Heron Island Research Station: six decades of experimental biology on a remote coral reef.

Authors

Chris M Roelfsema, Caitlin A Lawson, Heather Middleton, Davina Gifford, Stuart Kininmonth, Karen Cheney

Published in

The Journal of experimental biology. Volume 229. Issue 14. Jul 15, 2026. Epub Jul 24, 2026.

Abstract

Heron Island Research Station (HIRS) has played a crucial role in the advancement of experimental biology on coral reefs by providing continuous access to a single, well-characterised reef system for over seven decades. Located on a coral cay of the southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, HIRS supports research on the island, across reef flats, lagoons and fore-reef slopes that experience strong and predictable gradients in temperature, oxygen availability, hydrodynamic exposure and carbonate chemistry. This natural heterogeneity, combined with experimental infrastructure, has enabled research at HIRS to link organismal performance and ecological processes to environmental conditions.

PMID:
42495810
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Jul 2026.

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