Climate change poses an existential threat to coral reefs. A warmer and more acidic ocean weakens coral ecosystems and increases the intensity of hurricanes. The wind–wave–current interactions during a hurricane deeply change the ocean circulation patterns and hence potentially affect the dispersal of coral larvae and coral disease agents. Here, we modeled the impact of major hurricane Irma (September 2017) on coral larval and...

Since the 1980s, populations of Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata have experienced severe declines due to disease and anthropogenic stressors; resulting in their listing as threatened, and their need for restoration. In this study, larval survival and competency data were collected and used to calibrate a very high-resolution hydrodynamic model (up to 100m) to determine the dispersal patterns of Acropora species along the Fl...

Many marine species have been shown to be threatened by both ocean acidification and ocean warming which are reducing survival, altering behavior, and posing limits on physiology, especially during earlier life stages. The commercially important Florida stone crab, Menippe mercenaria , is one species that is affected by reduced seawater pH and elevated seawater temperatures. In this study, we determined the impacts of reduced...

For the last 7 years, Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR) has suffered from widespread and severe coral loss caused by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). First observed off the coast of Miami-Dade county in 2014, the outbreak has since spread throughout the entirety of FCR and some areas of the Caribbean. However, the propagation of the disease through FCR seemed to slow down when it reached the western end of the Marquesas in Au...

For the last six years, the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) has been experiencing an outbreak of the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). First reported off the coast of Miami-Dade County in 2014, the SCTLD has since spread throughout the entire FRT with the exception of the Dry Tortugas. However, the causative agent for this outbreak is currently unknown. Here we show how a high-resolution bio-physical model coupled with a modif...

The rate of exchange, or connectivity, among populations effects their ability to recover after disturbance events. However, there is limited information on the extent to which populations are connected or how multiple disturbances affect connectivity, especially in coastal and marine ecosystems. We used network analysis and the outputs of a biophysical model to measure potential functional connectivity and predict the impact...