Physiological and proteogenomic traits

Despite corals been highly sensitive to changes in sea water temperature, some corals are more resistant to warming than others. Our research focuses on why some corals in a population are more heat tolerant of than others.

 Trade-offs between adaptive coral traits 

Some algal symbiont taxa confer higher heat tolerance to their coral hosts at the expense of other traits like growth, raising questions about the adaptive potential of corals under climate change. But do such trade-offs also exist independent of the symbiont, relating to the coral host itself?

 Restoration techniques

Our research focuses primarily coral larval propagation via sexual reproduction and how this approach can be incorporated into reef restoration and rehabilitation initiatives involving assisted evolution.