impacts of ocean warming on the Pacific crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster cf.solaris) (2023, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Data

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit Research Data Australia.

LaMonica, L. (2020) Examining the thermal sensitivity of juvenile rabbitfishes, Siganus doliatus and S. lineatus (Siganidae). James Cook University
Spinks, R. (2020) Sex and time specific effects of ocean warming on reproductive and hatchling traits in a coral reef damselfish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus). James Cook University
Spinks, R. (2019) Developmental effects of heatwave conditions on the early life stages of a coral reef fish. James Cook University
Rodgers, G. (2018) In hot water: sustained ocean warming reduces survival of a low-latitude coral reef fish. James Cook University
Donelson, J. (2017) Data from: Transgenerational plasticity of reproduction depends on rate of warming across generations. James Cook University
Veilleux, H. (2017) Acanthochromis polyacanthus transcriptome. James Cook University
McMahon, S. (2017) Risky business: how elevated CO₂ and energetic resources affect anti-predator behaviour in a reef fish. James Cook University
Motson, K. (2016) Limited capacity for developmental thermal acclimation in three tropical wrasses. James Cook University
Rodgers, G. (2016) Thermosensitive period of sex determination in the coral reef damselfish Acanthochromis polyacanthus and the implications of projected ocean warming. James Cook University
Munday, P. (2012) Ocean acidification and the early life history development of a tropical marine fish. James Cook University

Collaboration

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.