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Linking Reef Benthic Condition and Seawater Microbial Communities in the Red Sea

Project

Project Details

Program
Marine Science
Field of Study
Ecosystem health assessment
Division
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Faculty Lab Link
https://bemlab.kaust.edu.sa
Center Affiliation
Red Sea Research Platform

Project Description

Increasing coral bleaching and anthropogenic pressures highlight the need to better understand how changes in reef condition are reflected in microbial communities. Reef-water microbiomes have considerable potential as indicators of ecosystem health and environmental change, yet their relationships with benthic community composition, coral condition, and environmental stressors remain insufficiently understood. This project will integrate existing benthic photo-quadrat datasets, including information on benthic community composition and coral condition, with associated seawater microbial community data to investigate whether microbial assemblages reflect variation in reef ecological status across the Red Sea. Benthic indicators derived from photo-quadrat surveys, including coral cover, benthic functional groups, and available observations of bleaching, mortality, or other signs of stress, will be examined alongside microbial community composition characterized through 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. Using spatially and temporally matched datasets, the study will assess relationships between microbial diversity, taxonomic composition, benthic community structure, and coral condition across reefs experiencing different environmental conditions and degrees of anthropogenic influence. Where available, environmental data, including temperature, nutrients, chlorophyll-a, water quality, and proximity to coastal development or other potential sources of disturbance, will be incorporated to evaluate their relative contributions to observed patterns.

About the Researcher

Susana Carvalho
Associate Professor of Practice of Marine Science , Marine Science Sector Manager
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division

Education Profile

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Portuguese Institute for Fisheries and Sea Research and Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia, Spain, 2008-2012
  • Ph.D., University of Algarve, Portugal,
  • M.Sc., University of Aveiro, Portugal,
  • B.Sc., Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal, 1998

Research Interests

Prof. Carvalho's expertise blends the fields of marine ecology, ecotoxicology, and coastal management. Prof. Carvalho is interested in untangling the role natural and anthropogenic stressors play in shaping marine biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, using field and laboratory-based approaches. Her research advances fundamental knowledge of how marine organisms respond to environmental changes and the intrinsic patterns driving those changes. While her research aims to identify the main threats to the marine environment it has an applied aspect by incorporating the views of stakeholders into management pathways. Her goal is to keep fostering interactions with local stakeholders to improve decision-making in the field of marine science and ultimately contribute to the sustainability of the Red Sea.

Selected Publications

  • Peixoto RS, Voolstra CR, Sweet M, Duarte CM, Carvalho S, Vilela H, Lunshof JE, Gram L, Woodhams DC, Walter J, Roik A, Hentschel U, Thurber RV, Daisley B, Ushijima B, Daffonchio D, Costa R, Keller-Costa T, Bowman J, Rosado AS, Reid G, Mason CE, Walke JB, Thomas T, Berg G (2022) Harnessing the microbiome to prevent global biodiversity loss. Nature Microbiology, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01173-1
  • Aylagas E, Atalah J, SA¡nchez-Jerez P, Pearman J, Casado N, Asensi J, Toledo-Guedes K, Carvalho S (2021) A step towards the validation of bacteria biotic indices using DNA metabarcoding for benthic monitoring. Molecular Ecology Resources 21:1889-1903
  • Aylagas E, Borja A, Pochon X, Zaiko A, et al., Carvalho S (2020) Translational Molecular Ecology in practice: Linking DNA-based methods to actionable marine environmental management. Science of the Total Environment 744:140780
  • Ellis JI, Jamil T, Anlauf H, Coker D, Curdia J, Dasari H, Hewitt J, Jones BH, Krokos G, Roth F, Carvalho S, Hoteit I (2019) Multiple stressor effects on coral reef ecosystems in the Red Sea. Global Change Biology 25:4131-4146
  • Carvalho S, Aylagas E, Villalobos R, Kattan Y, Berumen M, Pearman JK (2019) Beyond the visual: introducing the hidden reef cryptobiome. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 286: 20182697

Desired Project Deliverables

Ultimately, the project aims to determine whether reef-water microbial communities provide complementary information to conventional benthic monitoring, supporting the development of integrated, potentially more sensitive indicators of reef condition and environmental change in the Red Sea. The results are expected to be integrated into a scientific publication.

Recommended Student Background

Marine Ecology
Microbiology
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