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Research
Interests:
In
the near future, the threat of Global Climate Change will increase
dramatically. Natural resource managers around the world will be
faced with the challenge of how to combat a universal problem on
local scale. Because of the minimal response of national and international
communities to this imminent threat, the responsibility will likely
fall on the shoulders of local area policy makers, ecologists, and
resource managers to develop effective conservation strategies.
My research focuses on developing an ecological framework from which
to understand the response of corals to large-scale environmental
changes. I am examining specific internal mechanisms that the corals
and their associated symbionts can use to survive environmental
stresses, specifically, the production of heat-stress and antioxident
defense proteins. If it is shown that intrinsically some corals
are predisposed towards surviving stress, than it is important to
protect these areas from local disturbances so they may serve the
purpose of regeneration after large-scale mortality events.
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