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.
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.
Science and Products
Date published: October 5, 2018
Status: Active 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...
Date published: August 19, 2015
Status: Active 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...
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: May 21, 2019
The absolute and relative composition of Holocene reef cores collected between 1976 and 2017 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 a
Date published: April 15, 2019
Experimental coral-growth rate, reef survey, and time-series imagery data collected between 1998 and 2017 to investigate construction and erosion of Orbicella coral reefs 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 for Orbicella sp. coral colonies grown at five sites on the Florida Keys reef tract from 2013 to 2015, survey...
Date published: June 18, 2018
Sr/Ca and linear extension data for five modern Orbicella faveolata colonies from Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, USA
This data release includes new, sub-annual Strontium/Calcium (Sr/Ca) and annual linear extension rates covering a period between 1980 and 2012 for five colonies of the massive coral, Orbicella faveolata (O. faveolata). All five coral colonies were collected live by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists from the Dry Tortugas National Park (DTNP), Florida (FL) in Au
Date published: April 26, 2018
Descriptive core logs, high-resolution images and derived data for Holocene reef cores collected from 1976 to 2017 along the Florida Keys reef tract
The USGS core archive (Reich and others, 2009; https://olga.er.usgs.gov/coreviewer/) houses an extensive collection of coral-reef cores that USGS researchers have collected from throughout the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT). USGS scientists have compiled all available data on the 71 core records that recovered Holocene reef framework,...
Date published: September 7, 2017
Local radiocarbon reservoir age (ΔR) 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) were dated using a combination of U-series and radiocarbon techniques to quantify the millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age (ΔR) of the shallow water environments of south Florida. ΔR provides a measure of the deviation of local radiocarbon concentrations of
Date published: February 14, 2017
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/), scientists investigated skeletal characteristics of nursery-grown staghorn coral reared using two commonly used...
Year Published: 2020
Reestablishing a stepping-stone population of the threatened elkhorn coral Acropora palmata to aid regional recovery
Recovery of the elkhorn coral Acropora palmata is critical to reversing coral reef ecosystem collapse in the western Atlantic, but the species is severely threatened. To gauge potential for the species’ restoration in Florida, USA, we conducted an assisted migration experiment where 50 coral fragments of 5 nursery-raised genetic strains...
Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Toth, Lauren T.; Bartlett, Lucy
Year Published: 2020
7700-year persistence of an isolated, free-living coral assemblage in the Galápagos Islands: A model for coral refugia?
In an eastern-Pacific coral assemblage at Devil’s Crown, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, two coral species, Psammocora stellata and Cycloseris (Diaseris) distorta, form dense populations of unattached colonies on sand and rubble substrata. In the Galápagos, living C. (D.) distorta is found only at this single site, whereas populations of P. stellata...
Feingold, Joshua; Reigl, Bernhard; Hendrickson, Katie; Toth, Lauren T.; Cheng, Hai; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Aronson, Richard B.
Year Published: 2020
Disturbances drive changes in coral community assemblages and coral calcification capacity
Anthropogenic environmental change has increased coral reef disturbance regimes in recent decades, altering the structure and function of many coral reefs globally. In this study, we used coral community survey data collected from 1996 to 2015 to evaluate coral calcification capacity (CCC) dynamics with respect to recorded pulse disturbances for...
Courtney, Travis A.; Barnes, Brian B.; Chollett, Iliana; Elahi, Robin; Gross, Kevin; Guest, James R.; Kuffner, Ilsa B.; Lenz, Elizabeth A.; Nelson, Hanna R; Rogers, Caroline; Toth, Lauren T.; Andersson, Andreas J
Year Published: 2020
Digging into the geologic record of environmentally driven changes in coral-reef development
This lesson uses data based on real-world geological archives to guide students toward understanding how climate and oceanography have impacted coral-reef growth over the last 5000 years. The objective of the lesson is for students to determine the relationship between environmental variability and coral-reef development over millennial timescales...
Gravinese, Philip M.; Aronson, Richard B.; Toth, Lauren T.
Year Published: 2020
A revised Holocene coral sea-level database from the Florida reef tract, USA
The coral reefs and mangrove habitats of the south Florida region have long been used in sea-level studies for the western Atlantic because of their broad geographic extent and composition of sea-level tracking biota. The data from this region have been used to support several very different Holocene sea-level reconstructions (SLRs) over the years...
Stathakopoulos, Anastasios; Riegl, Bernhard M; Toth, Lauren T.
Year Published: 2019
Cultivating future environmental stewards: A case study at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park
Our study supports previous research suggesting that participation in citizen-science programs can significantly enhance student learning and attitudes about science, while simultaneously promoting environmental stewardship. Providing students with the opportunity to collect scientific data through citizen-science programs can increase their...
Frehm, Veronica L.; Gravinese, Philip M.; Toth, Lauren T.
Year Published: 2019
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; Whitcher, Elizabeth M.
Year Published: 2019
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.
Year Published: 2019
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.
Year Published: 2018
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.
Year Published: 2018
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.
Year Published: 2018
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.Pre-USGS Publications
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.
Date published: February 4, 2021
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 Keys to assess historic rates of reef bioerosion, from February 2–7, 2021.
Date published: March 26, 2020
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 teach how climate and oceanography influence the long-term growth of coral reefs.
Date published: December 4, 2019
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 environments in Pacific Panama will support coral reefs in the future.
Date published: November 25, 2019
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 coral-reef environments by internal waves mitigated thermal stress during the 2015–2016 global El Niño event.
Date published: October 18, 2019
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 completed by four scientists from St. Petersburg Coastal & Marine Science Center and collaborators from NOAA and the Florida Institute of Technology.
Date published: June 6, 2019
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.
Date published: May 2, 2019
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.
Date published: May 2, 2019
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.
Date published: March 21, 2019
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.
Date published: December 19, 2018
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."
Date published: November 1, 2018
The Development and Demise of Florida’s Coral Reefs
A new study published in the journal Global Change Biology by scientists at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center suggests that unlike most other reefs, the geological decline of Florida’s reefs preceded modern coral-reef degradation by at least 3,000 years.
Date published: October 23, 2018
Florida's Coral Reefs Provide Window into the Past
USGS study finds most have grown little in 3000 years