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Staff Profile
Dr James Guest
ERC Research Fellow
- Email: james.guest1@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)191 2083619
- Address: School of Natural & Environmental Sciences
4th Floor, Ridley Building 2,
Claremont Road
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
United Kingdom
Background
My research interests are diverse within coral reef science and include diseases, reproductive and larval ecology, recruitment dynamics, long term community change, bleaching and restoration ecology and include use of various techniques ranging from large scale manipulative field ecology experiments to molecular biology methods including fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) and next generation sequencing of coral symbionts. I have lived in five countries and worked with a diverse group of scientists from a range of disciplines in large, international multi-disciplinary research groups. For example, between 2005 and 2008 I was employed by Newcastle University (UK) as part of an international European Union funded project, involving a consortium of scientists from six countries, to investigate reef restoration techniques on degraded reefs in the Philippines. I was also appointed as a member of the Reef Restoration Working Group of the Coral Reef Targeted Research program of the World Bank-Global Environment Facility (GEF-CRTR, www.gefcoral.org), a multi-million dollar five year incentive to investigate some of the most pressing problems facing coral reefs. An impact case study based on this work received a 4 star rating in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework indicative of research quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. I was awarded a prestigious three year Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009 and between 2012 and 2014 held a senior research fellowship jointly with the University of New South Wales and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU) to coordinate multidisciplinary research activities among a group of 17 marine ecologists and molecular biologists from Australia and Singapore. During 2016 and 2017 I was a Powell Center Fellow at the University of Hawai'i's Institute of Marine Biology, investigating methods of identifying resilient coral reefs against a backdrop of degradation. I currently lead a European Research Council Consolidator Grant at Newcastle University to bring together the various branches of my research and to assemble a world class research team to tackle questions facing tropical coral reefs.
My research interests are diverse within coral reef science and include diseases, reproductive and larval ecology, recruitment dynamics, long term community change, bleaching and restoration ecology and include use of various techniques ranging from large scale manipulative field ecology experiments to molecular biology methods including fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) and next generation sequencing of coral symbionts. I have lived in five countries and worked with a diverse group of scientists from a range of disciplines in large, international multi-disciplinary research groups. For example, between 2005 and 2008 I was employed by Newcastle University (UK) as part of an international European Union funded project, involving a consortium of scientists from six countries, to investigate reef restoration techniques on degraded reefs in the Philippines. I was also appointed as a member of the Reef Restoration Working Group of the Coral Reef Targeted Research program of the World Bank-Global Environment Facility (GEF-CRTR, www.gefcoral.org), a multi-million dollar five year incentive to investigate some of the most pressing problems facing coral reefs. An impact case study based on this work received a 4 star rating in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework indicative of research quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. I was awarded a prestigious three year Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009 and between 2012 and 2014 held a senior research fellowship jointly with the University of New South Wales and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU) to coordinate multidisciplinary research activities among a group of 17 marine ecologists and molecular biologists from Australia and Singapore. During 2016 and 2017 I was a Powell Center Fellow at the University of Hawai'i's Institute of Marine Biology, investigating methods of identifying resilient coral reefs against a backdrop of degradation. I currently lead a European Research Council Consolidator Grant at Newcastle University to bring together the various branches of my research and to assemble a world class research team to tackle questions facing tropical coral reefs.
Google Scholar
Publications
- Craggs J, Guest JR, Davis M, Simmons J, Dashti E, Sweet M. Inducing broadcast coral spawning ex situ: Closed system mesocosm design and husbandry protocol. Ecology and Evolution 2017, 7(24), 11066-11078.
- Chamberland VF, Petersen D, Guest JR, Petersen U, Brittsan M, Vermeij MJA. New Seeding Approach Reduces Costs and Time to Outplant Sexually Propagated Corals for Reef Restoration. Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 18076.
- Guest JR, Tun K, Low J, Vergés A, Marzinelli EM, Campbell AH, Bauman AG, Feary DA, Chou LM, Steinberg PD. 27 years of benthic and coral community dynamics on turbid, highly urbanised reefs off Singapore. Scientific Reports 2016, 6, 36260.
- Edwards AJ, Guest JR, Heyward AJ, Villanueva RD, Baria MV, Bollozos ISF, Golbuu Y. Direct seeding of mass-cultured coral larvae is not an effective option for reef rehabilitation. Marine Ecology Progress Series 2015, 525, 105-116.
- Guest JR, Baria MV, Gomez ED, Heyward AJ, Edwards AJ. Closing the circle: is it feasible to rehabilitate reefs with sexually propagated corals?. Coral Reefs 2014, 33(1), 45-55.
- Guest JR, Baird AH, Maynard JA, Muttaquin E, Edwards AJ, Campbell SJ, Yewdall K, Affendi YA, Chou LM. Contrasting Patterns of Coral Bleaching Susceptibility in 2010 Suggest an Adaptive Response to Thermal Stress. PLoS One 2012, 7(3), e33353.
- Guest JR, Dizon RM, Edwards AJ, Franco C, Gomez ED. How quickly do fragments of coral ‘self-attach’ after transplantation?. Restoration Ecology 2011, 19(2), 234-242.
- Baria MVB, Guest JR, Edwards AJ, Aliño PM, Heyward AJ, Gomez ED. Caging enhances post-settlement survival of juveniles of the scleractinian coral Acropora tenuis. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 2010, 394(1-2), 149-153.
- Baird AH, Guest JR. Spawning synchrony in scleractinian corals: Comment on Mangubhai & Harrison (2008). Marine Ecology - Progress Series 2009, 374, 301-304.
- Guest JR, Todd PA, Goh E, Sivaloganathan B, Reddy KP. Can giant clam (Tridacna squamosa) populations be restored on Singapore's heavily impacted coral reefs?. Aquatic Conservation 2008, 18(5), 570-579.
- Guest J. Ecology: How reefs respond to mass coral spawning. Science 2008, 320(5876), 621-623.
- Vicentuan KC, Guest JR, Baria MV, Cabaitan PC, Dizon RM, Villanueva RD, Alino PM, Edwards AJ, Gomez ED, Heyward AJ. Multi-species spawning of corals in north-western Philippines. Coral Reefs 2008, 27(1), 83.
- Huang D, Todd PA, Guest JR. Movement and aggregation in the fluted giant clam (Tridacna squamosa L.). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 2007, 342(2), 269-281.
- Guest JR, Todd PA, Goh BPL, Chou LM. The effect of transplantation on reproduction in clonal ramets of Goniopora columna on Singapore's coral reefs. Invertebrate Reproduction and Development 2007, 50(3), 133-138.
- Guest JR, Baird AH, Goh BPL, Chou LM. Seasonal reproduction in equatorial reef corals. Invertebrate Reproduction and Development 2005, 48(1-3), 207-218.
- Bythell JC, Barer MR, Cooney RP, Guest JR, O'Donnell AG, Pantos O, Le Tissier MDA. Histopathological methods for the investigation of microbial communities associated with disease lesions in reef corals. Letters in Applied Microbiology 2002, 34(5), 359-364.