February 17: Joshua Voss, Ph.D. - A Decade of Demise? Charting the Past, and Future, of Florida’s Coral Reefs

About the Lecture

Coral reefs are experiencing a recent period of severe decline with losses of coral cover estimated to be 27% worldwide and 80% in the wider Caribbean. The Robertson Coral Reef Program at Harbor Branch is dedicated to understanding and preventing losses in both shallow and deep water coral communities that result from both natural and anthropogenic causes.

Through a partnership with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Dr. Voss helps to lead the Sanctuary’s Coral Disease and Condition Cruise each year surveying 50 reef sites from the Dry Tortugas up through Key Largo. This lecture will focus on the changes documented on coral reefs in the Florida Keys through this and other monitoring programs over the past decade. In addition, he will highlight the management strategies and new research that may shape the future of Florida’s coral reefs.

About the Speaker

Dr. Joshua Voss is an Assistant Research Professor in HBOI’s Robertson Coral Reef Program. He has 10 years of experience in coral reef ecology, focusing on coral health and the environmental factors that influence coral degradation in the wider Caribbean. His research integrates experimental and field monitoring approaches with advanced molecular techniques to understand the short- and long-term effects of stress and disease on coral physiology and ecology. He has lead more than 20 scientific expeditions and completed over 900 scientific dives primarily in the Bahamas, Florida Keys, and Dry Tortugas with additional investigations in Panama, Curacao, Bonaire, Dominica, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and St. Eustatius.

Dr. Voss currently serves as co-principal investigator and survey team leader in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary annual Coral Disease and Condition Cruise, co-principal investigator on three projects in the newly established NOAA Cooperative Institute for Exploration, Research, and Technology at HBOI, and an instructor in HBOI’s Semester by the Sea Program and Science Under Sail.

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