St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Ocean Resources
Browse Ocean Resources science related to:
Coral Microbial Ecology
The coral microbial ecology group has an active research program identifying and characterizing the microbial associates of both tropical and cold-water (deep-sea) corals and their surrounding habitat. Current projects focus on coral disease dynamics, bacterial diversity, and using metagenomics to elucidate the functional roles of coral microbes.
DISCOVRE - Diversity, Systematics and Connectivity of Vulnerable Reef Ecosystems Project
This project uses amplicon sequencing, and functional microarrays to examine the microbiomes of several deep-sea coral species, with priority given to species that are also of interest to the population genetics group: Desmophyllum dianthus, Lophelia pertusa, Enallopsammiasp. and Acanthogorgia sp. The project also uses metagenomics to survey benthic habitats including coral mounds, cold seeps...
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) is an initiative between Federal and Florida State agencies and institutions to coordinate and facilitate the collection and accessibility of Florida coastal seafloor data in order to fill priority areas and gaps.
Advanced Remote Sensing Methods for Coastal Science and Management
This project focused on developing algorithms for quantifying benthic habitat complexity from images, modeling the structural complexity of the seafloor, and using fluorescence signatures to classify coral reef habitats.