Peter L. Harrison is an Australian

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

, and a Professor at

Southern Cross University Southern Cross University (SCU) is an Australian public university, with campuses at Lismore and Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales, and at Coolangatta, the most southern suburb of the Gold Coast in Queensland. In 2019, it was ranke ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, as well as the founding director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre. His specialty is

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

reproduction ecology and larval restoration.

Coral spawning research

In 1981, while conducting his PhD at

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cair ...

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

, Harrison and a small group of other researchers discovered Mass Coral Spawning through intensive monitoring and diving around

Magnetic Island Magnetic Island ( Wulguru: ''Yunbenun'') is an island offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. This mountainous island in Cleveland Bay has effectively become a suburb of Townsville. The island is accessible from Townsvi ...

. In 1984, Harrison and the team published their first paper on the occurrence,which had not previously been documented. One of his primary research focuses on coral and

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

restoration and development of larger-scale coral larval restoration projects. This work aims to use millions of coral larvae to restore damaged reefs in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and on the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

Recognition

Harrison and the team were awarded the

Eureka Prize The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organisations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion ...

for Environmental Research in 1992 for their discovery of mass coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef. Harrison led a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

funded mission to assess the impacts of the first

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

on the coral reefs of

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

, and has a new coral species discovered in the Arabian Gulf named after him (''Porites Harrisoni''). Peter was appointed to the Australian Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee, on which he served from 2005 to 2015. A sculpture of Peter Harrison was created by

Jason deCaires Taylor Jason deCaires Taylor (born 12 August 1974 in Dover) is a British sculptor and creator of the world's first underwater sculpture park – the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park – and underwater museum – Cancún Underwater Museum (MUSA). He is ...

for the

Museum of Underwater Art The Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) is a series of underwater art installations near Townsville, Australia. It is the only underwater art museum in the Southern Hemisphere and consists of three sculptures created by British sculptor Jason deCaire ...

as part of the Ocean Sentinels above the surface exhibition in 2022 for his contributions.

Teaching

Peter Harrison is the unit assessor for the Coral Reefs on the Edge teaching unit, which is the capstone unit for Marine Science and Management degree. This unit is an intensive delivery teaching unit that is based at Heron Island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef each year, with lectures and hands-on training directly on the reef.

Publications

Harrison has published over 200 scientific research papers, reports and books. His work has been cited over 16,000 times.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Peter L. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of Southern Cross University James Cook University alumni Australian ecologists Australian marine biologists Australian biologists