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Ito M, Guy-Haim T, Sawall Y, Franz M, Buchholz B, Hansen T, Neitzel P, Pansch C, Steinhoff T, Wahl M, Weinberger F. (2024) Responses at various levels of ecological hierarchy indicate acclimation to sequential sublethal heatwaves in a temperate benthic ecosystem. Philosophical Transactions B 379:20230171

Smulders F, Campbell J, Altieri A, Sawall Y et al. (2024) Temperature drives seagrass recovery across the Western North Atlantic. bioRxiv 605761; doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.31.605761 (pre-print)

Read more about Coral Reef Ecology and Resilience Laboratory

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Research at a Glance

Predicting Biological Characteristics and Disease Pathways from Genomic Data

Read more about Marine Benthic Ecology and Ecophysiology

Yvonne Sawall is the principle investigator of the Marine Benthic Ecology and Ecophysiology (MABEE) Laboratory at ASU BIOS. Her research focuses on shallow water coral reefs and seagrass meadows integrating aspects of physiology, ecology and oceanography. The overarching question of her research is how organisms and communities interact with their environment, while focusing primarily on key metabolic processes (photosynthesis, respiration and calcification) of foundation species (corals and seagrass). Understanding responses of corals and seagrass to persisting and changing environmental conditions is of paramount importance, since they form the basis of ecologically and economically important ecosystems, that are exposed to increasing threat of local and global stressors. Hence the mission of the MABEE lab is to elucidate potential impacts of global change on important coastal ecosystems by understanding strategies and limitations of keystone organisms and of benthic communities to respond to different environmental conditions.

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Globally, coral reefs are home to more than 1/4 of all marine species, making them the most diverse marine ecosystem. Because corals depend on the photosynthethic algae (zooxanthellae) within their tissues to grow and thrive, light is the primary energy source for these ecosystems. Scientists are interested in studying how light travels through the water (e.g., absorption, scattering, change with depth) in order to understand what portion of the sun's radiation is available to benthic ecosystems, including coral reefs, for growth.

Read more about Coral Reef Ecology and Resilience Laboratory

Samantha de Putron is the principle investigator of the Coral Reef Ecology and Resilience Lab at ASU BIOS. She has conducted extensive research on coral reproductive timing, larval characteristics and recruitment success. She has also researched the effects of ocean acidification (OA) on calcification of new coral recruits, as well as the role of nutrition in the coral calcification response to OA. This research was scaled up to look at the role of basin-scale climate variability and changes in food availability as potential drivers in the decline of Atlantic corals. She worked for several years on the Bermuda Ocean Acidification and Coral Reef Investigation (BEACON), which characterized calcification at different scales including individual coral colonies, local reef communities, and regional coral reef ecosystems exposed to different chemical and environmental conditions over time and space in Bermuda. In addition, de Putron studied the coral microbiome and investigated changes in the microbial communities in corals in response to environmental changes and, in particular, temperature stress. This research also investigated how coral microbial taxa and functions are being selected at the reef scale, as there are key differences at sites across the Bermuda platform.

Read more about Jace Innis

Team member profile for Jace Innis, BIOS marine science technician

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