Joshua Voss, PhD | Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Florida Atlantic University | 5600 US 1 North, Fort Pierce, FL 34946 | Lab Phone: 772-242-2393
Coral Reef Health and Ecology Lab
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New Voss Lab Publication: Coral and Algal Symbiont Genetic Structuring Across Depth Gradients in the Southern Gulf of Mexico

5/27/2022

 
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We are excited to share our most recent article now out in Frontiers in Marine Science entitled “Depth-Dependent Genetic Structuring of a Depth-Generalist Coral and its Symbiodiniaceae Algal Communities at Campeche Bank, Mexico.” This paper was led by Voss Lab graduate student, Lexie Sturm, it is her third first-author paper and third data chapter of her dissertation.
 
The full article can be accessed here.
 
This study came out of an exciting research expedition and collaboration among Voss Lab researchers and members of the Biodiversidad Marina de Yucatán (BDMY) working group including Dr. Nuno Simões a co-author on the manuscript. We participated on a 2019 dive expedition on the liveaboard M/V Caribbean Kraken to reefs on the Campeche Bank in the southern Gulf of Mexico. During the expedition, we dove and sampled at both Alacranes reef, the largest bank reef in the Gulf of Mexico and a Mexican National Park and at another site to the northeast, Bajos del Norte, a more poorly characterized but biodiverse reef. Diving onboard the active liveaboard with a combination of researchers and tourists had its benefits and challenges. Lexie and her co-author/dive buddy/fellow Voss Lab graduate student, Ryan Eckert only had access to air tanks and therefore were depth-limited. They were also on a strict timeline to collect the corals as the dive itinerary only gave them two days at each reef. Nevertheless, they were successful in collecting all their samples from their target depth zones and were excited to have the opportunity to share their research firsthand with the tourists onboard the trip!
 
Montastraea cavernosa corals were collected across multiple depth zones ranging from the shallow to the upper-mesophotic at 10, 15, 25, and 35 m across Alacranes and Bajos del Norte reefs. Back in the lab, Lexie worked with fellow co-author and Voss Lab graduate student Ashley Carreiro to extract the DNA from these samples. This DNA was used in two different molecular approaches, first the coral host was genotyped using a 2bRAD sequencing approach that generated over 10,000 SNP loci. Then DNA from the coral’s algal symbionts were amplified using Symbiodiniaceae specific primers for the ITS2 region, a common genetic marker for assessing algal symbiont community structure.
 
From this dual genetic dataset we identified depth-dependent genetic structuring of both the M. cavernosa coral host and the algal symbiont communities, identifying the strongest level of differentiation between the shallow (10,15 and 25 m) and upper-mesophotic (35 m) depth zones. Similarly to many of our previous studies, the magnitude of depth-dependent genetic structuring for both the coral and symbionts varied between location and was much stronger at Alacranes than at Bajos del Norte. This is an important result for management of these reef systems as the refugia potential of Alacranes' mesophotic coral populations may be limited, therefore, care should be taken to effectively protect and manage not only the shallow but also the deeper populations at this reef. It is currently unknown if there is a more significant genetic break deeper than what we could sample at Bajos del Norte, but this population's location near the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and its relatively high levels of vertical connectivity suggest that it may be an important connectivity stepping stone for this regional metapopulation. Stay tuned for Lexie’s next paper to find out!
 
This work was funded by awards from NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research to the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology (CIOERT) at FAU Harbor Branch, an award from the NOAA National Center for Coastal Ocean Science through the Connectivity of Coral Ecosystems in the Northwest Gulf of Mexico project as well as student funding from the NSF GRFP, Women Divers Hall of Fame, and Florida Sea Grant Scholars program. We are grateful to all participants of the research expedition including members of the BDMY research group, the crew of the M/V Caribbean Kraken, and the University of Texas at Austin’s Genome Sequencing and Analysis Facility.

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Voss Lab Technical Dive Team Completes Mixed Gas CCR Training

5/9/2022

 
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We (Lexie, Ashley, Ryan, and Josh) recently returned from Bonaire, where we successfully completed mixed gas closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) training under the instruction of Jared Hires from Dive Rite and Zack Richardson from Technical Diving Services Bonaire. Over the course of a week in Bonaire we completed 18 CCR dives, with 8 Trimix dives, 5 dives deeper than 165’ and 2 dives to 200’. We were able to explore several different sites all along the west coast of the island including conservation areas, shipwrecks, the salt pier, and multiple unique mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs). Our last day of training included a deep dive on the secluded Windjammer wreck and a simulated bail-out ascent with decompression.
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​We had an excellent overall experience in Bonaire and hope to return soon for research on their extensive reef systems. We've been conducting open circuit trimix technical dives on mesophotic reefs for several years, but now our technical dive team has the capacity to conduct CCR dives down to a depth of 200’ using trimix diluent, extending our bottom times and overall flexibility. We'll also save time and cost not having to refill open circuit trimix doubles every day.  Our CCR training will be a major advantage as we continue our research on MCEs in the northwest Gulf of Mexico during an expedition this coming summer in support of our collaborative  Connectivity of Coral Ecosystems project funded by NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the Office of Ocean Exploration and Research in partnership with the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
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FAU Harbor Branch and FWC collaborators featured in "Forecasting Our Future" series on ABC

