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Lauren Toth, Ph.D.

Lauren Toth is a Research Physical Scientist at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

I study the impacts of natural and anthropogenic environmental change on coral-reef ecosystems. My research combines geological and modern records to quantify the complex processes and environmental controls that determine the state and function of reefs over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. I approach each problem from an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing together knowledge and techniques from a variety of fields to develop a holistic understanding of reefs’ environmental setting and ecology. A central focus of my research is to provide new knowledge that is directly applicable to coral-reef management and restoration. 

Professional Experience

  • Geology Topic Editor for Coral Reefs, the flagship journal of the International Society for Reef Studies: 2021‒present.

  • Elected Chair of the Geological Society of America Marine and Coastal Geoscience Division: 2021‒2025.

  • Invited Visiting Faculty and Lead Instructor for the Northeastern University Three Seas Program’s Graduate Coral Reef Ecology Field Course in Panama: 2016–2020.

  • Mendenhall Postdoctoral Researcher, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL: 2014‒2016.

  • Research Scientist, Florida Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, Melbourne, FL: 2013‒2014.

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Florida Institute of Technology, Biological Sciences (2009–2013), Dissertation: Holocene coral-reef development in the tropical eastern Pacific

  • University of South Alabama Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Marine Science Graduate Program (2007–2008, transferred to Florida Institute of Technology)

  • B.S., University of Miami, Majors in Marine Science, Biology, and Motion Pictures, Minor in Chemistry (2002–2006)

Science and Products

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Image: Flat Cays, U.S. Virgin Islands Coral Reef

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...
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Coral Microbial Ecology Laboratory
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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...
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Map of the Florida Keys Reef Tract

Holocene Coral-Reef Development

With the continuing threat of climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances, the future of Florida's coral reefs is uncertain. One way to gain insights into the future trajectories of Florida's coral reefs is to investigate how they responded to environmental disturbances in the past.
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Holocene Coral-Reef Development

With the continuing threat of climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances, the future of Florida's coral reefs is uncertain. One way to gain insights into the future trajectories of Florida's coral reefs is to investigate how they responded to environmental disturbances in the past.
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USGS science for a changing world logo

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 deterio
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John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
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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 deterio
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Uranium-Thorium Ages for Late Holocene Corals from the Southeast Florida Nearshore Ridge Complex

This data release compiles Uranium-Thorium (U-Th) dating data for late Holocene coral samples collected from the Nearshore Ridge Complex (NRC) off Pompano Beach, Southeast Florida (SEFL; Figure 1). The samples were collected under Scientific Activity Licenses (SAL) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (SAL-18-1659A-SRP) and with permission from Broward County Environmental Pr
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Reef-census Data from Buck Island Reef National Monument

In July of 2016, Florida Institute of Technology researchers, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), conducted reef-census surveys at 54 sites around Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The sites are divided across two reef sectors (North and South) and three reef habitats (fore reef, reef crest, and back reef) (Figure 1). These data were used to e
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Mangrove Peat Radiocarbon Ages From Snipe and Swan Key, FL

In 2016, researchers collected cores of mangrove peat from two islands in the Florida Keys: Snipe Key (24.679 degrees N, 81.653 degrees W) and Swan Key (25.349 degrees N, 80.251 degrees W) (Fig. 1). This data release contains the radiocarbon ages and associated data for peat samples analyzed throughout the two cores. These data were used by Khan and others (2022) to reconstruct the millennial-scal
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Local Radiocarbon Reservoir Age (Delta-R) Variability from the Nearshore and Open-Ocean Environments of the Florida Keys Reef Tract During the Holocene and Associated U-Series and Radiocarbon Data

Holocene-aged corals from reef cores collected throughout the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT; Fig. 1) were dated using a combination of U-series and radiocarbon techniques to quantify the millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age (delta-R) of the shallow water environments of south Florida. delta-R provides a measure of the deviation of local radiocarbon concentrations of
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Radiometric Ages and Descriptive Data for Holocene Corals From Southeast Florida

This data release compiles descriptive information (location, water depth, etc.) and radiometric ages from corals collected through the Southeast Florida Continental Reef Tract (SFCRT; fig. 1). The database includes data from studies published between 1977 and 2015 as well as previously unpublished data. The samples were originally collected using coral-reef coring or other geologic sampling metho
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

DNA Microsatellite Markers for Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides) from the Florida Keys Reef Tract

This data release includes allele sizes of 11 previously published microsatellites for 39 individuals of Porites astreoides (mustard hill coral) collected in the spring of 2017 from four locations in the Florida Keys: Fowey Rocks, Crocker Reef, Sombrero Reef, and Pulaski Shoal. Additionally, this data release also contains the DNA concentration of the extracted DNA prior to PCR reactions for the s
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Experimental coral-growth data and time-series imagery for Acropora palmata in the Florida Keys, U.S.A.

