There are student projects attached to the research activities in the Research page. However, below are a few that advance the main research themes of the Beachlab or build off past projects.

Coastal erosion or accretion under sea level rise? Shoreface sand supply to beaches in QLD.

The retreat of the coastline under rising sea levels is a pressing global concern. However, shoreline retreat and erosion is governed by more than sea level position. It is also dependent on the flux of sediment coming to the coast. Indeed, substantial sediment input to many of the worlds coasts has offset retreat driven by sea level rise and led to shoreline build out, or progradation. An important question is, where does this extra sediment come from?

The Queensland coast has evidence of widespread progradation over the last 6000 years. Most beaches are in a state of accretion with sediment coming from either river systems or the continental shelf. This project will focus on the dynamics of the Queensland continental shelf to determine if the sediment driving progradation is sourced from from the waters in the Great Barrier Reef. The ultimate aim is to determine the baseline setting of the QLD coast that allows for accurate predictions of coastal response under rising sea levels in the future.

This project will rely on GIS software to perform data analysis and mapping. Familiarity coding software (Python, R, Matlab) is ideal for this project. However, comfort with learning new software, design of graphs and figures and applying equations to solve problems is all your need. The project can be somewhat designed around your comfort with the methodological approach (e.g. a modelling focus, a sediments focus, a GIS focus, etc… is possible).

Carbonate production and sediment transport under changing sea levels in the southern Great Barrier Reef

Large-scale change in coral reefs over centuries to millennia are often linked to variations in sea level position. Widespread shifts in coral reef accretion and carbonate production have been observed due to small magnitude changes in sea level of less than one metre. This suggests that a rise in sea level of a similar magnitude over the next century could lead to similar shifts in coral reef development and carbonate production.

However, there is still considerable uncertainty around the drivers of widespread change in coral reefs under changing sea level, especially in sediment formations such as coral reef islands and sand aprons. Is the change in carbonate production registered in coral reef sediment formations due to: 1) a change in ecological carbonate production due to a loss or gain of ideal carbonate producing reef real estate, 2) a shift in the hydrodynamic processes that drives sediment transport across coral reefs or 3) a combination of both?

This project can take a hydrodynamic or sedimentology focus depending on the desire of the student. Sedimentological and chronostratigraphic data will be derived from coral reef sediment cores taken from One Tree Reef (OTR). Past sea level position will be estimated from micro-atoll sampled from the coral reef flats of OTR. Wave modelling and sediment transport potential can also be used in the analysis and can either be run by the student or provided by lab members.

Coral Reef Morphodynamics: Form and exposure on coral reef slopes.

Coral reef systems have evolved under changing environmental conditions. The modern Great Barrier Reef formed around 8000 years ago under rising sea levels during the early Holocene. The geological baseline, rate of sea level rise, oceanographic and climate conditions and ecological community all influenced the evolutionary “age” and the morphology of coral reef systems we see today.

This project will investigate the role of wave processes in influencing the form of the coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. Wave climate on the reef in the GBR from wave models and geomorphology from digital elevation data will be used to analyse the interaction between coral reef form and wave processes in the GBR. Analysis may include the use of shoreface morphodynamics principles (e.g, profile closure depth and shoreface parameters) typically used in beach settings to investigate their applicability in coral reef environments. The project can also include standard spatial and stats approaches (e.g., ANOVA, PCA, extraction of spatial data) to more advanced approaches of spatial and stats analysis (e.g., Random Forest machine learning approaches on spatial data).

Increasing the risk without increasing the hazard: Assessing the role of population dynamics and planning in Australia in increasing coastal risk.

Coastal risk is a combines an assessment of coastal hazards and the exposure and vulnerability of coastal infrastructure and communities. The focus of much of the coastal sciences is to provide greater forecasts and understanding of the hazards likely to impact the coast at present and under rising sea levels. However, even when the hazards on the coast are well known the risk can increase due to decisions around coastal planning, management and the growth and change in demography of the local population. The project will provide a first past risk assessment for a coastal region in Australia using basic coastal hazards forecasts. The unique aspect of this project will be the application of demographic forecasts to determine the change in coastal risk through time not due to a shift in coastal hazard but a change in exposure. Depending on the background of the candidate the project can be focused on developing regionally consistent coastal hazard forecasts for either a location in Australia or continent wide, or it can focus on applying more sophisticated demographic forecasts to determine potential future risk.

With: The Queensland Centre for Population Research

Some projects without preambles…

Modelling future Reef Island states under changes in sea level, climate, and sediment flux

Comparing IceSat-2 elevation data to Lidar derived elevation models on the coast of Australia.

Storm demand and risk on the Queensland coast: From the Sunshine Coast to Cape York A lot in here but it builds off the work conducted on modelling the wave climate in the Great Barrier Reef.