On April 23rd, graduate student Lexie Sturm gave an outstanding proposal seminar at HBOI that was unanimously approved by her dissertation committee (Dr. Joshua Voss, Dr. Nicholas Dickens, Dr. Andia Chaves-Fonnegra, Dr. Sarah Milton, and Dr. Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley). Lexie’s disertation research is focused on using population genetics to assess connectivity and structuring of shallow and mesophotic Montastraea cavernosa and their algal symbiont communities in Mexico and Cuba. She is using a 2bRAD SNP genotyping approach to generate high resolution genetic data for these populations. Stay tuned for updates on future field expeditions, including technical diving operations in Cuba and Mexico. 

​Congratulations Lexie, we are excited to see how your work progresses! 

Dr. Joshua Voss was recognized as Florida Atlantic University's Researcher of the Year at the Assistant Professor level during the University’s 50th annual Honors Convocation, held on Wednesday, April 17. FAU's Vice President of Research, Dr. Daniel Flynn, presented the award to the Harbor Branch Assistant Research Professor and Executive Director of CIOERT, specifically noting Dr. Voss's contributions to coral reef ecosystem science, marine conservation, and graduate student mentorship.  
For the full list of awardees at this year's FAU Honors Convocation visit:
​https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/50th-honors-convocation.php

Voss Lab members Dr. Joshua Voss, Erin Shilling, Ian Combs, Ryan Eckert, and Dr. Michael Studivan, as well as Jeff Beal from FWC and Catherine Lo from the Page-Karjian Lab at HBOI carried out the first round of disease intervention treatments for coral colonies affected by Scleractinian Tissue Loss Disease in Broward County. Over three days, they treated 23 diseased Montastraea cavernosa colonies across three sites in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Treated colonies were split into two treatment groups, one with an antibiotic application and the other with chlorinated epoxy. Each treated colony, in addition to 11 diseased controls and 8 healthy controls, were sampled for 3D modeling, microbial community composition, and transcriptomic analyses. This intervention trial is a portion of our lab’s research activities on the Intervention Team as part of a larger Disease Advisory Committee, which is being coordinated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and includes universities, government agencies, and non-profit institutions across the entire state of Florida. Our funding for this project was obtained through FDEP and NOAA OAR through the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (CIMAS).

This work builds on Master’s student Ian Comb’s project fate tracking this disease outbreak, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and FDEP, and will contribute to Master’s student Erin Shilling’s thesis assessing the success of different disease intervention techniques as well as any potential secondary impacts on coral mucus microbial communities.

We also want to give a huge thanks to our HBOI boat operator, Matt Roy, and our Dive Safety Officer Jimmy Nelson for their help coordinating and carrying out this intervention trial.

Master’s student Erin Shilling was recently awarded a $5,000 research grant from the PADI Foundation for her research comparing the success rates of various coral disease intervention methods on the Northern Florida Reef Tract, as well as analyzing any impacts these treatments may have on coral mucus microbial communities. The PADI Foundation encourages and supports research and education related to aquatic environments, funding and assisting research projects which enrich our understanding of aquatic environments and encourage protection of ecosystems. Erin’s application was one of 64 funded proposals in 2019 from a pool of over 400. Congratulations Erin!

The Voss Lab recently attended the 48th annual Benthic Ecology Meeting held from April 3-6 in beautiful St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. The conference had over 300 attendees presenting on topics ranging from benthic fisheries to microbial communities. The Voss lab rocked the first day of the conference starting off with graduate student, Ian Combs, who gave a talk on using 3D modeling to track stony coral tissue loss disease progression, receiving tons of interest and questions. Graduate students, Lexie Sturm and Ryan Eckert gave back-to-back presentations on coral connectivity in Cuba and algal symbiont community structure in Belize, respectively. Our fearless leader, Joshua Voss, presented on the lab’s studies of mesophotic reef ecology in the Tropical Western Atlantic using genetic connectivity and coral transcriptomics. Graduate students, Erin Shilling and Victoria Uribe, rounded out the day with their poster presentations! Erin presented on stony coral tissue loss disease intervention and its effects on coral microbial communities and Victoria (an honorary Voss Lab member) shared her work on Queen Conch habitat characterization. We were also excited to check out the poster of lab alumnus, Jen Polinski, who shared her work on the biological characterization of sediment communities in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Lexie tied for second place for Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation!

When we weren’t presenting we took time to wander around quaint downtown St. John’s, explore Newfoundland’s coasts (including the easternmost point of North America, Cape Spear), play in the snow, and get “screeched-in” becoming true Newfoundlanders! We thank all of those who were on the organizing committee from Memorial University for executing another amazing Benthics! See you all next year in Wilmington, North Carolina for Benthics 2020!

Most of the lab is heading up to St. John's, Newfoundland this week for the 2019 Benthic Ecology Meeting. We have a full assortment of presentations this year, please see below for the schedule. Check out our talks and posters this week, visit @VossLaboratory for some tweeting action, or come find us during happy hour!

Session: Reef Ecology I
Room: Salon A
Thursday @ 11:00
Combs IR*, Beal J, Voss JD. Characterizing impacts of Scleractinian Tissue Loss Disease on corals in Southeast Florida with photogrammetry and 3D modeling

Session: Reef Ecology II
Room: Salon A
Thursday @ 14:15
Sturm AB*, González Méndez J, Studivan MS, Eckert RJ, Dodge DL, Chei E, González Díaz SP, Voss JD. Population connectivity of the coral species, Montastraea cavernosa, across local and regional scales in Cuba and the Tropical Western Atlantic

Thursday @ 14:30
Eckert RJ*, Reaume A, Voss JD. Genetically distinct depth-stratified Montastraea cavernosa coral populations on the Belize Barrier Reef harbor homogenous Symbiodiniaceae communities

Session: Reef Ecology III
Room: Salon A
Thursday @ 16:30
Voss JD*, Studivan MS, Eckert RJ, Polinski JM, Sturm AB. Ecology, adaption, and conservation of Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in the Tropical Western Atlantic

Poster Session
Room: Fort William Ballroom
Thursday @ 19:00-22:00
Poster #5
Shilling E*, Beal J, Voss JD. Intervention strategies for diseased corals in Southeast Florida and potential impacts on mucus microbial communities

Also, lab alumnus Jennifer Polinski will be presenting a poster as well! 
Thursday @ 19:00-22:00
Poster #33
Polinski JM*, Bucci JP, Gasser M, Bodnar AG. Targeted metagenomic assessment of biodiversity across prokaryotic and eukaryotic taxa in sediments from the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary