biology

Terry Hughes (biologist)

Terry Hughes (biologist) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Terry Hughes (biologist) rather than just read about it. In short: Terence P. Hughes (born 1956, in Dublin, Ireland) is a professor of marine biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

Key takeaways

Terry Hughes (biologist) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Terry Hughes (biologist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Terry Hughes (biologist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Terence P. Hughes (born 1956, in Dublin, Ireland) is a professor of marine biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. He is known for research on the global coral bleaching event caused by climate change. Nature dubbed him "Reef sentinel" in 2016 for the global role he plays in applying multi-disciplinary science to securing reef sustainability. He is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. His research interests encompass coral reef ecology, macroecology and evolution, as well as social-ecological interactions. His recent work has focused on marine ecology, macroecology, climate change, identifying safe planetary boundaries for human development, and on transformative governance of the sea in Australia, Chile, China, the Galapagos Islands, Gulf of Maine and the Coral Triangle. His career citations in Google Scholar exceed 88,000.

Education and career Hughes was awarded a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, in 1984, for his research on coral life histories, phase-shifts and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs. Following his PhD, he was an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1984-1990) before moving to James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. He was appointed Professor in 2000 and established the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in 2005. Hughes has published in excess of 180 peer reviewed publications, so far. The ARC Centre produces greater than 350 publications annually and was recently awarded further funding until 2021.

Awards In 2001, Hughes was elected to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science for his contribution to coral reef science. He has been awarded the Centenary Medal of Australia for his services to Australian society and marine biology, a Silver Jubilee Award for Excellence by the Australian Marine Science Association, the Australian Museum Eureka Sherman Prize for Environmental Science, a 2012 Australian Laureate Fellowship, and the Darwin Medal by the International Society for Reef Studies. In 2014, he was awarded an Einstein Professorship by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hughes was joint winner of the 2018 John Maddox Prize, awarded by Nature and Sense about Science. In 2018, Hughes was also awarded the A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences and the Climate Change Award from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. In 2019, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate. He and Catherine Lovelock were jointly awarded the Suzanne Cory Medal by the Australian Academy of Science in March 2023.

Selected bibliography

Catastrophes, phase-shifts, and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Hughes, T.P., Science (1994) 265:1547-1551. Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. Hughes, T.P., A.H. Baird, D.R. Bellwood, et al., Science (2003) 301:929-933. Confronting the coral reef crisis. Bellwood, D.R., T.P. Hughes, C. Folke, and M. Nyström, Nature (2004) 429:827-833. New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems. Hughes, T.P., D.R. Bellwood, C. Folke, et al., Trends in Ecology and Evolution (2005) 20:380-386. Regime-shifts, herbivory and the resilience of coral reefs to climate change. Hughes, T.P., M.J. Rodrigues, D.R. Bellwood, et al., Current Biology (2007) 17:360-365. Rising to the challenge of sustaining coral reef resilience. Hughes, T.P., N. Graham, J.B.C. Jackson, et al., Trends in Ecology and Evolution (2010) 25:633-642. Living dangerously on borrowed time during unrecognized regime shifts. Hughes, T.P., C. Linares, V. Dakos, et al., Trends in Ecology and Evolution (2012) 28:149-155. Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Hughes, T.P., and 43 co-authors. Nature (2017) 543: 373–377. Global warming transforms coral reef ecosystems. Hughes, T.P. and 14 co-authors. Nature (2017) 556: 492 – 496. Spatial and temporal patterns of mass bleaching of corals in the Anthropocene. Hughes T.P., and 24 co-authors. Science (2018) 359: 80 – 83. Ecological memory modifies the cumulative impact of recurrent climate extremes. Hughes TP, and 12 co-authors. Nature Climate Change (2019) 9: 40–43. Global warming impairs stock-recruitment dynamics of corals. Hughes T.P., and 17 co-authors. (2019). Nature 568, 387–390.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Terry Hughes (biologist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Terry Hughes (biologist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Terry Hughes (biologist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Terry Hughes (biologist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Terry Hughes (biologist)

In research: Terry Hughes (biologist) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Terry Hughes (biologist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Terry Hughes (biologist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, 21st-century Irish biologists, Academic staff of James Cook University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Terry Hughes (biologist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Terry Hughes (biologist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Terry Hughes (biologist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Terry Hughes (biologist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Terry Hughes (biologist) in simple terms?

Terence P. Hughes (born 1956, in Dublin, Ireland) is a professor of marine biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

Why does Terry Hughes (biologist) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Terry Hughes (biologist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Terry Hughes (biologist).