Sue-Ann’s research focuses on the responses of marine organisms to change, both in space (along natural evolutionary gradients) and time (responses to environmental change). She is particularly interested in large scale evolutionary patterns and ecological trends in marine invertebrates and the effects of stressors such as ocean acidification, warming and water quality impacts including light availability (turbidity), nutrients and salinity on invertebrates, corals and fishes. Sue-Ann’s broad research interests include ecology, physiology, behavior, biogeography and the potential for acclimation and adaptation to change in marine organisms.  

Research organisms include: bivalve and gastropod molluscs (oysters, giant clams, jumping snails, cone snails, pteropods), crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), hard and soft corals, crustaceans, sea urchins, fish (coral reef fish, kingfish, barramundi), brachiopods and sea cucumbers.

Research sites include: Australia, Singapore, French Polynesia, Antarctica, Arctic, UK, deep sea (Crozet Islands and North Atlantic abyssal plain), Falkland Islands and New Zealand.

Sue-Ann is originally from the UK and studied for a BSc (Hons) degree in Biology from the University of Nottingham and MSc in Oceanography from the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton. With the University of Southampton and British Antarctic Survey, Sue-Ann researched evolutionary trends across latitudinal gradients in marine invertebrates to determine how adaptive traits change along environmental gradients from the tropics to the poles for her PhD, in collaboration with the National University of Singapore, University of Melbourne and James Cook University.

http://www.coralcoe.org.au/researchers/sue-ann-watson

http://sueannwatson.weebly.com/

Latest research

Smart growth: Marine snails know how to budget their housing costs

For nearly 50 years, researchers have been stumped as to why sea shells from warm tropical waters are comparatively larger than their cold-water relatives.  New research, led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University, suggests that it all comes down to ‘housing cost.’The paper “Latitudinal trends in shell production cost from the tropics to the poles” is published in the journal Science Advances.

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/9/e1701362

JCU Media Release

CoralCoE Media Release

Interests

Research

• Invertebrates, fish, ecology, physiology, behavioural ecology, climate change, ocean warming, ocean acidification, water quality, light availability, nutrients, resouce availability, salinity, carbonate chemistry

Research Disciplines

• Ecology (0602)
• Ecological Applications (0501)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Climate and Climate Change (9603)
• Expanding Knowledge (9701)
• Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity (9608)

Awards

• 2015 - Australian Museum Eureka Prize: Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher finalist (Australian national science awards)
• 2015 - Rising Star of Queensland Science (Queensland Government)
• 2014 - Queensland Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year

Fellowships

• 2016 to 2017 - Institute for Pacific Coral Reefs / Institut des Récifs Coralliens du Pacifique (IRCP) Fellowship, Mo’orea, French Polynesia
• 2015 to 2016 - Lizard Island Yulgilbar Foundation Fellowship, Australia

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

• Spady B, Munday P and Watson S (2018) Predatory strategies and behaviours in cephalopods are altered by elevated CO2. Global Change Biology, 24 (6). pp. 2585-2596
• Watson S, Allan B, McQueen D, Nicol S, Parsons D, Pether S, Pope S, Setiawan A, Smith N, Wilson C and Munday P (2018) Ocean warming has a greater effect than acidification on the early life history development and swimming performance of a large circumglobal pelagic fish. Global Change Biology, 24 (9). pp. 4368-4385
• Allan B, Domenici P, Watson S, Munday P and McCormick M (2017) Warming has a greater effect than elevated CO2 on predator prey interactions in coral reef fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences, 284 (1857). pp. 1-9
• Allen J, Schrage K, Foo S, Watson S and Byrne M (2017) The effects of salinity and pH on fertilization, early development and hatching in the Crown-of-Thorns seastar. Diversity, 9 (1). pp. 1-14
• Ferrari M, McCormick M, Watson S, Meekan M, Munday P and Chivers D (2017) Predation in high CO2 waters: prey fish from high-risk environments are less susceptible to ocean acidification. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 57 (1). pp. 55-62
• Torda G, Donelson J, Aranda M, Barshis D, Bay L, Berumen M, Bourne D, Cantin N, Foret S, Matz M, Miller D, Moya A, Putnam H, Ravasi T, van Oppen M, Vega Thurber R, Vidal-Dupiol J, Voolstra C, Watson S, Whitelaw E, Willis B and Munday P (2017) Rapid adaptive responses to climate change in corals. Nature Climate Change, 7. pp. 627-636
• Watson S, Fabricius K and Munday P (2017) Quantifying pCO₂ in biological ocean acidification experiments: a comparison of four methods. PLoS ONE, 12 (9). pp. 1-16
• Watson S, Morley S and Peck L (2017) Latitudinal trends in shell production cost from the tropics to the poles. Science Advances, 3 (9). pp. 1-8
• Watson S, Fields J and Munday P (2017) Ocean acidification alters predator behaviour and reduces predation rate. Biology Letters, 13. pp. 1-5
• Wessels W, Sprungala S, Watson S, Miller D and Bourne D (2017) The microbiome of the octocoral Lobophytum pauciflorum: minor differences between sexes and resilience to short-term stress. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 93 (5). pp. 1-13
• Heinrich D, Watson S, Rummer J, Brandl S, Simpfendorfer C, Heupel M and Munday P (2016) Foraging behaviour of the epaulette shark Hemiscyllium ocellatum is not affected by elevated CO2. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 73 (3). pp. 633-640
• Moya A, Howes E, Lacoue-Labarthe T, Foret S, Hanna B, Medina M, Munday P, Ong J, Teyssié J, Torda G, Watson S, Miller D, Bijma J and Gattuso J (2016) Near-future pH conditions severely impact calcification, metabolism and the nervous system in the pteropod Heliconoides inflatus. Global Change Biology, 22 (12). pp. 3888-3900

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

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 Impact of Ocean Acidification on Ecological Processes that Structure Coral Communities (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Effects of projected near-future carbon dioxide levels on cephalopod physiology and behaviour (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• The Neurobiological Mechanisms through which Ocean Acidification effects Invertebrate Behaviours (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

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

• Spady, B. (2018) Predatory strategies and behaviours in cephalopods are altered by elevated CO2. James Cook University
• Spady, B. (2017) Projected near-future CO2 levels increase activity and alter defensive behaviours in the tropical squid Idiosepius pygmaeus. James Cook University
• McCormick, M. (2017) Effect of elevated CO2 and small boat noise on the kinematics of predator-prey interactions. James Cook University
• Watson, S. (2017) Data from: Ocean acidification alters predator behaviour and reduces predation rate. James Cook University

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
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