We are pleased to welcome two new members to the Sandin lab – Dr. Gareth Williams and Rachel Morrison.

Last year was my first visit to the Phoenix Islands. I joined friends and colleagues to study the coral reefs of these remote islands of the Republic of Kiribati. The Phoenix Islands were made into one of the world’s largest marine protected areas in 2008, with the islands, coral reefs, and all of the seamounts and waters within 200 nautical miles protected from all fishing. This is PIPA, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area .

Tali Vardi, 6th year IGERT PhD Candidate from the Sandin Lab, is into models. All sorts. She is creating a population model of Acropora palmata, the formerly abundant and now endangered Elkhorn Coral, based on several years of demographic monitoring in five locations around the Carribean

Sad statistics are a dime a dozen when it comes to endangered species research. Add this one regarding Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) to your list: “in the few locations where quantitative data are available (e.g., Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas, Belize, Jamaica and the U.S.V.I.), declines in abundance (coverage and colony numbers) are estimated at >97%.” — Acropora Biological Review Team. 2005.

Our colleague Eleanor Sterling from the American Museum of Natural History recently published an article commenting on life in the field for the NY Times Science Blog. In her post “Why So Many Predators” she comments on the inverted trophic pyramid that Stuart has described previously. Apparently this generated lots of discussion- be sure to [...]