CORAL REEF ECOLOGY & CONSERVATION

JUNE 2ND | RESILIENCE & RESTORATION

Growth rate and survivorship of two Caribbean coral species in in-situ and ex-situ nursery settings

Nikkie Cox

9:00AM

Unlocking Porites porites Growth Potential: Testing Nursery Rearing Techniques and Fragment Size for Coral Restoration

Shamoy K Bideau

9:15AM

Optimizing light spectrum to upscale grow-out of coral recruits for restoration

Liam Abrams

9:30AM

Brick by brick: The efficacy and efficiency of keeping corals alive through disease intervention

Karen L. Neely

9:45AM

Exploring Thermal Preconditioning as a Strategy for Reef Restoration in the Caribbean

Macarena Blanco-Pimentel

10AM

Assessing the Effects of Predation and Disease on Natural and Outplanted Acropora cervicornis colonies in southeast Florida

Hope E. Wilson

10:45AM

Demographic Performance of Local vs. Introduced Acropora cervicornis Outplants

Alex E. Mercado-Molina

11:00AM

Impacts of fireworm (Hermodice carunculata) population dynamics on a restored coral reef with variable topographic complexity: Implications for upscaling coral restoration.

arelys del mar lopez perez

11:15AM

Which site characteristics enhance outplanting success?

Nicholas P. Jones

1:30PM

Unraveling Coral Source and Location Effects on Reef Resilience

Leah Cifers

1:45PM

Corals Across Habitats: Understanding coral survival in non-reef habitats

Ninon Martinez

2:00PM

Investigating the link between bleaching and disease amongst massive coral populations within the U.S. Virgin Islands

Avery Coble

2:15PM

Dendrogyra cylindrus Rescue on the Southwest and Northeast Coasts of Puerto Rico: A Collaborative Effort

Catalina Morales-Ruiz

2:30PM

Biobanking Caribbean-Atlantic Corals in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Alizee Zimmermann

2:45PM

Co-designing a future for Caribbean reefs: recommendations for the implementation of advanced coral restoration strategies

Jenna Dilworth

3:30PM

Scaling Up Coral Restoration through Sexual Reproduction

Joana Figueiredo

3:45PM

A Groovy Experience: The Creation of the First (research assisted) Diploria labyrinthiformis Spawning Hub in the USVI

Rachel Ionata

4:00PM

Caribbean Reef Project: Advancing Coral Reef Restoration Through Ecosystem-Based Approaches

Stacey M. Williams

4:15PM

Coral larval connectivity model for the Insular Caribbean and applications to restoration

Denise I. Perez

4:30PM

The effect of coral species diversity on the growth, survivorship, and predation of Acropora palmata outplants.

Veronica Williamson

4:45PM

Integrating Keystone Herbivory and Coral Microfragmentation for Resilient Reef Restoration in La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico

Noel H. Carrera-Yulfo

5:00PM

Starting a large-scale restoration program in the USVI during the 2024 bleaching event ‚AI initiation, mitigation, and recovery steps.

Bailey Thomasson

5:05PM

Coral Restoration in the Anthropocene: Benthic Monitoring of Coral Outplants in the Turks & Caicos Islands

John DeBuysser

5:10PM

Identify and widen bottlenecks in the asexual restoration of endangered Orbicella boulder corals

Whitney Schwab

5:15PM

JUNE 3RD | MICROBIOLOGY & DISEASE

Viral community dynamics and gene expression associated with stony coral tissue loss disease in Caribbean corals

Alex J. Veglia

9:00AM

Investigating the global distribution of a dinoflagellate-infecting virus, dinoRNAV, in stony corals 

Joyah Watkins

9:15AM

Octocoral microbiome: towards an understanding of octocoral-bacteria interactions on Florida’s coral reef

Ronen Liberman

9:30AM

Toxicity of Arsenate and Arsenite to Acropora cervicornis and Orbicella faveolata 

Cailey Dorman

9:45AM

Biogeography of cryptic genetic lineages of the Great Star Coral (Montastraea cavernosa) across the Caribbean Sea

Dominique N. Gallery

10AM

Long-term monitoring in a highly urbanized reef system captures a stony coral tissue loss disease outbreak with limited recovery

Sarah E. Leinbach

10:45AM

The Double Threat: Evaluating the Impact of Coral Bleaching and SCTLD on Pseudodiploria strigosa Populations in Puerto Rico

Fabiola Rivera Irizarry

11:00AM

Prevalence of Diseases in Scleractinian Corals of the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica

Shanttal Valeria RodrIguez Esquivel

11:15AM

Restoration for Resilience: Bringing Back Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Susceptible Species 

