Research Goals

This area is focused on the broader goal of understanding how oceanographic variability impacts the forces that shape coral reef resilience in the USVI. Our goals are:

1. Develop a high-resolution ocean model for the US Caribbean that can be used to describe processes affecting all aspects of marine life.

2. Develop connectivity matrices to understand process of disease particle dispersion (disease section), coral larvae connectivity (marine resilience), and reef diversity (marine resilience).

3. Develop state of the art facilities for collecting remote and in situ data on ocean properties.

We Are Building Upon History And Partnerships

This work builds on previous VI-EPSCoR Mare Nostrum research which focused on understanding the long–term oceanographic conditions impacting coral reef Dynamics, Disease, & Demographics. As part of this effort, researchers within this area have helped to develop and manage a time-series of important oceanographic variables at locations around the territory. A regional ocean model was also developed and will be used to predict ocean conditions and connectivity pathways for larval fish and egg transport between R2R research sites.

This team will work closely with researchers in the Fish Ecology area to aid in understanding how oceanographic conditions affect differences in spawning behavior at spawning aggregation sites in nearshore coral reefs which are experiencing differing levels of degradation or recovery. We will also partner with researchers in the Coral Reef Resilience team to use the US Caribbean regional ocean model developed under VI EPSCoR: Mare Nostrum, to identify coral and fish larval connectivity patterns, and studying how these affect biodiversity on coral reefs in the region.

Under R2R, the oceanographic research team is focused into two tracts of research:

1. Understanding the influence of oceanographic variables like temperature, salinity, productivity, turbidity, salinity, and current velocity and direction on the forces affecting both spawning behavior and coral reef resilience, and

2. Using a coastal ocean model to identify larval fish and coral dispersal and settlement pathways we will see how these affect the resilience of nearshore coral reefs in the territory.

This work will be a mix of field based monitoring using in-situ (remaining in place) oceanographic instruments and shipboard surveys to collect data on oceanographic conditions and recently spawned parrotfish eggs, and computer modeling to study connectivity pathways. The connectivity research which will use US Caribbean Regional Ocean Model (USCROMS; seen above) developed by the oceanographic research team and led by Dr. Sonaljit Mukherjee. The USCROMS will allow the team to study passive particle transport, like larvae, in the coastal ocean around the USVI.