Contact

Name

Barbara Brown
Position

ERI Associate
Joined the ERI

March 1, 2010
Job Description

Emeritus Professor
As an Associate at ERI I have collaborated with Professor Stuart Gibb on the analysis of pigments in reef corals and their role in photoprotection in warming seas. I also maintain a collaborative long-term monitoring programme (42y) on shallow reefs at Phuket Marine Biological Center on the west coast of Thailand where I work on eco-physiological responses of corals to global warming. I am also involved in celebrations, in 2022 and 2028, of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-29 (which involved the Scottish marine biologist Sheina Marshall and her collaborator A.P.Orr from Millport) in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society and the Natural History Museum, London. This expedition had a profound effect on reef science for over 45 years and its influence is still felt up to the present day.

Career

1972-1976 Research Fellow (Wolfson College Dept. Applied Biology, Cambridge)
1976 Lecturer in Marine Biology, Newcastle University
1987 Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University
1991 Personal Readership, Newcastle University
1996 Personal Chair in Tropical Marine Biology, Newcastle University
1987-1992 Director of Centre for Tropical Coastal Management
2005-2008 Editor in Chief Coral Reefs
2014: Inaugural award for ‘Eminence in Research’ by International Coral Reef Society

Publications

Brown, B.E., Dunne, R.P., Phongsuwan, N., Somerfield, P.J. (2011) Increased sea level promotes coral cover on shallow reef flats in the Andaman Sea, Eastern Indian Ocean. Coral Reefs 30: 867-878
Tanzil, J.T.I., Brown, B.E., Dunne R., Lee, J.N., Kaandorp J., Todd, P. (2013) Regional decline in growth rates of massive Porites corals in Southeast Asia. Global Change Biology 19: 3011-3023
Brown,B.E.,Dunne R.P., Phongswan N., Putchim, L., Hawkridge, J.M. (2014) The reef coral Goniastrea aspera: a ‘winner’ becomes a ‘loser’ during a severe bleaching event in Thailand. Coral Reefs 33: 395-401
Brown, B.E., Dunne, R.P., Edwards, A.J., Sweet, M. J., Phongsuwan N. (2015) Decadal environmental ‘memory’ in a reef coral? Marine Biology 169:479-483
Spalding M.D. and Brown B.E. (2015) Warm water coral reefs and climate change. Science 350:769-771
Williams, A.D., Brown B.E., Putchim L., Sweet, M.J. (2015) Age-related shifts in bacterial diversity in a reef coral. PLoS One 10(12):e0144902
Sweet, M.J. and Brown, B.E. (2016) Coral responses to anthropogenic stresses in the 21st century – an ecophysiological perspective. Oceanography and Marine Biology -An Annual Review 54:271-314
Tanzil, J.T.I., Lee, J.N., Brown, B.E., Quax R., Kaandorp J.A., Lough, J.M., Todd, P.A. (2016) Luminescence and density patterns in massive Porites corals around the Thai-Malaysia Peninsula, South East Asia. Limnology and Oceanography. 61:2003-2026
Sweet, M.J., Brown B.E., Dunne, R.P., Singleton, I, Bulling, M. (2017) Evidence for rapid, tidal-related shifts in the microbiome of the coral Coelastrea aspera. Coral Reefs 36:815-828.
Bythell, J.C., Brown, B.E., Kirkwood, T.B.L. (2018) Do reef corals age? Biological Reviews 93:1192-1202.
Brown, B.E., Dunne, R.P., Somerfield, P.J., Edwards, A.J., Simons, W.J.F., Phongsuwan, N., Putchim, L, Anderson, L., Naeije, M.C. (2019) Long term impacts of coral bleaching and sea level change on shallow water coral communities over a 40y period. Scientific Reports 9:8826
Ainsworth T, Brown B.E. (2021) Coral Bleaching Current Biology 31: R5-R6
Spencer, T.D., Brown, B.E., Hamylton, S.M., McLean, R.F. (in press) ‘a close and friendly alliance: biology and geology and the Great Barrier Reef Expedition of 1928-29. Oceanography and Marine Biology- An Annual Review