4/29/2022

 
Meteorologist Glenn Glazer from local ABC affiliate WPBF 25 recently visited FAU Harbor Branch to learn about our research efforts in coral disease intervention and restoration.  He also interviewed FWC partner John Hunt, who helped spearhead the Restoration Team Trials experiment.  

To watch the full segment as aired on ABC, follow this link:
https://www.wpbf.com/article/the-alarming-disappearance-of-our-coral-reefs/39764904
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Voss Lab Attending 50th Benthic Ecology Meeting

3/23/2022

 
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​After a three year conference hiatus, the Voss Lab is thrilled to be attending the 50th annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 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 and our students' social media pages for some tweeting action, and come find us during breaks and banquet!
 
Poster Session: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 6-9 PM
Room: Grand Ballroom

 
Anthropogenic Impacts, Poster #4
Ashley M. Carreiro*, Ryan J. Eckert, Alexis B. Sturm, Allison M. Klein, Erin N. Shilling, Gabrielle S. Pantoni, and Joshua D. Voss
Nutrient enrichment effects on stony coral tissue loss disease severity and prevalence in Southeast Florida
 
Anthropogenic Impacts, Poster #5
Haley Davis*
and Joshua D. Voss
Hyposalinity stress tolerance and associated disease susceptibility for common coral species in Southeast Florida
 
Habitat Sustainability and Restoration, Poster #18
Sydney L. Bell*
, Erin N. Shilling, Gabrielle S. Pantoni, John H. Hunt, William C. Sharp, Erinn M. Muller, and Joshua D. Voss
Can Genomic Information Help Predict Coral Restoration? 2brad Sequencing In A Multi-species South Florida Coral Restoration Experiment
 
Poster Session: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 6-9 PM
Room: Harbor’s Edge

 
Coastal Ecosystem Resilience, Poster #37
Gabrielle Pantoni*
, Erin N. Shilling, Sydney L. Bell, John H. Hunt, William C. Sharp, Erinn M. Muller, and Joshua D. Voss
Assessing Success of Coral Outplanting and Restoration as a Response to Coral Loss due to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
 
Recruitment/Larval Ecology, Poster #48
Caroline A. Haymaker*
and Joshua D. Voss
Scleractinian Coral Community Demographics and Recruitment Patterns in Southeast Florida
 
Session: Symbiosis
Room: Amphitheater
Thursday, March 31st @ 8:30 AM

Alexis B. Sturm*
, Ryan J. Eckert, Ashley M. Carreiro, Nuno Simoes, and Joshua D. Voss
Depth-dependent genetic structuring of a ubiquitous reef-building coral and its algal endosymbiont communities at Campeche Bank, Mexico
 
Session: Coastal Ecosystem Resilience
Room: Lear Room
Thursday, March 31st @ 1:30 PM

Allison M. Klein*
, Alexis B. Sturm, Ryan J. Eckert, Brian K. Walker, and Joshua D. Voss
Stony coral tissue loss disease susceptibility and resistance among Orbicella faveolata corals in South Florida: Genomic and microbiome factors
 
Session: Reef Ecology
Room: Prescott Room
Thursday, March 31st @ 2:45 PM

Erin N Shilling*
, Ryan J. Eckert, Alexis B. Sturm, and Joshua D. Voss
Porites astreoides coral populations in southeast Florida demonstrate high clonality and connectivity
 
Session: Reef Ecology
Room: Prescott Room
Friday, April 1st @ 9:30 AM

Ryan J. Eckert*
, Alexis B. Sturm, Ashley M. Carreiro, Allison M. Klein, and Joshua D. Voss
Genetic diversity and connectivity of shallow and mesophotic Stephanocoenia intersepta coral populations across Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
 
Session: Novel Methods
Room: Harbor’s Edge
Saturday, April 2nd @ 10:45 AM

Joshua D. Voss*
, Sarah Davies, Mercer Brugler, G.P. Schmahl, Emma Hickerson, Ryan J. Eckert, Erin N. Shilling, Marie Strader, Shirley Pomponi, and David Lovalvo
Using Telepresence to Enhance Coral Reef Exploration and Outreach in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Grad Student Ashley Carreiro Awarded AAUS Scholarship

