Dr. Carly Kenkel

Calling all researchers working on *Genomics of Adaptation to Extreme Thermal Environments*
I'm serving as a guest editor of an upcoming collection in BMC Genomics and am eager to read your submission! More on scope and how to contribute here: bit.ly/4kH3PIx 🧪 @springer.springernature.com

🧪 Dr. Emily Aguirre's final dissertation chapter is published! She isolated a putative bacterial symbiont then cocultured it with axenic algal symbionts to ask how it impacted growth and gene expression - results were unexpected but do support a beneficial relationship - read more here rdcu.be/eUKQz

Staghorn and Elkhorn Coral Are Functionally Extinct Off Florida, Researchers Say Elkhorn and staghorn coral are now functionally extinct around the state, researchers say, meaning they no longer play any significant role in their ecosystem.

After a searing ocean heat wave in 2023, two of the most historically important coral species in Florida are functionally extinct from the state’s reef, scientists have found.

Marine heat wave caused key part of Florida's coral reef to become "functionally extinct," report says A record 2023 heat wave all but eradicated two species of coral that historically served as the backbone of Florida's reefs, researchers said in a new report.

Some additional coverage of our report on the major loss of acroporid corals in the Florida Keys by @cbsnews.com:

www.cbsnews.com/news/florida...

Heat-driven functional extinction of Caribbean Acropora corals from Florida’s Coral Reef In 2023, a record-setting marine heat wave triggered the ninth mass coral bleaching event on Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR). We examined spatial patterns of heat exposure along the ~560-kilometer length o...

Results I'm sad to share but must be told - branching coral are now functionally extinct in Florida - to learn more check out the full study www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... and our personal summary theconversation.com/2-iconic-cor...

🧪🌏 Why some coral genotypes die when planted to a reef, while others thrive? interesting leads from *constitutively expressed* immunity-related genes @drcarl.bsky.social www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

Nearly T2T, phased genome assemblies of corals reveal haplotype diversity and the evolutionary process of gene expansion Abstract. Gene family expansion illustrates a critical aspect of evolutionary adaptation. However, the mechanisms by which gene family expansions emerge an

Today’s #DailyCoralRead 📖🪸

🧬 Two new telomere-to-telomere genome assemblies for Acropora digitifera and A. tenuis! 🧬

The study reveals highly disordered genomic regions with potentially neofunctionalized genes from lineage-specific expansions. 🧪

🔗 http://tiny.cc/z61q001

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change

🧪There are no words.

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent

Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/s...

Without a research arm to support its regulatory arm, Americans will get sicker, and preventable deaths will go up.

The EPA was started by (Republican!) President Richard Nixon in 1970. Some of its first regulations were to ban DDT and leaded gasoline, as well as the Clean Air and Water Acts.

Envisioning a future for Caribbean coral reefs: lessons in resilience and collaboration - Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability Creating a more sustainable and environmentally just future for our planet and all who live on it

I authored a blog post for @uscwrigley.usc.edu about the work I've been doing along with fellow lab members at the CEE Lab (led by @drcarl.bsky.social) to identify intervention priorities for coral restoration in the Caribbean under the impacts of climate change!

dornsife.usc.edu/wrigley/2025...

Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

You may have seen a lot of headlines since yesterday about budget negotiations, the threat to Medicaid & new restrictions that block transgender care.

It's hard to track it all. Really grateful for the @unbreaking.org team that did incredible work to push updates to our pages today - unbreaking.org

Ecology/Evolution/Marine Biology labs recruiting for Fall 2026 Please complete this form if you are a PI recruiting graduate students for a Fall 2026 start. If you are NOT recruiting, feel free to share the response sheet with prospective students looking for lab...

Its that time again - the list of Ecology/Evolution/Marine Bio Labs recruiting grad students for Fall 2026 is live!
PIs enter your position info here: forms.gle/2XTHBP6CZGEn...
Prospective students (and PIs not recruiting) share the composite list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Please share! 🧪

Really wish people would stop talking about the problem with Science under Trump as “budget cuts”.

No. Budgets are set deliberatively by elected members of congress. Budgets haven’t been cut.

What’s happening are *purges* and *censorship*.

I didn’t realize how much I needed this #StandUpForScience rally - thank you #LA organizers!! 🧪

A Dear Colleague letter in defense of DEI, by Shaun Harper Shaun Harper identifies 11 specific actions higher ed institutions can take to uphold their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

🧪 www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blog...

list of banned keywords

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Cryptic coral diversity is associated with symbioses, physiology, and response to thermal challenge Cryptic coral hosts differ in phenotypes relevant to climate change.

Happy to share our new paper "Cryptic coral diversity is associated with symbioses, physiology, and response to thermal challenge". Check it out and share with your friends!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out my first chapter 📖🧬.

I’m very grateful to have worked with such a brilliant and supportive team 😊

Special thanks to @la-cientifica.bsky.social for sticking with this one through my mat leave and a pandemic and to @ecoevodanny.bsky.social for pushing through a messy mountain of PCRs and library preps!

Symbiont Community Changes Confer Fitness Benefits for Larvae in a Vertically Transmitting Coral We quantified the fitness consequences of changes in symbiont communities under a simulated heatwave in early life-history stages of Montipora digitata by tracking changes in their growth, survival, ...

Be sure to check out the paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... for more info on the performance differences; and for the first time, an exploration of family-level differences in symbiont community composition!

But the same pattern was not observed in the juvenile recruits

In parallel we saw big changes in symbiont community composition of surviving larvae under heat

In it he shows that symbiont shuffling may be a mechanism to increase thermal tolerance of Montipora digitata larvae, but that juvenile recruits seem to lack. Elevated temperature impacted survival in both larvae and juveniles, but comparatively, larvae survived for much longer than recruits

Grateful for some good news after this last week - first dissertation chapter for @ecoevodanny.bsky.social is out now in Ecology & Evolution! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🧪

Wrigley summer fellowship app is live!! Both NSF REU and Zinsmeyer - we've got 2 slots earmarked for our lab - apply to work with us! dornsife.usc.edu/wrigley/educ...

Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC Learn more about applying for Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC

I'm looking for a postdoc! The successful applicant will lead neuro- and comparative genomic analyses to characterize neurobiology-related genetic variation in wild coral populations. Learn more and apply here - I will be reviewing apps beginning Oct 18: usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUGGUOKZFwQ26TL5xPzupa35z2gAIGxpL5X-Az6gNFSCnZjA/viewform

Calling all #reeffutures conference attendees - consider donating your brainpower to our workshop!

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san-diego-receives-10-million-for-center-on-neurobiology-in-changing-environments

I'm recruiting a fully funded PhD student for a Fall 2025 start - see details below and learn more about my lab here: dornsife.usc.edu/carlslab/

UC San Diego Receives $10 Million for Center on Neurobiology in Changing Environments The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group has selected UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography to receive a four-year, $10 million grant to establish the Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in ...

It's finally official - excited to begin working with this team! Stay tuned for PhD and Postdoc positions in my lab as part of this project!!
today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...