Menu

Impact of Marine Heatwaves on Coral Diversity

Boston University biologist Sarah W. Davies uses computers housed at the MGHPCC to explore coral resilience.

Dr. Sarah W. Davies leads the Davies Marine Population Genomics Lab at Boston University, where her team studies how marine organisms, particularly corals, respond to climate change. Their research focuses on the genetic and physiological mechanisms of resilience and adaptation in corals, examining how environmental stressors like warming oceans impact coral-algal symbioses, biodiversity, and ecosystem health.

A 2023 study co-authored by Davies, published in Science Advances, investigates the effects of climate change-driven marine heatwaves on coral genetics and symbiotic relationships. Over six years, researchers tracked the survival and symbiotic associations of the coral Porites during a prolonged heatwave. They discovered that genetically distinct, but visually similar, coral lineages had varied survival rates, with some surviving as little as 15% and others up to 61%. The heatwave also disrupted the close relationships between corals and their algal symbionts, causing symbiotic shifts in some colonies. The study highlights how heatwaves threaten cryptic coral diversity and weaken the coevolved relationships between corals and their symbiotic algae.

More recently, a second paper explored how genetically distinct but morphologically similar coral lineages (cryptic diversity) influence coral resilience to climate change.

Researchers identified three cryptic lineages of the Caribbean coral Siderastrea siderea in Bocas del Toro, Panamá, each with unique distributions, microbial symbioses, skeletal traits, and physiological responses. While a thermal variability experiment did not enhance thermal tolerance, one lineage consistently showed superior performance under heat stress—maintaining higher energy reserves, photochemical efficiency, and growth rates. Historical coral core data confirmed this lineage also had greater long-term growth.

The analysis of genomic data used in both studies was made possible through Boston University's Shared Computing Cluster.

Sarah W. Davies
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Boston University

Research projects

A Future of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Yale Budget Lab
Volcanic Eruptions Impact on Stratospheric Chemistry & Ozone
Towards a Whole Brain Cellular Atlas
Tornado Path Detection
The Kempner Institute - Unlocking Intelligence
The Institute for Experiential AI
Taming the Energy Appetite of AI Models
Surface Behavior
Studying Highly Efficient Biological Solar Energy Systems
Software for Unreliable Quantum Computers
Simulating Large Biomolecular Assemblies
SEQer - Sequence Evaluation in Realtime
Revolutionizing Materials Design with Computational Modeling
Remote Sensing of Earth Systems
Quantum Computing in Renewable Energy Development
Pulling Back the Quantum Curtain on ‘Weyl Fermions’
New Insights on Binary Black Holes
NeuraChip
Network Attached FPGAs in the OCT
Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) - a Physically-Accurate Photon Simulator
Modeling Hydrogels and Elastomers
Modeling Breast Cancer Spread
Investigating Mantle Flow Through Analyses of Earthquake Wave Propagation
Impact of Marine Heatwaves on Coral Diversity
IceCube: Hunting Neutrinos
Genome Forecasting
Global Consequences of Warming-Induced Arctic River Changes
Exact Gravitational Lensing by Rotating Black Holes
Evolution of Viral Infectious Disease
Evaluating Health Benefits of Stricter US Air Quality Standards
Ephemeral Stream Water Contributions to US Drainage Networks
Energy Transport and Ultrafast Spectroscopy Lab
Electron Heating in Kinetic-Alfvén-Wave Turbulence
Discovering Evolution’s Master Switches
Dexterous Robotic Hands
Developing Advanced Materials for a Sustainable Energy Future
Detecting Protein Concentrations in Assays
Denser Environments Cultivate Larger Galaxies
Deciphering Alzheimer's Disease
Dancing Frog Genomes
Cyber-Physical Communication Network Security
Asteroid Data Mining
Analyzing the Gut Microbiome
Adaptive Deep Learning Systems Towards Edge Intelligence
Accelerating Rendering Power
ACAS X: A Family of Next-Generation Collision Avoidance Systems
Neurocognition at the Wu Tsai Institute, Yale
Computational Modeling of Biological Systems
Computational Molecular Ecology
Social Capital and Economic Mobility
Building for Floods
Better Pathogen Targeting
Tracking Environmental Health Risks
AI for Cancer Diagnosis
Microplastic-Free by Design
Supporting Data-intensive Social Science
Sailing the Symbiosis Seascape
Wrangle Range Modeling
Shining a Light on Dark Matter
Grid Responsive Data Centers
Multifunctional 3D-Printed Materials
AI Pareidolia
Computing Hidden Health Threats from Heat
Staving off the Banana Apocalypse
CRISPR Mice, Smarter Science
Naval and Ocean Renewable Energy Hydrodynamics
AI That Speaks Human About Health
A Safer Way to See Inside Cells
How Monkeys - and Machines - See in 3D
FlowER: AI for Predicting Chemical Reactions
All Research Projects

Collaborative projects

ALL Collaborative PROJECTS

Outreach & Education Projects

See ALL Scholarships
100 Bigelow Street, Holyoke, MA 01040