Research Musings

Coral Fitness

My research aims to characterize coral’s physiological response to stressors such as increasing temperature and then visualize their reactions using  thermal performance curves.

Thermal Performance Curves

Corals are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. The rate of thermal amplification is rising above the current thermal tolerances in corals. The aim of my research is to characterize these thermal ranges by constructing thermal performance curves across multiple species of corals from different environments and depths. With this knowledge, I hope to contribute to our understanding of the variation in corals and how we can help mitigate their declines. I also will use this method to understand how stress-mitigating interventions can help alter coral responses and channel that knowledge to practitioners to help improve coral restoration.

What is a thermal performance curve?

TPC show how an organism responds to increasing temperature. By measuring the organism’s rate (ie. breathing, feeding, reproduction, photosynthesis, and more) across a range of temperatures, we can see where their thermal limits are. We can see the thermal ranges (from the coldest to hottest they can stand before death. In the case of corals, I use thermal performance curves to identify what temperature they perform the best in (the highest rate) and apply them to conservation and restoration efforts. This can include identifying environments that remain within the thermal range of corals, matching specific genotypes to environments that promote growth and reproduction, and understanding thermal plasticity in corals and mitigating restoration efforts to maximize population growth and conservation action.

Acropora Restoration and Fitness in the Florida Keys

This year-long project focuses on the reef-building coral Orbicella annularis found throughout the Keys and the Caribbean.

Reducing Bleaching Severity in Coral Restoration

Utilizing these species-specific thermal performance curves, I then test various stress-mitigating processes (decreasing harmful UV irradiance, and prey-luring to increase predation rates (YES corals eat too!) to understand how coral fitness changes within these treatments and if this fitness change directly affects the thermal range of the species. The aim is to identify techniques and mitigation actions that reduce bleaching severity and promotes persistence in coral restoration.

The goal of this research is to implement my findings into current restoration and management actions, identify techniques that can help keep corals within their thermal limits, and identify specific genotypes that have or are capable of shifting their thermal range beyond predicted future warming scenarios.

The restoration trees used in the Coral Restoration Foundations coral nurseries

02/18/2018

Corals in the laboratory shipped from Key Largo, FL by the Coral Restoration Foundation.

My first Graduate research project is investigating novel restoration tools for the endangered coral, Acropora cervicornis. UNC 2018

Thank you to the Coral Restoration Foundation, who graciously offered me offshore nursery corals to bring back to the lab to explore these techniques to see if we stress-mediation techniques can alter coral performance.

This research uses coral fitness measurements (respiration, photosynthesis, growth, and health) during experimental bleaching to see if these techniques reduce the severity of bleaching.

In the thick of experimentation, I perform weekly environmental water parameter checks on the coral tanks to ensure they are within their range in  Salinity, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity.

03/25/2018

Chemicals used to check water parameters in the aquarium