10/29/2021

 
Ashley Carreiro was recently awarded 2nd place for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) master’s level scholarship award. Her proposal on The Effects of Nutrient Enrichment on Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease was chosen to receive this scholarship against twenty-seven other reviewed proposals. Her research will be looking at the progression of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) on Montastraea cavernosa coral colonies on a reef off Fort Lauderdale beaches. She will be comparing the disease progression rates on SCTLD-affected colonies amended with moderate nutrients to the progression rates on unamended SCTLD- affected colonies. This scholarship will help her fund the water quality analysis needed to determine the changes of nutrient levels around the different experimental colonies. SCTLD was first described in 2014 and has been killing off corals along the east coast of Florida and wider Caribbean for the past seven years. It is still a mystery to what has caused this disease and how local stressors may influence the prevalence and spread. Ashley hopes that her research will answer some of the questions to which environmental stressors, specifically nutrient run-off, might cause this detrimental disease to persist and advance. Congrats, Ashley!

To learn more:
https://aaus.org/AAUSFoundation/Scholarships/Research_Funding/AAUSFoundation/Research_Funding.aspx?hkey=32a9d4bb-43e2-4dd1-be41-21ca0b9017dc#carreiro
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Experimental SCTLD-affected Montastraea cavernosa colony with nutrient amendment bag. Photo credit: Ryan Eckert

Grad student Haley Davis awarded Rotary Club’s Paul Dritenbas Memorial Scholarship

10/20/2021

 
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Join us in congratulating new lab member Haley Davis on being selected as the 2021-2022 recipient of the Paul Dritenbas Memorial Scholarship by the Sunrise Rotary Club of Vero Beach.  This scholarship program honors Paul's legacy supporting research and conservation efforts for Indian River Lagoon ecosystems. This scholarship, coupled with an award to Voss Lab from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, will support Haley’s master's thesis research at FAU Harbor Branch investigating hyposalinity stress tolerances of coral species commonly found on Saint Lucie Reef, just outside the St. Lucie Inlet. Over the past several years, controlled freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee have impacted the environmental health of the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Lucie Estuary, and St. Lucie Reef. However, lethal hyposalinity tolerance thresholds have yet to be determined for important stony coral inhabitants of this region. Identifying these tolerance thresholds for corals will help to inform best management practices regarding duration and intensity of controlled freshwater releases downstream of Lake Okeechobee.

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FAU Harbor Branch Voss Lab joins NSU to treat thousands of diseased corals in Dry Tortugas NP

10/20/2021

 
We are excited to provide an update on our recent emergency intervention expedition to Dry Tortugas National Park. Led by Dr. Karen Neely of NSU, our team completed the largest SCTLD-intervention effort to date. The team consisted of Dr. Neely, Sydney Gallagher and Michelle Dobler from Nova Southeastern University and from FAU Harbor Branch Dr. Joshua Voss, Erin Shilling, Gabby Pantoni, Allie Klein, and Ashley Carreiro of the Voss Lab.  Over the course of the 10 day cruise, we treated 6,038 coral colonies of 27 different species spanning an area of reef equal to 146 football fields at Bird Key near Fort Jefferson. This cruise was a fantastic success, and gives us hope that future intervention expeditions can protect vital coral reef habitats throughout Florida.

NSU press release here
Cruise photo album here

FAU Harbor Branch to join NSU in Dry Tortugas National Park for coral disease intervention effort

8/25/2021

 
Several members of the Voss Lab have been invited to join a research mission to Dry Tortugas National Park led by Dr. Karen Neely of Nova Southeastern University to treat stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD)-affected corals. Dry Tortugas NP  consists of several small islands and their surrounding waters about 70 miles from Key West.  The park, which lies within the westernmost region of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is a popular travel destination for diving and snorkeling due to its abundant coral reef and associated marine life. Until recently, the Dry Tortugas were the last remaining region of Florida’s Coral Reef to be unaffected by SCTLD. Unfortunately, in May 2021 members of the park’s Coral Response Team observed signs of SCTLD while conducting disease monitoring (see report here). The three species initially identified to have SCTLD were Meandrina meandrites, Meandrina jacksoni, and Dichocoenia stokesii, which are all highly susceptible species and are typically the first to show signs of the disease in a region.
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Stony coral tissue loss disease spread, 2021. Map credit: FDEP
The goal of the upcoming cruise is to treat SCTLD infected corals with an antibiotic paste consisting of Base 2B (Ocean Alchemists LLC) and amoxicillin. This is the most effective method for treating infected corals and preventing total colony mortality (see more on this treatment here and here). Divers will be surveying for infected colonies, treating them with Base 2b plus amoxicillin, and photographically recording all infected/treated corals.  The overarching goals of this effort are to protect as much of the spectacular coral reefs of the Dry Tortugas as possible and to provide opportunities for scientific exchange and optimizing best coral intervention practices between the NSU and FAU Harbor Branch teams.
 