The USGS Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies project (https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/crest/) provides science that helps resource managers tasked with the stewardship of coral reef resources. This data release contains data on coral-growth rates and time-series photographs taken of colonies of the elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, grown at five sites on the Florida Keys reef tract from spring 2018 to autumn
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

South Florida Holocene Coral Sea-level Database

Holocene-aged coral samples from the south Florida region were extensively characterized to create a new database of verified sea-level data (Stathakopoulos and others, in review). The samples were originally collected using coral-reef coring or other geologic sampling methods and were obtained by several different researchers from studies spanning the interval of 1977 to 2017. Many of these sampl
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

The Absolute and Relative Composition of Holocene Reef Cores From the Florida Keys Reef Tract

This data release provides a summary of the absolute percent composition of all recovered material and relative percent composition of coral taxa in the Holocene-aged intervals of 61 coral-reef cores collected throughout the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT) housed in the USGS Core Archive in St. Petersburg, FL. Estimated ages for distinct depths within each core are also provided; those ages were ei
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Experimental Data on Construction and Erosion of Orbicella Coral Reefs in the Florida Keys, U.S.A.

The USGS Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies project provides science that helps resource managers tasked with the stewardship of coral reef resources. This data release contains data on coral-growth rates for Orbicella sp. coral colonies grown at five sites on the Florida Keys reef tract from 2013 to 2015, survey data for census-based carbonate budgeting at Hen and Chickens Reef (Islamorada, Florida),
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Sr/Ca and Linear Extension Data for Five Modern O. faveolata Colonies from Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, USA

Strontium/Calcium (Sr/Ca) ratios act as a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) in the skeletons of aragonite producing organisms, such as massive corals. The Sr/Ca-SST proxy shows promise when applied to single Orbicella faveolata colonies in the Atlantic/Caribbean regions, but it is currently unknown how well the Sr/Ca-SST proxy performs between colonies of this species. It is necessary to und
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Descriptive Core Logs, Core Photographs, Radiocarbon Ages, and Accretion Data from Holocene Reef Cores Collected Throughout the Florida Keys Reef Tract

The USGS core archive (Reich and others, 2009; USGS Core Archive) houses an extensive collection of coral-reef cores that USGS researchers have collected from throughout the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT; fig. 1). USGS scientists have compiled all available data on the 71 core records that recovered Holocene reef framework, including radiometric ages (radiocarbon and U-series), data on reef develo
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Three USGS scientists sit on the back of a research vessel and prepare for a dive. link
Seafloor Erosion in the Florida Keys (AD)
Three USGS scientists sit on the back of a research vessel and prepare for a dive. link
Seafloor Erosion in the Florida Keys
Two divers float near coral reef with measuring tools to survey marine life
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Divers construct transect off of Looe Key
Three USGS scientists sit on the back of a research vessel and prepare for a dive.
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CREST team prepares for field work
Scuba divers underwater on sea floor working with equipment. link
Lauren Toth - Coral Restoration
Scuba divers underwater on sea floor working with equipment. link
Lauren Toth - Coral Restoration (AD)
several branching corals among a relatively flat reef area
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Restored staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) at Looe Key reef
a black long-spined sea urchin hides among rocks and corals on the seafloor
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Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin
Dead branching corals underwater on a reef
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Dead elkhorn coral at Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
A black long-spined sea urchin hides under a rock on the seafloor
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Diadema antillarum, the long-spined sea urchin
A scientist drives a 20 foot long aluminum tube into a coral reef to collect a coral core.
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Taking a coral core in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama
A diver operates an underwater coral core drill, drilling into a coral reef.
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Dr. Lauren Toth operates an underwater coral drill
a large thicket of bright orange branching coral colonies in blue water
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Healthy elkhorn coral at Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
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Stony coral tissue loss disease accelerated shifts in coral composition and declines in reef accretion potential in the Florida Keys

Outbreaks of coral disease have been a dominant force shaping western Atlantic coral-reef assemblages since the late 1970s. Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is nonetheless having an unprecedented impact in the region. Whereas numerous studies over the last decade have worked to characterize this novel pathogen and its impacts on coral populations, few have quantified its functional effects
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Lauren Toth, Travis A. Courtney, Michael A. Colella, Robert R. Ruzicka
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Discovery of a rare pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) death assemblage off southeast Florida reveals multi-century persistence during the late Holocene

In recent years, coral populations in the western Atlantic have undergone widespread declines from climate change, anthropogenic stressors, and infectious disease outbreaks. The pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, has been one of the most affected species, prompting its listing as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act in 2014 and critically endangered under the IUCN Red List in
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Alexander B. Modys, Lauren Toth, Richard A. Mortlock, Anton E. Olenik, William F. Precht
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

The potential for coral reef restoration to mitigate coastal flooding as sea levels rise

