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Marine Disease Epizootiology and Microbial Ecology
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Current Projects
Impacts of Severe Storms and FloodingFlower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
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Impacts of
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Pathogens of Caribbean soft corals
La Parguera, Puerto Rico
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Impacts of Severe Storms and Flooding: As a Rice Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, I am particularly interested in the questions: 1) how resilient are coral microbiomes to different stressors and, 2) to what extent is microbial dysbiosis linked to the dysfunction of the host immune system? I am investigating these questions in the context of severe storm events and flooding stress by monitoring the changes in coral and sponge microbiomes during and after recent flooding events that have impacted off-shore coral reefs in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). In addition to examining the in situ response of corals and their microbiomes to flooding stress, I am directly documenting changes in coral immunity and coral microbial communities before, during, and after experimental exposure to storm-related stressors (reduced salinity, hypoxia, and waste-water contamination) test the hypothesis that the degree of microbial dysbiosis is linked to robustness of the immune response.
Impacts of Ocean Acidification: With my collaborators at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, I am asking questions about how future reductions in ocean pH (due to increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere) will impact coral health, specifically the composition and function of the coral microbiome. At Maug Caldera, in the Northern Marianas Islands, a volcanic vent bubbles CO2 from the ocean floor. The CO2 depresses the pH of the local seawater environment, so this location is a perfect natural laboratory for investigating the impacts of ocean acidification on coral health and function.
Pathogens of Caribbean Soft Corals: During my Ph.D., I was involved in several projects to find the pathogens of coral diseases in Hawaii and in Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. Currently, I am leading a collaboration with my former postdoctoral mentor, Dr. Colleen Burge and with Dr. Ernesto Weil at the University of Puerto Rico, to find the pathogens of ‘wasting syndromes’ in the sea fan, Gorgonia ventalina, and in the soft coral, Briareum asbestinum. For this collaboration, I trained a high-school junior to culture and identify several bacteria associated with these wasting syndromes, and I have identified a putative pathogen for Gorgonia wasting syndrome.
Past Projects