Wish us luck, and stay tuned for our post cruise update next month!
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Voss Lab completes successful research expedition in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

8/9/2021

 
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Link to FGBNMS 2021 cruise photo album
The Voss Lab recently completed a 5-day research expedition to Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) as part of a collaborative NOAA CYCLE project with Dr. Santiago Herrera. The overall goal of this project, funded by NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, is to investigate connectivity of coral, sponge, and fish species between shallow and mesophotic coral ecosystems of FGBNMS including the new sanctuary expansion areas.
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For this trip we were limited to only 5 divers due to COVID-19 safety protocols. The divers consisted of PI and executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration Research and Technology (CIOERT), Joshua Voss, Voss Lab graduate students Ryan Eckert, Alexis Sturm, and Ashley Carrerio, and long-time collaborator and colleague, Moody Gardens Dive Safety Officer Jake Emmert. Despite being short on science crew, during 5 days aboard R/V MANTA we collected more than 300 coral (Stephanocoenia intersepta, Orbicella faveolata) and sponge (Xestospongia muta) samples from shallow and mesophotic depths over 19 shallow and technical Trimix SCUBA dives. These samples will be combined with samples collected in 2018 to determine the levels of vertical and horizontal connectivity between coral and sponge populations in the northwest Gulf of Mexico using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genetic markers as a part of Ryan Eckert’s dissertation research.
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 We would like to sincerely thank the crew of R/V MANTA for a productive and safe week offshore, and FGBNMS staff for providing research permits and coordination.​

New Collaborative Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Resistance and Resilience Project funded by FL DEP

7/19/2021

 
The Voss Lab is excited to be a part of a large collaborative effort into researching disease resistance and resilience in the Mountainous Star Coral, Orbicella faveolata. Orbicella faveolata is a critical reef-building species, but populations across the Tropical Western Atlantic have undergone rapid population declines and are further threatened by SCTLD outbreaks. Populations of Orbicella faveolata in Florida waters have been the subject of extensive disease intervention efforts to stop the spread of SCTLD and preserve coral tissue. Successful disease intervention treatments on Florida’s Coral Reef have kept diseased reef-building corals alive, providing a unique opportunity to test intraspecific differences between groups of colonies with differing infection patterns. These colonies have been tagged and monitored over the past seven years and have demonstrated unique intraspecies variation in response to SCTLD; while some O. faveolata colonies are highly susceptible to the disease and can exhibit multiple active lesions, other, nearby O. faveolata colonies on the same reef appear resistant.

This study, funded by Florida's Department of Envronmental Protection, will provide a fundamental understanding of O. faveolata’s holobiont at genetic, morphological, biochemical and molecular scales across three time points. The team will identify differences in endosymbionts, genotypes, metabolites, microbes, biological pathways, immune responses, and histopathology. These differences will provide direction for future research to better identify SCTLD, understand the drivers behind intraspecies resistance variation, develop further disease treatment, and encourage restoration strategies. The outcomes of this project will be incorporated into an on-going coral disease response effort which seeks to improve understanding of the scale and severity of the coral disease outbreak on Florida’s Coral Reef. By identifying primary and secondary causes, researchers can create management strategies to remediate disease impacts, restore affected resources and, ultimately, prevent future outbreaks.

Our lab will be taking on the genotyping and microbe work with Allie Klein taking a lead on the analyses as part of her Master’s Thesis. All of the corals fromt he first time point have been collected and are ready for our 2bRAD and mRNA analysis pipelines. 
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A) Colony of Orbicella faveolata at one of the study sites, B) Tissue samples of O. faveolata being collected using a leather punch, C) Allison Klein pictured collecting samples in the field, D) Preserving O. faveolata samples on the boat after a dive
The team includes:

Principal Investigator
Brian K. Walker, Research Scientist II, Nova Southeastern University
 
Co-Principal Investigators
Andrew C. Baker, Associate Professor, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Neha Garg, Assistant Professor, Georgia Tech University
Julie L. Meyer, Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Karen Neely, Research Scientist, Nova Southeastern University
Valerie J. Paul, Director, Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce
Nikki Traylor-Knowles, Assistant Professor, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Joshua D. Voss, Associate Research Professor, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University
 
Collaborators
Aine Hawthorne, ‎U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Postgraduate Research Fellow
Cheryl M. Woodley, NOAA NOS NCCOS, Coral Health and Disease Program Manager
Thierry Work, Project leader, USGS National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station
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