Staff
Ashley Carreiro
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Ashley joined the lab in January 2020 as a technician, and in January of 2021 became a Master's student. After completing her M.S. at FAU Harbor Branch in December 2023, Ashley has become our lead lab technician. She received a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology from Florida State University. As a tech, Ashley has assisted with samples from the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas to better characterize population connectivity throughout the Florida Reef Tract and Gulf of Mexico and also analyzed 3D models to better assess the impacts of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) on corals in Southeast Florida. As a graduate student, Ashley explored the relationship between nutrients and SCTLD. Prior to joining the lab, she worked as the science coordinator at Marine Conservation Philippines where she led the long-term monitoring project of coral reefs used to assist in MPA management decisions in Negros Oriental. She also did an extensive amount of technical diving in the Philippines assessing the feasibility of monitoring mesophotic reefs.
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Graduate Students
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Ryan is a Ph.D. Student who recently completed his Master's in the lab in July 2019. Ryan’s thesis research focused on the coral species Montastraea cavernosa at several sites within two marine reserves on the Belize Barrier Reef. He used microsatellite markers and next-generation sequencing to examine how M. cavernosa populations and their assemblages of endosymbiotic algae (family Symbiodiniaceae) varied across a gradient from shallow to mesophotic depths. His doctoral research will expand the scale and scope of investigations into reef connectivity, including multiple coral and sponge species in Florida and the NW Gulf of Mexico. Ryan has been named a FAU Presidential Fellow and received a PADI grant to support his research. He earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Florida State University and worked as a researcher at NOAA’s Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary prior to joining the Voss Lab. While at FGBNMS he coordinated offshore field logistics for scientific diving missions and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) expeditions. He also ran quarterly long-term monitoring water quality sampling cruises and maintained long-term water quality sampling instrumentation.
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Alexis is a Ph.D. Student who joined the lab in August 2017. Her dissertation research focuses on the characterization of mesophotic and shallow coral reef communities off the coast of Cuba, Mexico, and the Florida Keys. Her research through CIOERT combines several molecular techniques to improve the understanding of the ecology, genetic connectivity, and associated symbiont assemblages of populations of the coral Montastraea cavernosa. Alexis has been awarded prestigious fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Florida Sea Grant, and the Women Divers Hall of Fame to support her work. She is a graduate of the University of Miami with dual degrees in Marine Science and Biology. Prior to her graduate work at HBOI, she worked in education and outreach and policy development for the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and Office of Protected Resources. As an undergraduate NOAA Hollings Scholar, she led coral health impact and human use surveys in Tumon Bay, Guam. She also worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Cnidarian Immunity Lab, focusing on wound healing processes in the coral, Pocillopora damicornis.
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Allie Klein is a Master’s Student who joined the lab in August 2020. She received a B.S. in Marine Biology and a B.A. in Environmental Chemistry with a minor in Sustainability from Roger Williams University. Throughout her four years at RWU, Allie was an outstanding research student in Dr. Koty Sharp's Lab and an INBRE-SURF fellow in both 2018 and 2019. Her senior thesis research focused on characterizing and assessing dynamics in the microbiome of the northern star coral, Astrangia poculata. Her work used florescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques to localize and identify key bacterial taxa of interest within the corals’ tissues. In 2018, Allie studied abroad for a semester at the BIOS station in Bermuda, scientific diving and conducting research in the Sargasso Sea. As a member of the Voss lab and the FAU Biology masters program, Allie plans to focus her thesis research on coral health and the recent stony coral tissue loss disease outbreak. She will be a key member of our dive team and contribute to FDEP and NOAA funded projects.
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Haley Davis is a Master’s student who joined the lab in June 2021. She obtained a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology from Baylor University in the spring of 2020. During her undergraduate studies, Haley was heavily involved in research through her role as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Cole Matson’s lab, where she spent time studying the impacts of various anthropogenic pollutants on freshwater and intertidal ecosystems. She integrated this ecotoxicology experience into her NOAA Hollings Scholarship in which she worked with Dr. Cheryl Woodley investigating the effects of a systemic pesticide on stony corals and several other marine invertebrates. Haley’s experience in field research with the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences and the Environmental Institute of Houston, as well as her training as a PADI SCUBA instructor make her a valuable addition to the Voss lab dive team. As a Master’s student Haley hopes to use her experience in ecotoxicology and coral stress-responses to better understand the ways in which corals respond to locally pertinent water quality stressors, and how this may impact coral disease susceptibility in the region.
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Sydney Bell is a Master of Science student and joined the lab in June 2021 where she plans to focus her research thesis on stony coral tissue loss disease. Most recently, Sydney was a Coral Reproduction and Adaptation Intern at Mote Marine Laboratory’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration. During her internship at Mote and under the direction of Dr. Hanna Koch, Sydney performed controlled crosses of white band disease-resistant Acropora cervicornis, gamete collection during coral spawning, and an epigenetics study on the heritability of white band disease resistance. Additionally, Sydney attended a study abroad internship in the Cayman Islands at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute during the summer of 2019 where she researched the ideal benthic habitat for Acropora cervicornis nursery-reared outplants. Sydney received a B.S. in Marine Vertebrate Biology with a minor in Ecosystems and Human Impact from Stony Brook University in 2021 and was an Undergraduate Independent Researcher in the Padilla Lab studying ocean acidification levels within Long Island harbors
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Gabby Pantoni joined the lab as a Coral Research Technician in March 2021, and in January 2022 became a Master's student. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island in May 2020 with a BS in Marine Biology. In 2019 she was a RI C-AIM Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow working with Dr Carol Thornber and Dr. Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis to study benthic community ecology. Her research observed changes in benthic habitats related to abundance of kelps and rockweeds throughout Narragansett Bay. She conducted benthic video surveys on scuba to observe kelp and rockweed habitats, and used historical data comparisons to determine changes in abundance of these habitat forming seaweeds. In 2018, she studied abroad for a semester at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), where she began research diving and conducting coral reef research. As a tech, Gabby has helped with the coral outplanting and restoration project and aids in research diving for the lab. She will continue to work on the outplanting and restoration project as a graduate student by looking at survivorship and growth over time of the outplanted colonies as part of her thesis research.
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