NEW MUSEUM SCIENTIST MAKING WAVES IN HER FIELD

Dr Sue-Ann Watson

Museum of Tropical Queensland is proud to announce Dr Sue-Ann Watson has recently taken up the position of the new Senior Curator to expand on their first class team of researchers.

A passionate advocate for aquatic animals and their fight against climate change, Dr Watson has worked internationally with a range of marine invertebrates but says many of her favourites such as Jumping Snails, Giant Clams and the Pygmy Squid are found right here in the oceans of North Queensland.

A co-appointed role with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Dr Watson will focus on how global change such as ocean acidification (the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans) and global warming will affect our marine animals.

She will work with Queensland Museum Network collections to investigate how marine invertebrates have already changed in response to environmental change since the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago.

Her work also explores how animals will respond to continued global changes in coming decades and is finding that ocean acidification not only affects shell-building, but changes marine invertebrates’ behaviour, with potential effects on marine food webs.

Dr Watson will be participating in the World Science Festival Brisbane Regional Program taking place at the FREE Community Day held at Museum of Tropical Queensland on Saturday 9 March where she will talk to visitors about her research into climate change, and how to examine specimens under microscopes.

Museum of Tropical Queensland
70 -102 Flinders Street, Townsville, Queensland 4810

www.mtq.qm.qld.gov.au/