ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University

Two young research scientists who are passionate about conservation planning and threatened species management have won prestige science awards.

Dr Mariana Fuentes and Dr Natalie Ban of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University are recipients of 2011 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Awards which will be presented by the Premier, the Hon Anna Bligh MP at the Science in Parliament reception in Brisbane.

Young Tall Poppy Science Awards are presented annually by the Australian Institute for Policy and Science to recognise excellence in early career research across all the sciences. Award recipients must not only be excellent researchers, they must also demonstrate passion and excellence in communication and community engagement.

Dr Mariana Fuentes has developed an international reputation for her research on sea turtles. Her research to date has contributed to the global scientific understanding of how sea turtles will be impacted by climate change. Mariana has helped to build the capacity of local communities to better manage their own resources and make informed decisions to better manage turtle populations in the future.

Mariana has worked in several countries to improve management of sea turtles. She is optimistic about the ability of humans to use the latest research to better manage Australia's and the world's threatened sea turtle and dugong populations.

"A major focus of my work has been the conservation and management of threatened marine mega-fauna in a changing climate, and the impacts of environmental change on threatened species" she says.

Mariana has been very keen to communicate her research findings beyond the scientific community. For example, she translated her doctoral work into a book for indigenous children, which is now incorporated into the school curriculum at schools in the Torres Strait and on the Papua New Guinea marine turtle awareness program.

A big question that Dr Natalie Ban's research seeks to answer is which parts of the ocean need the highest levels of protection. Natalie says "It's challenging to identify such places because we want to protect important places for marine plants and animals while trying to minimize potential impacts on people".

Natalie's broad research interests include designing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), to allow sustainable human uses while minimizing damaging impacts on the environment caused by over-fishing. Part of her cutting-edge work is providing the public, policy-makers and resource managers with a global overview of the need for MPAs, how they work, and their changing nature.

Natalie's PhD work in Canada on marine protected areas led to a series of influential publications on community-based spatial planning.
Both Natalie and Mariana are enthusiastic and passionate about science and how it can be used in informing the management of the world's species and biodiversity.