Background

I graduated with honours in 1998 from a bachelor degree in marine biology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Over the summers of 1996 and 1997 I organised and participated in a marine biology and conservation expedition to the Bay Islands of Honduras. The work involved carrying out surveys of coral and fish abundance and diversity as well as community work and training of local counterparts in marine survey techniques. 

As part of my undergraduate thesis I investigated the histo-pathology of diseases affecting Caribbean scleractinian corals. Upon graduating I was awarded a scholarship from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama to carry out further work on Caribbean coral diseases. The work involved a sample collection trip to Panama and laboratory work using molecular probes to look for bacteria present within diseased coral tissues. In 1998 I also spent two months in Belize assisting with a project to study interactions between herbivores and benthic coverage on coral reefs. 

Since 1999 I have been supported by a PhD research scholarship from the National University of Singapore, working jointly in the Department of Biological Science’s Reef Ecology Laboratory (currently Marine Biology Laboratory) and the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI). 

To date, very little is known about the timing and patterns of reef coral reproduction in South East Asia. For my PhD work I have focused on patterns of coral reproduction on Singapore’s reefs. My work has involved:

• Monthly sampling and subsequent histological analysis of the hard corals Porites lutea and 3 morphological species of Platygyra, to look at the relationship between reproduction and seasonal environmental parameters such as sea temperature, salinity, rainfall etc.
• Monthly sampling of a population of the genus Acropora to ascertain the extent of inter-specific reproductive synchrony in an equatorial location.
• An investigation of the reproductive strategy and gametogenic cycle of the important reef building coral Diploastrea heliopora. 
• An experiment to study the effects of fragmentation, transplantation, light and other water quality parameters on the three species of the coral genus Goniopora.

I am interested in all aspects of coral reef biology, ecology and conservation. Scuba diving and underwater photography have always been my passions and I enjoy working and playing on and under the sea.

Publications so far:

Guest JR, Baird AH, Goh BPL, Chou LM, (2002). Multi-specific, synchronous coral spawning in Singapore. Coral Reefs 21: 422-423

Bythell JC, Barer MR, Cooney RP, Guest JR, O'Donnell AG, Pantos O, Le Tissier MDA (2002) Histopathological methods for the investigation of microbial communities associated with disease lesions in reef corals. Letters in Applied Microbiology 34 (5): 359-364 

PA Todd, Guest JR and Chou LM (2000) Fluctuating asymmetry: a viable indicator of stress on reef-building corals? 9th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, Indonesia 1: 437-442

Click here for the link to the Straits Times article ''Tis the season for coral spawning" in April 2002

Click here for the link to the article in Today (26 March 2003) ''Wealth under the waves".
 

Collecting pieces of coral from Singapore's reefs	Fixing coral on the deck of the University boat 'The Mudskipper'
A broken branch of Acropora intermedia revealing mature pigmented eggs a few days prior to spawning	A faviid releasing egg-sperm bundles at night during a mass spawning event on one of Singapore's reefs in April 2002

 
For more information please contact me at : scip9051@nus.edu.sg

Home =>