Quantifying the effects of western colonisation on Great Barrier Reef molluscan communities

死壳提供了殖民前大堡礁（GBR）生态系统的记录。利用这些记录，这项研究将确定詹姆斯库克和第一支舰队抵达澳大利亚之前的GBR的样子。这项研究还将对活的软体动物进行取样，以量化这些群落的现状。这些数据将为环境管理者和利益相关者提供人类对这一世界遗产生态系统影响的第一个量化估计。该项目将解决的问题：保护区是回到前殖民地状态还是代表另一种非自然状态？什么样的管理计划会导致社区最类似于殖民前的国家？

Dead shells provide a record of the pre-colonisation Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ecosystem. Using this record this research will determine what the GBR looked like before James Cook and the first fleet arrived in Australia. This study will also sample living molluscs to quantify the current state of these communities. Together these data will provide environment managers and stakeholders with the first quantitative estimates of human impacts on this world heritage ecosystem. This project will address the questions: Do protected areas return to a pre-colonial state or do they represent another non-natural state? What type of management scheme results in communities most similar to the pre-colonial state?