VANESSA TAVERAS DALMAU
Environmental Scientist | Researcher | Sustainability Strategist
RESEARCH
My sense of curiosity has accompanied me my entire life. When I was a little girl, I kept a diary full of questions about things that piqued my curiosity. It wasn't until I started my B.Sc. that I finally discovered a way to channel this curiosity through research.
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Below are some of my favourite experiences and research projects.
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE
OF MARINE SCIENCE
For three years, I volunteered in a live-a-board with the Australian Institute of Marine Science. The longest stint was 21 days. This experience helped me develop my interpersonal and teamwork skills, particularly as we were confined to a research vessel. I helped monitor coral reefs in various scientific research zones of the Great Barrier Reef. I got acquainted with the institute’s marine monitoring program, which examines fish abundance, and coral recruitment and mortality. I also learnt to identify reef topography and substratum, and how to derive community description based on dominant benthic group, hard coral genus and coral life forms. The experience reinforced my knowledge and understanding of tropical coral reef ecology and the importance of marine monitoring in managing and developing policy for the Great Barrier Reef.
REEF CHECK
I have been involved with Reef Check since 2009, first with Reef Check Dominican Republic and then with Reef Check Australia. I have helped coordinate survey dives, monitoring reefs across Dominican Republic and South East Queensland. I was also responsible for data input and analysis to assess changes in the health of the reef. I also assisted in underwater environmental impact assessments, including assessing the extent of coral damage from a ship grounding and assessing the viability of a seaport proposal in Fort Liberté, Haiti. This project led to the discovery of elkhorn and staghorn corals, enabling protection of the marine area (more info here). I have also designed and co-authored several annual reports and SEQ season survey reports for Reef Check Australia.
HERONÂ ISLAND
As part of my degree, I worked as team leader to design and develop a marine research project on Heron Island in collaboration with four other students. Our project aimed to answer the research question ‘How do species assemblages in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) differ from Non-MPAs?’. Our fieldwork project collected data on invertebrate and fish species abundance in the scientific zone and protected area of Heron Island. The data was then statistically analysed to infer significant differences.
