Research Projects

Climate and Corals in the Coral Triangle

In this project we have developed a hierarchy of regional ocean models, which are being used to examine how oceanographic conditions shape benthic marine ecosystems in the Coral Triangle, and to determine how changes in these conditions will influence those ecosystems in the 21st Century. The work, in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, uses output from the oceanographic models to both understand past coral bleaching events and make predictions of future states. By coupling the oceanographic models with Lagrangian models for connectivity, the role of Larval dispersal in sustaining coral communities is also being researched.