Conservation 'Omics Lab
Research Expertise
Ecological Modelling
Genetics
Statistical Ecology
Marine Conservation/Restoration
New research:
My new role at Minderoo Foundation is focussed on new habitats and new species! In particular, I am expanding field sites to the Western Australian coast and the Indian Ocean more broadly. Watch this space!
Fields of interest include coral reefs and seagrass meadows, marine protected areas, experimental molecular ecology, Traditional Owner centered social-ecological systems, genetic modeling, and global change ecology.
On-going research:
As a Research Scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences in Townsville, Australia, I led the Reef Restoration and Adapation sub-program on Selective Breeding (2017-2022). In particular, I assessed the feasibility of Assisted Gene Flow on the Great Barrier Reef. This technique invovles potentially enhancing the spread of naturally warm-adapted genes across the Great Barrier Reef to buffer populations on cooler reefs against continued warming and bleaching. During my Postdoc, I also continued my previous work in how symbiosis can increase host thermal tolerance, and have extended that into more applied work in understanding the role of specific symbionts in bleaching prevention and recovery.
2023- Ongoing DECRA Fellow
James Cook University
2023- Ongoing
Principal Research Scientist
Research Director Minderoo Exmouth Research Lab
Minderoo Foundation
2022 - Senior Research Scientist
Research Director Minderoo Exmouth Research Lab
Minderoo Foundation
2020-2022
Research Scientist
Australian Institute of Marine Sciences
2017-2020
Post Doctoral Researcher
Australian Institute of Marine Sciences
2013-2017
Ph.D., Marine/Molecular Biology
James Cook University (Australia)
2011-2013
MSc., Marine Biology
James Cook University (Australia)
2004-2008
BSc., Biology
University of Texas-Austin (USA)
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative
Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics Project, Tree of Life programme - Sanger Institute, (Hub 4: Coral Symbiosis Genome Project)
Lead by M. Sweet at the Univ. of Derby
PhD Research - Molecular and environmental basis for Symbiodinium specificity in the coral dinoflagellate association
Symbiotic interactions are of fundamental importance to the ecology of many organisms through their impact on host reproduction, behaviour and co-evolution.
During my PhD, I used a quantitative genetic framework to quantify the extent to which the coral host determines the community structure of their Symbiodinium community in the early life stages of corals across different symbiont transmission modes and host reproductive strategies (Quigley et al. 2017a, Quigley et al. 2018a). This work demonstrated substantial host genetic regulation over the establishment of symbiotic communities and revealed a novel mixed-mode transmission system of symbionts.
Experimental work also quantified the contribution that environmental availability of symbionts has on the established community in juveniles across multiple coral species , temperature and water-quality regimes, showing that the environmental pool of symbionts is very diverse and that uptake is selective (Quigley et al. 2017b).
Next Generation Sequencing combined with field outplants demonstrated how differential uptake of symbiont communities influences juvenile fitness in nature given controlled genetic backgrounds (Quigley et al. 2016).
I then synthesised this information to model manipulative adaptive shifts across a range of Symbiodinium-coral associations to quantify the feasibility of rapid acclimation or selection to environmental change (Quigley et al. 2018b).
Masters's Research- Quantification of Symbiodinium taxa and stress responses
My Master's thesis covered a range of topics relating to Symbiodinium spp., the dinoflagellate symbionts found within many cnidarian species, including hard corals. I compared the efficacy of multiple molecular techniques (DGGE, qPCR, NGS) to detect and quantify background abundances of Symbiodinium spp. in coral symbiosis. In collaboration with Misha Matz's group at the UT-Austin, we developed and ground-truthed open source wet-lab and bioinformatic protocols for Next Generation Sequencing detection of Symbiodinium and quantified the detection threshold of NGS (Quigley et al. 2014).
A second project focussed on culturing Symbiodinium strains and subjecting cells to different thermal stress regimes to quantify changes in chloroplast function and integrity using confocal microscopy and PAM fluorometry. Finally, I was also assessed changes in Symbiodinium diversity across 3 common corals species common on the GBR when subjected to different regimes of temperature and pCO2 stress. Both projects provided insights into variable fitness performances across Symbiodinium taxa both in-situ and ex-hospite using a number of different tools.
Undergraduate Research- Population movement across key Great Plains species
Whilst at the University of Texas-Austin (USA), I worked as a Research Assistant in the lab of entomologist Dr. John C. Abbott. During this time, I helped conduct surveys of mammal and plant populations to understand species diversity and range shifts around Central Texas. These surveys lead to the discovery of the previously unknown range expansion of peccaries into these regions of Texas.