The University of Queensland

Nature, January 2013.
New data on contemporary carbonate production and accretion rates suggest that current ecological conditions are suppressing the growth potential of shallow Caribbean reefs. Prof Peter Mumby and international colleagues report that current production rates are at least 50% lower than mid- to late-Holocene values and 37% of the 19 reefs surveyed are experiencing net erosion.
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PNAS, December 2012.
Prof John Pandolfi and colleagues showed that when sea surface temperatures increased by about 0.7 degrees Celsius during the last interglacial warm period, the Earth’s equatorial regions saw a sharp decline in coral diversity. The results suggest that the poleward range expansions of reef corals occurring with intensified global warming today may soon be followed by equatorial range retractions. Read more...

TREE, November 2012.
Marine extinctions and extinction risk in the fossil, historical, and modern records have been compared by Prof John Pandolfi and colleagues to uncover the patterns, drivers, and biological correlates of marine extinctions at different times in the past. Integration of these records provides improved understanding of the role of current and projected future environmental changes on extinction risk in the ocean. Read more...

Nature, July 2012.
Prof Bernie Degnan and colleagues in Austria and Germany, have  made a number of unexpected discoveries about the origin and evolution of bilaterian animal muscles. Using genomic and gene expression data from marine sponges, cnidarians, ctenophores and numerous bilaterians, they demonstrated the convergent evolution of striated muscles and suggest a new model for complex animal cell evolution. Read more...