Chris Roelfsema

Associate Professor Chris Roelfsema is a faculty member at School of the Environment, The University of Queensland (UQ), where he serves as Academic Director at Heron Island Research Station. He leads the Marine Ecosystem Monitoring Lab and is affiliated with the Centre for Marine Science and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science.

Research Focus: Roelfsema specializes in monitoring marine ecosystem health, particularly coral reefs and seagrass habitats, using integrated field data and remote sensing. His work emphasizes cost-effective mapping and monitoring approaches, which have been adopted globally for conservation and climate change adaptation. Key projects include long-term studies at Heron Reef (2002–ongoing) and Moreton Bay (2000–ongoing), SmartSat CRC hyperspectral remote sensing (2023–2027), and contributions to Allen Coral Atlas and 3D GBR Habitat Mapping.

Scientific Trends: His recent publications highlight deep learning applications for coral reef reconnaissance, 3D photogrammetry, global coral bleaching monitoring, and neotectonic impacts on reef geomorphology. Collaborative efforts span UQ, AIMS, and Great Barrier Reef Foundation initiatives.

Funding & Grants: Current grants include projects on seahorse conservation, hyperspectral coral/seagrass assessment, and citizen science reef monitoring. Past funding covers GBR 3D mapping, Tongan reef recovery, and seagrass carbon stock analysis.

Supervision: Roelfsema has supervised numerous PhD and Masters students on topics like coral dynamics, seagrass resilience, and coastal change detection. Students benefit from access to extensive field and satellite datasets.

Community & Education: He actively supports citizen science through organizations like Reef Check Australia, CoralWatch, and UniDive, contributing to public education and capacity building in marine science.