Mark Ian McCormick

@BustonLab It used to be a great place to find recent cool research... so where do people go now? 🙂

@MarkIMcComick ‘tis not your imagination. It’s very quiet. Still some of us here. Some interesting posts occasionally. Like this one :)

This is the first time I have been on twitter since it became X. Is it my imagination or have people in marine science stopped using it?

We all know that fish are selected by predators for various phenotypic traits when they settle, but did you know that those important traits differ with habitat? Check it out at Moad et al 2025 Sci Rep rdcu.be/e57s6

A recent study reinforces the finding that being in a group has survival advantages, particularly when you're with kin. This paper is one of the few to explore the escape kinematics of fish solitary fish and those in groups. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jf… @EricFakan @brooker_rohan

Ancient corals, like this one at Heron Island, highlight the rarity of the ocean heating event recently experienced by East Australia. This bleached and dying massive coral is over 4.5m dia and over 200 y old. Politicians - please speed Australia's transition to renewables.

A study just published sporadically fed breeding fish for 5 months microplastics bound with one of two plasticizers and found no detectable effect on fish condition or reproduction tinyurl.com/3pcas5dz

Well done Laura! You were a pleasure to supervise 😀

Latest research on coral reef community management and small-scale fisheries just published😀Ten years of catch monitoring from a fishing community in Solomon Islands shows long-term trends and outcomes from local marine management. Read here: rdcu.be/cTmWW 😀

Please RT: BU Biology is accepting applications from postdoctoral researchers for its Emerging Scholars event, for scholars from backgrounds underrepresented in biology, taking place on March 20-21, 2023: bu.edu/biology/emergi…

#Congratulations to @DrJDonel for your Emerging Leader Award at #AMSA22! Very well deserved - especially for all the science community building work you're doing! Working for conferences, students, equity...! And that's just the ones I'm aware of. 👏

We found improvements to offspring size and survival (bigger offspring, more offspring per nest, more nests with offspring at the end of the season). But how do we know these effects were due to noise reduction and what was the underlying mechanism?

Oxygenating eggs by fanning is common in coral reef fish and increases growth and survival of offspring. We found embryos grew more and still had more energy reserves in their yolk sacs without boat noise.

Boat noise is bad news for #coral reef #fish affecting: •Stress •Feeding •Orientation •Predator avoidance •Learning •Parental care •Development •Survival Links to papers: tinyurl.com/54b37zpe

Traffic calming could boost population recovery after destructive #climate related shocks like #coral #bleaching and #cyclones. Keeping quiet is a low-cost and easy-to-adopt management technique that could increase resilience for coral reefs BUT DOES NOT REPLACE #CLIMATE #ACTION

This was a phenomenal amount of work in the field and lab. It provides great input for coral reef managers into how marine traffic noise may be managed.

Thanks @christalestelas for writing a great article for @newscientist about our latest paper! “This an exciting solution. It can’t replace action on climate change, and it won’t save coral reefs. But it could potentially support their resilience.” newscientist.com/article/232138…

I’ve wanted to do this exp. for a long time! Does habitat complexity affect brain development? Triplefin recruits will be reared for 9 months in these mesocosms, after which, we will look at behaviour, neurotransmitters & brain morphology. Thanks to a generous @otago UORG grant!

Want to play a key role in defining management of Australia’s Great Southern Reef? Fully-funded #PhD project with $10k top-up ($38k stipend p.a. for 3 yrs) to model reef communities. Apps close Monday @IMASUTAS @CSIRO #greatsouthernreef #urchins #fisheries #abalone #lobster