Introducing the ACRN Team!

Nathan's passion lies in coastal landscape ecology to inform management, policy, and restoration. His career centers on coastal food webs, fisheries, landscapes, and water quality. He develops programs for waterway protection, using predictive models to optimize decisions. Nathan emphasizes community-driven actions for impactful restoration, partnering with locals to foster waterway stewardship.

Megan , a coastal ecological modeller, researches environmental and human influences on coastal marine ecosystems. Her work covers seagrass, mangroves, coral and oyster reefs, saltmarsh, and kelp forests. She excels in seagrass predictive modeling for Indo-Pacific Blue Carbon initiatives. Her marine ecology and oceanography background spans field research, modeling, synthesis, and stakeholder engagement, vital for cross-disciplinary coastal management. Notably, she addresses sea-level rise planning, conservation, stressor interactions, and restoration support. Using satellite remote sensing, she collaborates with geospatial experts. Her work graces esteemed journals like Science, Nature Climate Change, and PloS Biology.

Katie is an aquatic ecologist with a research background investigating the impacts of anthropogenic and climate change stressors upon aquatic ecosystems, community ecology, organism health and physiology. Her current work focuses on coastal wetland ecology, water quality, and restoration opportunities via environmental market schemes.

Connecting Coastal and Marine Restoration Professionals

The Australian Coastal Restoration Network (ACRN) was founded in August 2017 at the inaugural Coastal Restoration Symposium, held at James Cook University. The Symposium was attended by over 60 marine and coastal restoration professionals, from academia, local and state government, commonwealth organisations, NGOs, consultancy, and industry. The attendees came from a range of disciplines - including seagrass, salt marsh, mangrove, coral reef, shellfish reef, and macro algae / kelp - to share their work, discuss the future of restoration in Australia, and meet other professionals working in similar fields. 

At the conclusion of the Symposium, a round-table forum was held to discuss the need for a formal and established networking platform that would enable professionals to better connect with one another, share work, reach out for assistance, and find others working in similar fields or providing needed services.

In May 2023, ACRN marked a significant milestone by hosting its second symposium at James Cook University, drawing over 80 participants. This gathering held special significance, serving as a relaunch of ACRN after navigating the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2024, the ACRN expanded its focus and reach to broader Australasia, become the Australasian Coastal Restoration Network, with members from Australia, New Zealand and the Melanesian Islands.

Our Goals and Objectives:

At ACRN we aim to provide a platform through which professionals working within the marine and coastal restoration can connect with other professionals in the field. In doing so our goals and objectives are:

• To bring together organisations and individuals interested in coastal ecological restoration and management.

• To improve and increase awareness of the numerous coastal habitats and educate the public on the value of conserving and restoring them.

• To provide up to date information on conferences, workshops, networking events, and other relevant events occurring across Australasia within the restoration field.

• To provide links to useful information, other networks, societies, associations, and organisations related to marine and coastal science and restoration, to provide our members with a single point of reference.

• To provide the opportunity for members of the network to meet at least annually at a networking event, symposium or pre-conference meeting.

• To connect members of the network with funding opportunities, projects, other professionals, and organisations within the field of marine and coastal restoration, and to enable the sharing of information between disciplines for the betterment of the Australasian environment.

Please see our Prospectus for more details here.

If you have any feedback on our prospectus, please submit to: coastalrestorationnetwork@gmail.com