The ability of reefs to protect coastlines from storm-driven flooding hinges on their capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise. Here, we show how and whether coral restoration could achieve the often-cited goal of reversing the impacts of coral-reef degradation to preserve this essential function. We combined coral-growth measurements and carbonate-budget assessments of reef-accretion potential a
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Lauren Toth, Curt Storlazzi, Elizabeth M. Whitcher, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Ellen Quataert, Johan Reyns, Robert T. McCall, Anastasios Stathakopoulos, Zandy Hillis-Starr, Nathaniel H. Holloway, Kristin A. Ewen, Clayton G. Pollock, Tess Code, Richard B. Aronson
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Upwelling, climate change, and the shifting geography of coral reef development

The eastern tropical Pacific is oceanographically unfavorable for coral-reef development. Nevertheless, reefs have persisted there for the last 7000 years. Rates of vertical accretion during the Holocene have been similar in the strong-upwelling Gulf of Panamá (GoP) and the adjacent, weak-upwelling Gulf of Chiriquí (GoC); however, seasonal upwelling in the GoP exacerbated a climate-driven hiatus i
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Victor Rodriguez-Ruano, Lauren Toth, Ian C. Enochs, Carly J. Randall, Richard B. Aronson
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Climate-modulated range expansion of reef-building coral communities off southeast Florida during the late Holocene

The Holocene reefs off southeast Florida provide unique insights into the biogeographical and ecological response of western Atlantic coral reefs to past climate change that can be used to evaluate future climate impacts. However, previous studies have focused on millennial-scale change during the stable mid-Holocene, making it difficult to make inferences about the impact of shorter-term variabil
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Alex B. Modys, Anton E. Olenik, Richard A. Mortlock, Lauren Toth, William F. Precht
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Assigning causality to events in the Holocene record of coral reefs

The uncemented reef-frameworks of Pacific Panamá, which have been dominated throughout the Holocene by branching corals of the genus Pocillopora, experienced a hiatus in vertical accretion lasting c. 2300 years, beginning c. 4100 years ago. The hiatus has been attributed to an increase in variability of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We tested the alternative hypothesis that the hiatus w
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Victor Rodriguez-Ruano, Lauren Toth, Richard B. Aronson
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Relative sea-level change in South Florida during the past ~5000 years

A paucity of detailed relative sea-level (RSL) reconstructions from low latitudes hinders efforts to understand the global, regional, and local processes that cause RSL change. We reconstruct RSL change during the past ~5 ka using cores of mangrove peat at two sites (Snipe Key and Swan Key) in the Florida Keys. Remote sensing and field surveys established the relationship between peat-forming mang
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Nicole S. Khan, Erica L. Ashe, Ryan P. Moyer, Andrew C. Kemp, Simon E. Engelhart, Matthew J. Brain, Lauren Toth, Amanda R. Chappel, Margaret Christie, Robert E. Kopp, Benjamin P. Horton
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Millennia-old coral holobiont DNA provides insight into future adaptive trajectories

Ancient DNA (aDNA) has been applied to evolutionary questions across a wide variety of taxa. Here, for the first time, we leverage aDNA from millennia-old fossil coral fragments to gain new insights into a rapidly declining western Atlantic reef ecosystem. We sampled four Acropora palmata fragments (dated 4215 BCE - 1099 CE) obtained from two Florida Keys reef cores. From these samples, we establi
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Carly B. Scott, Anny Cárdenas, Matthew Mah, Vagheesh Narasimhan, Nadin Rohland, Lauren Toth, Christian Voostra, David Reich, Mikhail V Matz
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St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Documenting the multiple facets of a subsiding landscape from coastal cities and wetlands to the continental shelf

Land subsidence is a settling, sinking, or collapse of the land surface. In the southeastern United States, subsidence is frequently observed as sinkhole collapse in karst environments, wetland degradation and loss in coastal and other low-lying areas, and inundation of coastal urban communities. Human activities such as fluid extraction, mining, and overburden alteration can cause or exacerbate s
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James G. Flocks, Eileen McGraw, John Barras, Julie Bernier, Mike Bradley, Devin L. Galloway, James Landmeyer, W. Scott McBride, Christopher Smith, Kathryn Smith, Christopher Swarzenski, Lauren Toth
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center (CFWSC), Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Gulf of Mexico

The past, present, and future of coral reef growth in the Florida Keys

Coral-reef degradation is driving global-scale reductions in reef-building capacity and the ecological, geological, and socioeconomic functions it supports. The persistence of those essential functions will depend on whether coral-reef management is able to rebalance the competing processes of reef accretion and erosion. Here, we reconstructed census-based carbonate budgets of 46 reefs throughout
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Lauren Toth, Travis A. Courtney, Michael A. Colella, Selena Anne-Marie Johnson, Robert R. Ruzicka
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Scale dependence of coral reef oases and their environmental correlates

