Megan Nolan

A 7 panel figure showing Madracis interjecta in various forms, growing in a bioherm formation and as an individual colony. The 6th panel shows a colony being sampled by the arm of an ROV, and the last panel shows a close up of a branch under a Scanning Electron Microscope.

Our article is out in Ecology and Evolution! We use SDMs to model the habitat distribution of the coral Madracis interjecta in the mesophotic/ deep Red Sea. We also found Madracis bioherms to occur in deeper and cooler waters than the individual colonies 🦑🪸
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

As countries scramble for minerals, the seabed beckons. Will mining it be a disaster? – visual explainer Mining companies are poised to mine the deep sea – but opposition is growing. What is the environmental cost, and are these metals actually needed?

A nice visual explanation of deep sea mining and the threats it presents!

Coral Reef Microbiome This book focuses on Structure, Function and Ecology of the coral microbiome and associated active interventions to conserve and restore coral reefs.

New Springer book: Coral Reef Microbiome! The most up-to-date summary of microbiomes of corals and how microbiomes can support coral restoration/rehabilitation!

Thanks to Raquel Peixoto, @reefgenomics.bsky.social, and all my coauthors for letting me contribute!

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Bacterial inoculation elicits changes to the coral epigenome Environmental shifts can cause epigenetic modifications in corals, which are associated with changes in gene expression and physiology, though it remains unclear if associated bacteria can also induce...

Check out our preprint where we discovered a link between bacterial inoculations and epigenome changes in coral, with implications for coral resilience!

doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Excited to be at #DSBS17 this week in Hong Kong! If you’re here this week, I’m presenting tomorrow at 3:15 in LT B- come by to find out more about the distribution of a mesophotic and deep coral in the Red Sea 🌊🪸

Widespread inconsistency in logger deployment methods in coral reef studies may bias perceptions of thermal regimes Ocean warming is the greatest threat to coral reefs, prompting a need to accurately monitor in situ temperatures. Advancements in sensing technologies have led to a proliferation of temperature logger...

🚨New paper alert! Do you deploy loggers to monitor temperature in coral reefs, or any shallow aquatic environments? Do you shade them from direct sunlight? You should! 🌊🦑 journals.plos.org/climate/arti...

Courtesy of Meaghan Sorce at the @harvard.bsky.social museum of natural history. 😉

Some positive news for the deep sea!

No- we used 10,000 background points dispersed throughout the study site

Just trying to be like you! 🫶

Women are under-represented at senior levels in #academia globally, & across all #science 🧪 disciplines, as shown by these "scissor-shaped curves" ✂️

So how can we ever achieve #gender #equality?

We discuss various strategies in this #Cell Commentary

#WomeninSTEM

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
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Behind the paper: Habitat suitability models reveal extensive distribution of deep warm-water coral frameworks in the Red Sea

I wrote a blogpost on our recent paper! 📄 I summarised how we developed MaxEnt models that estimated a high abundance of deep coral frameworks in the northern Red Sea 🪸🌊🧪

Even from observations we could see that these were extensive frameworks, but the models suggested they were also be abundant across the area!

Thanks so much!

This is great! I’d love to be added too if possible!

Deep coral framework constructed by corals of the family Dendrophylliidae

Deep coral framework built by corals of the family Caryophylliidae with associated lace corals (Stylaster tritoni)

In comparison, these deep reefs are virtually unknown! They present a potential deep sea carbonate factory in the Red Sea and definitely deserve more attention!

A biodiverse and healthy coral stand in the northern Red Sea

Pocillopora and Porites in the shallows of the northern Red Sea

A shallow reef surrounded by Anthias, typical of the Red Sea

We found that these frameworks could cover around 250 km2- equalling 1/3 of the area of shallow reefs in the same region. These shallow reefs are well known, well studied, and the focus of KCRI’s huge coral restoration project
Beautiful photos courtesy of @reefwally.bsky.social

Habitat suitability models reveal extensive distribution of deep warm-water coral frameworks in the Red Sea Communications Earth & Environment - Deep-water coral frameworks may be an important and understudied source of biodiversity in the Red Sea, according to habitat suitability modelling generated...

Read more here about these frameworks built by coral species of either Dendrophylliidae or Caryophylliidae

🎊 Published: deep, warm-water coral frameworks of the Red Sea 🎊
We used habitat suitability models to show just how extensive these important biodiversity hotspots are! 🪸🌊

Thank you!!

I’d love to be added! 🪸

If you see this, please repost with a favourite photo of the sky that you’ve taken recently:

Hey all, please RT this new starter pack for locating our fellow ecological modellers on Blue Sky! And please reply to this post if you'd like to be added to the starter pack!
go.bsky.app/EfUQaM2

I’d love to be added if possible!