My research interests are diverse and varied, but my primary focus is to examine understand how past, current and future climate change and related natural hazards will affect surface and groundwater resources and the environments they support.

I am particularly interested in how both climate hazards and geophysical hazards affect water resources and have studied the impacts of hazards on surface waters and groundwater.

My research has three broad facets:

1. Examination of modern systems to understand how modern aquatic and coastal environments, and water resources are affected by climate and geophysical hazards, and anthropogenic disturbances.
2. Examination of palaeorecords to understand how past climate has affected lakes, wetlands and coastal systems.
3. Integrating high-quality science into national policy, and international multilateral environmental agreement forums. In this, I am also a co-editor for a Global and Planetary Change Special Issue seeking to better integrate palaeo-science data into domestic policy and international environment agreements.

As Australia's National Focal Point to the Scientific and Technical Review Panel to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, also known as the Ramsar Convention, I work with the Australian Government to appropriately use the best available science to guide better wetland conservation.

Key Projects

Coastal Hazards and Evolution in Asia

Coastal hazards have profoundly impacted coastal Asia from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to the frequent batterings from cyclones. It is through the examination of modern and past sedimentary deposits and geomorphological signatures of cyclones and tsunami that a deep knowledge of these impacts can be used to better prepare coastal populations, commuities and infrastructure from inevitable future coastal hazards. I have explored modern and past sedimentary deposits of tsunami and cyclones/typhoons on the coasts of Vietnam, Thailand and India. At these locations, my team and I have applied diverse techniques including sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, mineralogy, shallow surface geophysics (ground penetrating radar) and environmental DNA to better discern the known and inferred overwash deposits. 

     Yap W.S., Switzer A.D., Gouramanis C., Marzinelli, E., Wijaya, W., Dominey-Howes D., Labbate, M., Seshachalam, S. Jankaew, K., Lauro F.M. (2021) Environmental DNA signatures distinguish between tsunami and storm deposition in overwash sand. Nature Communications Earth & Environment, DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00199-3. 

     Gouramanis, C., Switzer, A.D., Jankaew, K, Bristow, C.S., Pham, T.D., Ildefonso, S. (2017) High-frequency coastal overwash deposits from Phra Thong Island, Thailand. Scientific Reports, 7: 43742, DOI: 10.1038/srep43742

Palaeoclimate and Palaeoenvironmental Change from Lacustrine and Coastal Environments

Palaeoclimate records from lakes and coastal systems offer unique insight into how these environments have changed over historical and prehistoric time frames. These environments can also record the history of climatic (e.g. drought and floods) and geophysical (e.g. earthquakes and tsunami) that can complement the short-term observational records. Importantly, these studies can demonstrate the impacts, duration and natural recovery rates of these systems while providing invaluable information on environmental and climate change. From sites across Australia, Cambodia, Singapore, China and Vietnam, my teams and I use the recovered sediments, microfossils, stable isotope and trace metal geochemistry coupled with high resolution chronologies to document these past changes.

     Gouramanis, C., Switzer, A.D., Bristow, C.B., Pham, D.T., Que, H.D., Mauz, B., Lam, D.D., Soria, J.L.A., Pile, J., Chi, N.K., Dao, N., Sloss, C. (2020) Holocene evolution of the Chan May coastal embayment, central Vietnam: Changing coastal dynamics associated with decreasing rates of progradation possibly forced by late-Holocene sea-level changes. Geomorphology 367, DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107273

     Gouramanis, C., De Deckker, P., Switzer, A.D., Wilkins, D. (2013) Cross-continent comparison of high-resolution Holocene climate records from southern Australia - deciphering the impacts of far-field teleconnections. Earth-Science Reviews 121: 55-72. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.02.006

     Chua, S., Switzer, A.D., Gouramanis, C., Dixit, Y., Bird, M.I., Horton, B. P. (2023) Coastal response to Holocene sea-level change: a case study from the Kallang River, Singapore. Marine Geology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2023.107146

Pollution across Southeast Asia

Pollution is an insidious problem caused and exacerbated by humanity that is affecting our health and the environments we rely upon. This is particularly evident in southeast Asia. My team and I have explored the spatial and temporal variability in atmospheric and lake plastic pollution, and coastal and wetland heavy metal pollution.

     Finnegan, A., Susserott, R.C., Gabbott, S.A. Gouramanis, C. (2022). Man-made natural and regenerated cellulosic fibres greatly outnumber microplastic fibres in the atmosphere. Environmental Pollution, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119808

     Jie, C.T.W., Gouramanis, C., Pham, D.T., Que, H.D., Switzer, A.D. (2021) Ostracods as pollution indicators in Lap An Lagoon, central Vietnam. Environmental Pollution, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116762

Translating Science to Policy

High-quality science is frequently ignored, not understood or missed by policy and management officers. It is important that the practical side of science is communicated and used in formulating government policy. Having worked in a variety of Australian Government organisations and worked with government organisations throughout Southeast Asia, I work with governments and industry to embed the best available science int their decision making frameworks. I do this through a variety of fora, but most notably through my role as Australia's National Focal Point to the Scientific and Technical Review Panel to the Ramsar Convention.

     Allen, K.J., Riede, F., Gouramanis, C., Keenan, B., Stoffel, M.., Lu, A., Ionita, M. (2022). Coupled insights from palaeoenvironmental, historical and archaeological archives to support social-ecological resilience and the Sustainable Development Goals. Environmental Research Letters, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6967

     Pile, J., Gouramanis, C., Switzer, A.D., Rush, B., Reynolds, I., Ryrie, S., Soria, L.(2018) Examples not numbers: Using historical events to present regional hazard information and stimulate client thinking in the insurance industry. International Journal of Hazard Risk Reduction 27: 439-450. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.11.008

Silurian and Devonian Terrestrialisation of Invertebrates and Vertebrates

I have always been interested in how invertebrates and vertebrates emerged from the water to take up residence on land over 400 million years ago. To achieve this, animals had to overcome profound challenges to cope with the very different environment they initially encountered as they transitioned to a terrestrial environment.

     Gouramanis, C., Martin, A.J., Webb, J.A. (2021) Gariwerdichnus warreni igen. et isp. nov. — probable giant myriapod burrows from Late Silurian fluvial channels in the Grampians Group, Western Victoria, Australia. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, 45:2, 195-202, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2021.1926540

     Gouramanis, C., Loughlin, S. (2016) On some Siluro-Devonian trace fossils preserved in the Mereenie Sandstone in Kings Canyon National Park, Amadeus Basin, Northern Territory, Australia. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 40: 118-128. DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2016.1099957