Michael has a Master's degree in Marine Science from KAUST. Most of my research experience has focused on coral reef sponge ecology but I have also studied corals as well.

Phenotypic signatures of temperature tolerance in corals on the Great Barrier Reef

2022 to 2025

Project Description

The PhD project examines relationships between physiological phenotypes and genomic variation in corals, focusing on the physiology and genomics of four target coral species on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

Project Importance

Outcomes will inform conservation and restoration efforts and will provide data critical to predictive models of coral adaptation and resilience under environmental change.

Project Methods

Short term heat stress experiments, phenotyping coral, genome analysis

Project Results

The experiments and analyses will quantify the adaptive capacity of reef-building corals to climate change conditions and contribute to an international collaboration on the global search for signatures of thermal tolerance and resilience across coral species and ocean basins

Keywords

Benthic,
Climate change,
Coral reefs,
Corals,
Ecology,
Field based,
Genetics,
Manipulative experiments,
Molecular techniques,
Ocean warming