Lauren Toth
Biography
My research combines ecological approaches with paleoecology, geochemistry, climatology, and statistical modeling to determine the primary controls on coral reef development across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. As a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow in the Coastal and Marine Geology program, I am using cores of Holocene reef frameworks from throughout the Florida Keys Reef Tract to develop a comprehensive, millennial-scale reconstruction of reef development in this region. The overarching goal of my research program is to determine which combinations of local and global environmental conditions are beneficial or adverse to the growth of coral reefs and to use this information to help guide resource-management decisions.
Publications
Toth, L.T., I.G. Macintyre, and R.B. Aronson. 2017. Holocene reef development in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. In Glynn, P.W., D.P. Manzello, and I.C. Enochs (eds). Coral Reefs of the Eastern Pacific: Persistence and Loss in a Dynamic Environment. Springer-Verlag, New York. doi: 10.1007/978-94-017-7499-4_6
Kuffner, I.B. and L.T. Toth. 2016. A geological perspective on the degradation and conservation of western Atlantic coral reefs. Conservation Biology [Link]
Kuffner, I.B., K.K. Yates, D.G. Zawada, J.N. Richey, C.A. Kellogg, and L.T. Toth, Torres-Garcia, Legna. 2015. Investigación del USGS sobre el ecosistema de arrecifes de coral en el Atlántico. Servicio Geológico de los Estados Unidos Hoja de Información 2015-3074. 2 p. [Link]
Toth, L.T., I.B. Kuffner, H. Cheng, and R.L. Edwards. 2015. A new record of the Pleistocene coral, Pocillopora palmata, from the Dry Tortugas, Florida Reef Tract, USA. PALAIOS 30: 827–835. [Link]
Toth, L.T., R.B. Aronson, S.R. Smith, T.J.T. Murdoch, J.C. Ogden, W.F. Precht, and R. van Woesik. 2014. Do no-take reserves benefit corals? 14 years of stasis and change on Florida’s reefs. Coral Reefs33:565–577. [Link]
Smith, T.B., P.W. Glynn, J.L. Maté, L.T. Toth, J. Gyory. 2014. A depth refuge from catastrophic coral bleaching prevents regional extinction. Ecology 95:1663–1673. [Link]
Staaterman, E.R., Z. Reichenbach, A. Bhandiwad, P. Gravinese, P. Moeller, A. Shantz, D.S. Shiffman, L.T. Toth, and A. Warneke, A.J. Gallagher. 2014. Lights, camera, science: The growing popularity of film festivals at scientific meetings. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution 7:11–16. [Link]
Toth, L.T., R.B. Aronson, S.V. Vollmer, J.W. Hobbs, D. Urrego, H. Cheng, I.C. Enochs, D.J. Combosch, R. van Woesik, and I.G. Macintyre. 2012. ENSO drove 2500-year collapse of eastern Pacific coral reefs. Science 337:81–84. [Link]
Aronson, R.B., W.F. Precht, I.G. Macintyre, L.T. Toth. 2012. Catastrophe and the ecological life span of coral reefs. Ecology 93:303–313. [Link]
Enochs, I.C., L.T. Toth, V.W. Brandtneris, J.C. Afflerback, and D.P. Manzello. 2011. Environmental determinants of coral reef cryptofauna: an experimental analysis of coral cover, framework porosity, and flow. Marine Ecology Progress Series 438:105–118. [Link]
Science and Products
Coral Reef Ecosystem Studies (CREST)
The specific objectives of this project are to identify and describe the processes that are important in determining rates of coral-reef construction. How quickly the skeletons of calcifying organisms accumulate to form massive barrier-reef structure is determined by processes of both construction (how fast organisms grow and reproduce) and destruction (how fast reefs break down by mechanical...
Local-scale ecosystem resilience amid global-scale ocean change: the coral reef example
Coral reefs are massive, wave resistant structures found throughout the tropics, where they have long attracted attention for their beauty, ecological importance, and rich biological diversity. However, in recent years attention to these systems has focused on their downturn in health and the potential that they effectively could disappear within a century. Yet while many coral reefs have...
Improving estimates of coral reef construction and erosion with in-situ measurements
The decline in living coral since the 1970s has conspicuously slowed reef construction on a global scale, but the related process of reef erosion is less visible and not often quantified. Here we present new data on the constructional and deconstructional side of the carbonate-budget equation in the Florida Keys, U.S.A. We documented Orbicella spp...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Toth, Lauren T.; Hudson, J. Harold; Goodwin, William B.; Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Bartlett, Lucy (Contractor); Whitcher, Elizabeth M. Climate change, coral loss, and the curious case of the parrotfish paradigm: Why don't marine protected areas improve reef resilience?
Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building corals. However, in a literature review, we find little empirical support for the notion of managed resilience. We outline some...
Bruno, John F.; Cote, Isabelle M.; Toth, Lauren T. The 4.2 ka event, ENSO, and coral reef development
Variability of sea-surface temperature related to shifts in the mode of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been implicated as a possible forcing mechanism for the global-scale changes in tropical and subtropical precipitation known as the 4.2 ka event. We review records of coral reef development and paleoceanography from the tropical...
