Mapping Tropical Marine Benefits

The Cairns Institute Fellow and James Cook University (JCU) Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management Dr Jane Addison co-authored a paper with Mark Ford-Learner and Dr Graeme Cumming. Their paper titled ‘A review of ecosystem service supply in tropical marine ecosystems and its relationship to habitats in the Great Barrier Reef’ was published in Ecosystems and People, Volume 21, 2025 - Issue 1.

The recent analysis links tropical marine habitats to ecosystem services through a literature review and spatial mapping of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. While mangroves, seagrass, and coral reefs are well documented, habitats like beaches, mudflats, and surface waters need more exploration. Mapping reveals that these services often cluster along coastlines and near human populations, offering valuable insights for management that bridge ecological and human values.

Dr Addison is a social-ecological systems scientist, and senior lecturer. Her research interests include environmental/social and economic trade-offs in development, development futures, resource institutions, the livelihood/conservation nexus, off-reserve conservation and strategies for managing variability and uncertainty.

With colleagues, she has worked on a number of projects across northern Australia exploring the role (and potential role) of Indigenous land and sea management programes under National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Northern Australia projects, and maintains a research interest in the Mongolian pastoral sector.

Jane is also on the Editorial Board of Pastoralism, an advisor mentor to the US-based Development Research Institute - Mongolia and Inner Asia, and an Associate Editor of Society and Natural Resources.

She is also the current course coordinator of JCU's Bachelor of Environmental Practice and Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management.

To contact Dr Addison, email jane.addison@jcu.edu.au | Read the full article at https://shorturl.at/Jswyd

Issued February 2025