Legna Torres-Garcia

USGS Graduate Research Assistant Legna Torres-Garcia installs a temperature logger on a coral reef in Dry Tortugas National Park. She and her team deployed a vertical array with temperature loggers every 1m from the seabed to near-surface with the goal to capture any changes in temperature through time and across depth. One of the most impactful stressors directly causing coral mortality is coral bleaching caused by high ocean temperatures. Studying temperature patterns in coral reef ecosystems is therefore critically important for understanding the overall health of coral reefs.