Dr Laura Parker | UNSW Research

Keywords

ocean acidification

climate change adaptation

molluscs

ecophysiology

reef rehabilitation

Fields of Research (FoR)

Ecological Impacts of Climate Change, Ecological Physiology, Biological Adaptation

SEO tags

Climate Change Adaptation Measures

Conserving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage

Rehabilitation of Degraded Coastal and Estuarine Environments

Biography

Dr Laura Parker is an Indigenous Scientia Senior Lecturer and ARC DAATSIA Fellow in the Faculty of Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Laura is interested in understanding and overcoming the impacts of climate change and environmental stress on marine organisms. Her research focuses specifically on building resilience in marine molluscs to current (e.g. salinity, food availability) and future (e.g. ocean warming and acidification) stressors and understanding the underlying physiological, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms involved. Through her research, Laura aims to develop new capacities to 'future-proof' natural oyster populations and the Australian oyster industry, and contribute to the restoration of degraded oyster habitats that are of enormous importance to Indigenous Australians. Her research is currently supported by an ARC Discovery Indigenous grant titled “The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change”.

My Grants

Selected grants

2019 – present. Parker LM, Ross PM, Elizur A, O’Connor WA and Pörtner H-O. The basis of oyster resilience to global environmental change. Discovery Indigenous Grant round 2019.

2017 – 2020. Byrne M, Ross PM, Parker LM, O’Connor WA. Transgenerational Plasticity & Epigenetics - Ocean Change Adaptation. Environmental Trust 2016 Environmental Research Program.

2014 – 2017. Parker LM, Coleman R, Ross PM and Virtue P. The impact of climate change on larval energetics of molluscs on the southeast coast of Australia. ARC Indigenous Discovery 2014 round.

2012 – 2015. Raftos DA, Haynes PA, Parker LM, O’Connor WA, Ross PM and Pörtner H-O. Adapting to climate change: Does enhanced metabolism provide heritable protection against ocean acidification and increasing temperature in oysters? ARC Discovery Grant 2012 round.

2010 – 2012. Parker LM, PM Ross, WA O’Connor, DA Raftos and H Pörtner. Climate change research: Can Sydney rock oysters adapt to chronic multigenerational exposure to ocean acidification and temperature? Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Indigenous Researchers Fellowship.

My Awards

2018 Young Tall Poppy Science Award

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

climate change adaptation

transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

Currently supervising

CURRENT

Claire Luger (Honours, Candidate) – 'Transgenerational response of the Sydney Rock Oyster, Saccostrea glomerata, to reduced salinity'.

PAST

Mitchell Gibbs (PhD, 2021) – ‘Understanding the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on the biochemical energetics of molluscs’ (Jointly supervised with Professor Pauline M. Ross, Professor Maria Byrne and Dr Elliot Scanes)

Elliot Scanes (PhD, 2016) – ‘The resilience of bivalves to environmental stress’ (Jointly supervised with Professor Pauline M. Ross, Dr Wayne A. O’Connor and Professor Emma L. Johnston)

John Wright (PhD, 2016) – ‘Impacts of ocean acidification on predator – prey interactions of molluscs’ (Jointly supervised with Professor Pauline M. Ross and Dr Wayne A. O’Connor)

Elliot Scanes (Honours, 2012) – ‘The responses of the doughboy scallop Mimachlamys asperrima to elevated pCO₂’ (Jointly supervised with Professor Pauline M. Ross and Dr Wayne A. O’Connor)

John Wright (Honours, 2011) – ‘Predicting the response of ecologically and economically significant oysters to climate change’ (Jointly supervised with Professor Pauline M. Ross and Dr Wayne A. O’Connor)