Australia has the third largest area of seafloor in the world over which it exerts rights for exploration and utilisation of marine resources and, as custodians of this vast area of ocean, we have a special responsibility for the management and conservation of the associated resources and biodiversity within our Exclusive Economic Zone. In Queensland, we have the additional responsibility for the world's largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef, stretching for 2000 km along our coastline, inscribed as a World Heritage area in 1981 and, since July 2004, the largest marine protected area in the world.

Researchers in the School of Integrative Biology have a long history of outstanding research into Australia's marine resources, plants, animals and ecosystems, including focussed work on the Great Barrier Reef, but also on coastal systems including seagrasses, mangroves, rocky reefs and in the polar seas. Research within this theme ranges across multiple levels of biological organisation, from the molecular and sub-cellular, to studies on individuals and whole assemblages and communities. The different approaches used by researchers within the school to understand the dynamics of marine plants and animals are equally as diverse, including mathematical modelling, laboratory-based developmental and physiological studies and host-pathogen interactions and field-based evolutionary and ecological research. Many collaborations exist among our staff providing unique opportunities for studies that integrate across these different approaches and levels of organisation.