Profile
Specifically, I am investigating how patterns of upwelling around the Chagos Archipelago are linked to food availability for organisms such as corals, algae and the microbial communities that inhabit the reef.
In order to answer this question, I will combine in-water ecological surveys, satellite derived data, next generation sequencing, as well as isotope chemistry and collaborate with numerous researchers in these fields.
Remote coral reef islands and atolls allow us to study coral reef ecosystem dynamics in the absence of confounding local human impacts, acting as benchmarks for natural variation and highlighting the impacts of global climate change on these biodiverse systems.
Biography
My Project
Other interests
I am a marine ecologist specializing in coral reef ecology. My work often takes a macroecological approach when examining the interaction between organisms and their environment. Moreover, I am particularly interested in how the interaction between human activities and natural biophysical gradients drives community patterns across multiple trohpic levels (microbes to sharks) and scales (individual reefs to entire ocean basins).
Much of my work involves remote coral reefs free from direct human impact, it provides key replication at the unimpacted end of an intact-to-degraded ecosystem spectrum. Surveying across wide geographical areas allows us to address broad questions relating to: the human, climatic and oceanographic drivers of coral reef ecosystem structure and function; climate change impacts to coral reef ecosystems; the spatial ecology of coral reefs; and disease dynamics on coral reefs.
My Publications
A Review of a Decade of Lessons From One of the World’s Largest MPAs: Conservation Gains and Key Challenges
Hays, G.C., Koldewey, H.J., Andrzejaczek, S., Attrill, M.J., Barley, S., Bayley, D.T.I., Benkwitt, C.E., Block, B., Schallert, R.J., Carlisle, A., Carr, P., Chapple, T.K., Collins, C., Diaz, C., Dunn, N., Dunbar, R.B., Eager, D.S., Engel, J., Embling, C.B., Esteban, N., Ferretti, F., Foster, N.L., Freeman, R., Gollock, M., Graham, N.A.J., Harris, J.L., Head, C.E.I, Hosegood, P., Howell, K.L., Hussey, N.E., Jacoby, D.M.P., Jones, R., Pilly, J.S., Lange, I.D., Letessier, T.B., Levy, E., Lindhart, M., McDevitt-Irwin, J.M., Meekan, M., Meeuwig, J.J., Micheli, F., Mogg, A., Mortimer, J.A., Mucciarone, D.A., Nicoll, M.A., Nuno, A., Perry, C., Preston, S.G., Rattray, A.J., Robinson, E., Roche, R., Schiele, M., Sheehan, E.V., Sheppard, A., Sheppard, C., Smith, A.L., Soule, B., Spalding, M., Stevens, G.M.W., Steyaert, M., Stiffel, S., Taylor, B.M., Tickler, D., Trevail, A.M., Trueba, P., Turner, J., Votier, S., Wilson, B., Williams, G., Williamson, B., Williamson, M.J., Wood, H. and Curnick, D.J. (2020) A review of a decade of lessons from one of the world’s largest MPAs: conservation gains and key challenges. Marine Biology.
First Record of a Coralline Fungal Disease (CFD) in the Indian Ocean
Williams, G. J., Roche, R. C., & Turner, J. R. (2018). First record of coralline fungal disease (CFD) in the Indian Ocean. Coral Reefs, 37(4), 1243-1243.
Towards Developing a Mechanistic Understanding of Coral Reef Resilience to Thermal Stress Across Multiple Scales
Roche, R. C., Williams, G. J., and Turner, J. R. (2018). Towards developing a mechanistic understanding of coral reef resilience to thermal stress across multiple scales. Current Climate Change Reports, 4(1), 51-64.