Toth, Lauren T.; Aronson, Richard B. How do upwelling and El Niño impact coral reef growth? A guided, inquiry-based lesson
This lesson uses real-world data to guide students toward understanding how climate and ocean variables impact coral reef growth. To begin this activity, students hypothesize how changes in environmental conditions could affect coral reef growth. They then compare metrics for reef growth (linear growth and percent coral cover) between two reefs in...
Gravinese, Philip M.; Toth, Lauren T.; Randall, Carly J.; Aronson, Richard B. Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata
The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is...
Flannery, Jennifer A.; Richey, Julie N.; Toth, Lauren T.; Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Poore, Richard Z. A 3,000‐year lag between the geological and ecological shutdown of Florida's coral reefs
The global‐scale degradation of coral reefs has reached a critical threshold wherein further declines threaten both ecological functionality and the persistence of reef structure. Geological records can provide valuable insights into the long‐term controls on reef development that may be key to solving the modern coral‐reef crisis. Our analyses of...
Toth, Lauren T.; Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Shinn, Eugene A. Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial...
Toth, Lauren T.; Cheng, Hai; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Ashe, Erica; Richey, Julie N. Plasticity in skeletal characteristics of nursery-raised staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis
Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is a threatened species and the primary focus of western Atlantic reef restoration efforts to date. We compared linear extension, calcification rate, and skeletal density of nursery-raised A. cervicornis branches reared for 6 months either on blocks attached to substratum or hanging from...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Bartels, Erich; Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Enochs, Ian C.; Kolodziej, Graham; Toth, Lauren T.; Manzello, Derek P. Experimental data comparing two coral grow-out methods in nursery-raised Acropora cervicornis
Staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, is a threatened species and the primary focus of western Atlantic reef-restoration efforts to date. As part of the USGS Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies project (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/crest/), we investigated skeletal characteristics of nursery-grown staghorn coral reared using two commonly used grow-out...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Bartels, Erich; Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Enochs, Ian C.; Kolodziej, Graham; Toth, Lauren; Manzello, Derek P. A geological perspective on the degradation and conservation of western Atlantic coral reefs
Continuing coral-reef degradation in the western Atlantic is resulting in loss of ecological and geologic functions of reefs. With the goal of assisting resource managers and stewards of reefs in setting and measuring progress toward realistic goals for coral-reef conservation and restoration, we examined reef degradation in this region from a...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Toth, Lauren T.
USGS research on Atlantic coral reef ecosystems
Overview Coral reefs are massive, biomineralized structures that protect coastal communities by acting as barriers to hazards such as hurricanes and tsunamis. They provide sand for beaches through the natural process of erosion, support tourism and recreational industries, and provide essential habitat for fisheries. The continuing global...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Yates, Kimberly K.; Zawada, David G.; Richey, Julie N.; Kellogg, Christina A.; Toth, Lauren T. Holocene variability in the intensity of wind-gap upwelling in the tropical eastern Pacific
Wind-driven upwelling in Pacific Panamá is a significant source of oceanographic variability in the tropical eastern Pacific. This upwelling system provides a critical teleconnection between the Atlantic and tropical Pacific that may impact climate variability on a global scale. Despite its importance to oceanographic circulation, ecology,...
Toth, Lauren T.; Aronson, Richard B.; Cheng, Hai; Edwards, R. Lawrence
New USGS manuscript documents unprecedented shift in coral species composition of Florida’s reefs
Lauren Toth (Research Oceanographer, SPCMSC), Ilsa Kuffner (Research Marine Biologist, SPCMSC), and Anastasios Stathakopoulos (Oceanographer) led a study published this week showing that the coral species that dominated Florida’s coral reef for the last 8000 years have been replaced by novel species assemblages in recent decades.
Coral-reef research featured in Science Magazine news article
A news feature published last week in Science Magazine highlights research by SPCMSC scientists into the problem of reef erosion in the Florida Keys.
New paper published on Florida Keys coral reef construction and erosion
A team of four scientists from St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center and collaborators from NOAA and Florida Institute of Technology published a paper in the journal Limnology and Oceanography. The research was conducted in the Florida Keys including sites in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Dry Tortugas National Park, and Biscayne National Park.
USGS Research Oceanographer receives international award
Lauren Toth (Research Oceanographer, SPCMSC) was awarded the International Coral Reef Society’s Young Scientist award in recognition of an exceptional series of publications.
Scientists to Attend "Reef Futures 2018" Symposium on Reef Restoration
Research Marine Biologist Ilsa Kuffner, Research Oceanographer Lauren Toth, and Oceanographer Anastasios Stathakopoulos will travel to Key Largo, FL, December 10 to 14 to attend "Reef Futures 2018: A Coral Restoration and Intervention-Science Symposium."
New coral reef study to begin at Buck Island National Park Service unit on St. Croix
Scientists travel to Buck Island Reef National Monument to plan a new study and to assess hurricane impacts to the coral reefs surrounding Buck Island.