Identifying relatively intact areas within ecosystems and determining the conditions favoring their existence is necessary for effective management in the context of widespread environmental degradation. In this study, we used 3766 surveys of randomly selected sites in the United States and U.S. Territories to identify the correlates of sites categorized as “oases” (defined as sites with relativel
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Robin Elahi, Peter J. Edmunds, Ruth D. Gates, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Brian B. Barnes, Iliana Chollett, Travis A. Courtney, James R. Guest, Elizabeth A. Lenz, Lauren Toth, T. Shay Viehman, Ivor D. Williams
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

A statistical framework for integrating nonparametric proxy distributions into geological reconstructions of relative sea level

Robust, proxy-based reconstructions of relative sea-level (RSL) change are critical to distinguishing the processes that drive spatial and temporal sea-level variability. The relationships between individual proxies and RSL can be complex and are often poorly represented by traditional methods that assume Gaussian likelihood distributions. We develop a new statistical framework to estimate past RS
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Erica L. Ashe, Nicole S. Khan, Lauren Toth, Andrea Dutton, Robert E. Kopp
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Non-USGS 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.
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 Reefs 33:565–577, doi: 10.1007/s00338-014-1158-x.
Smith, T. B., Glynn, P. W., Maté, J. L., Toth, L. T. and Gyory, J., 2014, A depth refugium from catastrophic coral bleaching prevents regional extinction. Ecology, 95: 1663-1673. doi:10.1890/13-0468.1.
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.
Aronson, R. B., Precht, W. F., Macintyre, I. G. and Toth, L. T., 2012, Catastrophe and the life span of coral reefs. Ecology, 93: 303-313, doi:10.1890/11-1037.1. doi:10.1126/science.1221168.
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.
Enochs IC, Toth LT, Brandtneris VW, Afflerbach JC, Manzello DP, 2011, Environmental determinants of motile cryptofauna on an eastern Pacific coral reef. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 438:105-118. doi:10.3354/meps09259.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Keys Carbonate Budget Calculations and Analysis

The code 'Keys Carbonate Budget Calculations', written in R (v.4.0.4; https://www.R-project.org/), uses benthic coral-reef survey data and fish survey data to calculate coral-reef carbonate budgets following the ReefBudget v2 methodology (http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/reefbudget/; Perry and Lange, 2019). The carbonate budgets include estimates (means +/- standard errors) of gross carbonate product
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Coral Bleaching Event Can Increase Flood Risk, Economic Losses

Coral reefs are known for their natural beauty, biodiversity, and support of important local fisheries, but their value and importance extend even...

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SPCMSC researchers study the impact of coral restoration on reef growth

USGS researchers will conduct carbonate budget surveys of coral reefs in the Florida Keys to quantify how ongoing coral restoration by Mote Marine...

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New project led by USGS scientist Lauren Toth and academic collaborators will evaluate global relationships between ecological diversity and ecosystem stability in response to climate shocks

A new USGS-led project will use information about ecological diversity and climate history to predict ecosystem stability, resistance, and recovery to...

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A window of opportunity to build coastal resilience: how to optimize coral restoration to reduce impacts of sea-level rise

Restoration efforts are being implemented on coral reefs around the globe, and science is needed to ensure their success. A new U.S. Geological Survey...

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Climate change will continue preventing coral reef growth in subtropics

Based on new research, USGS scientists predict future climate change will continue to suppress coral reef growth in the subtropics.

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New USGS study suggests that high-latitude environments are unlikely to support coral reef growth as the climate warms

Researcher Lauren T. Toth (Research Physical Scientist) of the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) led a study published this...

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USGS Researchers Travel to Florida Keys to Conduct Reef Bioerosion Surveys

Staff from the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center will collect measurements from long-term coral-reef monitoring sites in the Florida...

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Oceanographer Lauren Toth publishes lesson plan to teach how climate influences coral growth

Research Oceanographer Lauren Toth from the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center co-authored a lesson plan published in Oceanography to...

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USGS oceanographer featured in a comic about corals and marine protected areas

USGS researcher Lauren Toth was recently featured in an informative cartoon about the stressors imposed on corals even within marine protected areas...

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New manuscript shows that warming has reversed long-standing environmental gradients on eastern Pacific coral reefs

A recent manuscript published by Research Oceanographer Lauren Toth with academic collaborators suggest that ocean warming is shifting which...

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New manuscript shows that internal wave cooling may provide global-scale refuge from coral bleaching

Lauren Toth (Research Oceanographer, SPCMSC) published a manuscript this week with academic collaborators showing that the cooling provided to many...

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New video abstract highlighting published results on Florida Keys coral-reef erosion

A video abstract summarizing USGS work published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography was released on the journal’s YouTube channel. The work was...

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