Research Symposium

BIO

I grew up along the coast in New York and moved to Jacksonville, Florida five years ago. I have been interested in coastal and marine biology my whole life, and I hope to continue to study reefs after this project, as oyster reefs are one of my top research interests. I chose this project because phase shifts within coral reefs are essential to study, as they are the lungs of the ocean, and losing them would greatly decrease the biodiversity of the world. I hope to continue to study and protect reefs when I graduate.

Effect of habitat configuration on the persistence of macroalgae in the Moorea coral reef system

Abstract

Coral reefs have been struggling for many years due to many factors, but a pertinent reason is phase shifts, which are when a coral bommie or habitable coral structure, shift from a healthy state to a macroalgae-dominated state. These phase shifts have been relatively well studied by ecologists, however, macroalgal species with low dispersal rates are not well studied. As more coral reef structures are affected by these phase shifts, it is becoming increasingly crucial to study the patterns of macroalgae growth. We focused on 10 sites around the island of Moorea, French Polynesia, each spanning 15x15 meters. We aimed to study the spread of Turbinaria Ornata across a variety of bommie sizes and distances. First, we created orthomosaics of each site and IDed the patches of Turbinaria, then we ran those annotations through GIS software to map the location and percent cover of each patch across the coral bommies. Next, we used R to analyze the distances between the bommies and their correlation with macroalgae growth between 2019 and 2021. We hypothesized that larger bommies and those in closer proximity to other bommies would experience less change in Turbinaria cover over time, while smaller bommies would have higher rates of change. This study can inform how habitat configuration can affect the spread and persistence of macroalgae in coral reef systems which then can provide a better understanding of how ecologists can better protect and prevent these phase shifts from occurring.

Keywords: Biology, Ecology, Coral Reefs, Algae