O’Donnell preserving Symbiodinium samples together with her daughter. Photograph credit score Kelli O’Donnell.
Kelli O’Donnell is PhD pupil in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences on the College of Florida. She was awarded the Florida Sea Grant Man Harvey Fellowship in 2025.
Since I used to be a bit lady, I knew I needed to work within the marine sciences subject. With my father being within the Coast Guard, I’ve had a number of alternatives to reside within the Florida Keys. I used to be all the time by the water, exploring its creatures. It was these experiences, together with journeys to different reefs world wide that grew my love for the coral reef. Nevertheless, it was not till later in life that I noticed the decline taking place to the Florida Reef Tract and what it meant growing my appreciation in direction of the protections afforded by the Florida Keys Nationwide Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS).
As I grew to become concerned with a number of elements of conservation by my profession, I understood extra in regards to the intricate connections coral reefs have with offering habitat, coastal safety, supporting tourism, and the superb nature of the coral itself. Studying, the reef can take up as much as 97% of wave vitality, take up practically one-third of the carbon dioxide generated from burning fossil fuels , produce 17% of all globally consumed protein), and a minimum of 25% of all marine species are depending on the reef sooner or later of their lifecycle, infers that many species’ well-being is contingent on the coral reef current.
Below his steering, I accomplished a two-project thesis that offered data on comparability of two completely different strategies to develop coral after which in contrast success of the identical genotypes after outplant to their efficiency within the nursery. We discovered that suspended develop out strategies yielded larger coral development, however that benthic develop out strategies have been capable of survive longer after an excessive bleaching occasion. We additionally discovered that nursery observations weren’t predictive of efficiency following outplant. This analysis offered proof on the commerce off in develop out strategies and the necessity to protect genetic range throughout outplanting vs. focusing solely on sure excessive performing nursery genotypes.
