The future of the Great Barrier Reef is uncertain due to global and regional environmental changes. Geologic studies can provide unique insights into how this iconic reef system responded to major environmental changes over its dynamic ~600,000 year evolution. Associate Professor Jody Webster will show how fossil reef cores can reveal exciting information about past sea level, climate and environmental changes but also crucial insights into how the reef responded to these perturbations.
Associate Professor Jody Webster has a keen interest in understanding how climatic and other environmental changes, past and future, impact reefs and their associated sedimentary systems. At the University of Sydney he is Co-Coordinator of the Geocoastal Research Group (GRG) in the School of Geosciences. His research is multidisciplinary in nature, encompassing traditional sedimentology and stratigraphy, combined with the novel use of marine geology and geophysics, paleoecology, geochemistry and numerical modelling. Jody is also heavily involved in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and is focused on recovering sediment cores from the seabed to understand past sea level and climate changes.