Davis Strobel

11:30AM

Coral Disease Treatment Options & Program Development

Mike Balut

11:45AM

JUNE 3RD | HISTORICAL ECOLOGY

El Eco a Sentinel from indigenous Time to the Present

Mariela Declet Perez 

1:30PM

Lindsay M. Dade

Leah Cifers

1:45PM

Coral Reef Community Shifts in Curaçao from 2015 to 2023

Esmeralda Alcantar

2:00PM

Assessing a Decade of Change in the Veracruz Reef System National Park, Mexico 

Marina Garmendia Zepeda

2:15PM

Landscape-scale imagery reveals patterns of coral resilience in Curasao

Marisa Agarwal

2:30PM

Spatiotemporal variation reveals resilience in Gorgonia ventalina on Florida‚ Äôs Coral Reef

Michelle B. Mair

2:45PM

JUNE 3RD | PHYSIOLOGY & REPRODUCTION

Flow Matters: How Coral Can Divert Currents and Suffocate Corals Nearby 

Jeannik Littlefield

1:30PM

Experimental core healing in Orbicella faveolata as an indicator of colony health across multiple gradients

Alexander Wheeler

1:45PM

Too much to handle: sediment loads on Florida’s reefs reduce coral larval settlement and recruit survivorship

Victor Rodriguez-Ruano

2:00PM

 The effects of phosphate concentration and grow-out orientation on the survival and growth of Caribbean coral juveniles

Ashley Shen

2:15PM

Optimizing coral sexual propagation ex situ: synergistic effects of multiple cues on the larval settlement of Caribbean corals 

Chloe Daniel

2:30PM

Identification of Crustose Coralline Algae species and their impacts on coral settlement in South Florida

Danielle Macias

2:45PM

JUNE 3RD | OTHER REEF ORGANISMS

Recent developments in the culture and restocking of the the herbivorous sea urchin Diadema antillarum

Alwin Hylkema

3:30PM

Exploring the Potential of Three Native Sea Urchins as Ex-Situ Coral Propagation Allies 

Jessica Smith

3:45PM

Creating a community of practice for long spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, culture and stocking

Joshua Patterson

4:00PM

Influence of the 2022 Diadema antillarum die-off on coral reef energy flow and community trophic niche dynamics of food web

Rolando O. Santos

4:15PM

Shifts in benthic community structure following the 2022 Diadema antillarum mortality event 

Nicolas Rivas

4:30PM

Composition and spatiotemporal dynamics of long sediment-laden algal turfs (LSAT) on Florida‚ Äôs Coral Reef

Silvana Guzman

4:45PM

A Baseline Study of Sun Coral (Tubastraea Spp) Distribution and Abundance in Barbados, West Indies

Robert Bourne

5:00PM

CHARACTERIZATION OF EARLY COLONIZING BACTERIA IN MARINE BIOFILMS FROM THREE DIFFERENT HABITATS IN LA PARGUERA, PUERTO RICO

Aliyah M. Chabrier-Alpi

5:15PM

Testing Antibiotic Paste Dosages and Application Efficacy to Treat Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the U.S. Virgin Islands 

Amanda Badai

5:20PM

Antibiotic treatment effectiveness against Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) in two foundational reef-building coral species, Orbicella faveolata and Colpophyllia natans in La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico

Dayana Castillo 

5:25PM

JUNE 6TH | BLEACHING

Proper taxonomic resolution indicates low habitat quality that compromises resilience of Florida‚Äôs Coral Reefs 

Alain Duran

1:30PM

USVI Acropora palmata under stress: measuring back-to-back bleaching impacts

Natasha Bestrom

1:45PM

Eventos de blanqueamiento 2023 y 2024 nuevos retos para el 2025. Bleaching events 2023 and 2024 new challenges for 2025

Ricardo Laureano de Angel

2:00PM

Coral Resilience and Mortality in the Face of Extreme Marine Heatwaves: Insights from Little Cayman

Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley

3:30PM

Higher susceptibility to bleaching and mortality in the coral Acropora cervicornis linked to zones of high wave energy

ISABELA CUNIO

2:15PM

Beating the heat: the use of shade structures to potentially mitigate coral bleaching

Kathryn Toth

2:30PM

Status of the Acropora palmata population at Buck Island Reef National Monument (St. Croix, USVI) before and after the 2024 bleaching event

Sara D. Williams

2:45PM

Predicting acute versus chronic heat stress responses among Florida staghorn corals

John Everett Parkinson

3:45PM

Determining if controlled thermal stress ex situ can harden Orbicella annularis and Montastraea cavernosa corals for futures heatwaves post-outplanting

Bradley Arrington

4:00PM

Elucidating mechanisms underlying variation in acroporid bleaching and survival following the 2023 marine heat wave

Elise F. Keister

4:15PM

Effects of back-to-back marine heatwaves on the thermal performance of surviving Acropora cervicornis genotypes

Jack V Johnson 

4:30PM

Thermal Tolerance Across Depth-Segregated Orbicella Corals

MatIas GOmez-Corrales

4:45PM

Exploring Thermal Preconditioning as a Strategy for Reef Restoration in the Caribbean

Macarena Blanco-Pimentel

5:00PM

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