COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 17 Herrera’s research aims to answer these questions by examining factors like the role of depth, pressure and temperature as drivers of diversification. He also wants to better understand how biodiversity is affected by the borderless nature of the ocean. Life in the ocean is interconnected, he explains, and he collaborates with other researchers to probe how things like currents and the movement of the ocean affect the different species that dwell in the deep sea. “If we want to preserve a species of coral that holds ecological importance, we have to understand how its populations are interconnected because we need to think of it as a network rather than just a single box around one place the species lives,” he explains. “We need to think about how organisms move and interact with others, so we can maintain their ecological connectivity.” His research holds huge implications for things like the management of marine resources and protected areas and the restoration of deepsea corals in places like the Gulf of Mexico. Herrera is currently discussing additional ideas for research projects related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill with Layden, as they’re interested in examining the reproductive traits of deep-sea coral, so they can better understand what conditions will help it recover in an environment like the Gulf of Mexico. Reproduction and Regeneration in the Ocean Coral reefs are a vital part of the marine ecosystem and provide critical habitat for many living organisms—both in the deep sea and closer to the surface of the water. Reefs are living things themselves, comprised of sea anemones and corals, and are vulnerable to changing ocean temperatures and acidification. When a reef dies, it can have a huge ripple effect across the ecosystem, wiping out the populations that depend on it for habitat, including sea turtles and agriculturally important juvenile fish. Michael Layden’s lab is interested in investigating how corals and sea anemones reproduce, as it’s a key part of a reef’s ability to repopulate. They’re also interested in how spawning is affected by things like a growing amount of human light pollution. “It’s a very simple biological question that has a big impact in the long run,” he says. But, the reproduction of corals and sea anemones is a challenging matter to investigate because many corals only spawn once a year. So, Layden’s research team has found a way to model the biology of coral spawning in a closely related sea anemone that spawns well in culture. This allows
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