Research & Publications

Complex system: generally agreed upon to be an adaptive system with many interacting parts whose behavior cannot be predicted by understanding of sub-components of the system (e.g. Amaral and Ottino, 2004)

Resistance: the ability of a system to withstand or resist a disturbance

Resilience: the ability to adjust system activity when faced with disturbances or stress and recover to a functional state of persistence

Resistance & resilience are key themes within biology and ecology, particularly in today’s era of substantial global change. Ecosystems are inherently complex, adaptive systems, as they consist of populations of species interacting in nonlinear ways – through the processes of predation, competition, and symbiotic or parasitic mutualism – and responding to their environment and other disturbances.

Adaptability is a key characteristic of complex systems and my research program. Depending on the project, I consider myself an invertebrate physiologist, a microbial ecologist, a network scientist, a coral reef ecologist, an applied conservation researcher, or some combination of the above. Coral disease & bleaching are the primary disturbances in which I have focused my resilience research in tropical marine ecology. Utilizing a combination of field surveys, lab-based experiments, and advanced statistical modeling, I adapt my research in response to interesting questions and funding opportunities that cross disciplinary borders. My research is also solution-based. I work with restoration practitioners and managers to develop novel strategies to increase the resilience of coral reefs. To alter the famous Dobzhansky quote: Nothing in my research past, present, and future makes sense, except in the light of curiosity.

For my most up-to-date publication list, please see my google scholar page.

Current Funded Projects:

  • Assessing the status of the threatened coral Acropora palmata and mitigating disease transmission at Buck Island Reef National Monument (Funded by & in collaboration with NPS St. Croix)
  • Using Natural-Based Products to Treat Common Endemic Coral Diseases in Florida’s Coral Reef (EPA South Florida)
  • Coral Survivor – Resist, Recover, Restore: Analysis of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Coral Restoration Data in Relation to Major Disturbances, Including the 2023 Coral Bleaching Event (Protect Our Reefs)
  • Coral Survivor – Resist, Recover, Restore: Elucidating mechanisms underlying variation in Acroporid bleaching and survival following the 2023 marine heat wave (Protect Our Reefs)
  • Gene Banking Florida’s Porites astreoides and additional weedy coral species (FL DEP Coral Protection and Restoration Program)
  • Strategic integration of thermal resilience and microbial intervention into restoration practices to recover Florida’s coral reefs (Protect Our Reefs)

Six Degrees of Coral Reefs: Applying Network Science to Coral Reefs and other Complex Systems

Coral reefs are biodiverse ecosystems that are reacting to changing environmental conditions (increasing temperature, ocean acidification, more frequent and severe disease outbreaks, etc.) in ways that cannot fully be predicted by just understanding one part of the system. Coral Reefs are inherently complex systems. While “the whole is much more than the sum of its parts” is a central concept of complexity, the scale at which we define “the whole” should also be considered. For example, the coral reef ecosystem is a complex, adaptive system, but so is an individual coral holobiont – the animal host, bacteria, algal symbionts, and viruses. Even the coral animal host can be considered as its own complex system of connected, individual polyps supporting colony function.

Networks express complex systems as components represented by nodes connected to other components by links. Consider the Actor-Movie Network behind the popularized “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. Actors, the nodes, are connected by being in the same movies, the links. A node’s degree is how many links it has. “Six degrees of separation” refers to the average path length of a network, or how many connections a node is away from any other node in the network. Network science has attracted much attention as its applications span physics, biology, technology, ecology, and social phenomena. Even while limiting my focus to just the coral organism, there are many layers of networks on coral reefs. A coral colony is a network of individual units, the polyps, that must interact to perform as one organism. Different coral species associate with different symbiotic algae and bacteria. The network of susceptible and diseased individuals can also be considered as a contagious disease spreads across a reef.

Beyond coral reefs, I am generally interested in applying network science to various questions in ecology and biology. My scientific background allows me to cross disciplinary lines and I enjoy getting to “play” in new fields, especially when I get to collaborate with wonderful people. I consider myself as, and really aspire to be, a “link” more so than a “node” in my scientific communities, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you are interested in collaborating or just want to nerd-out a bit.

Related Publications:

Coral Disease Dynamics at Multiple Scales: from the microbiome to the reef

Coral disease dynamics involve a complex interplay between the coral host, its microbiome, and the environment, all of which interact to influence individual susceptibility.  Disease outbreaks have increasingly played important roles in structuring reef communities.

Related Publications:

Coral Thermal Tolerance & Bleaching

Coral thermal tolerance and bleaching is another key area of my research, particularly in relation to resilient coral restoration strategies on Florida’s Coral Reef.

Related Publications: