Campus News

Dustin Kemp and National Science Foundation

Dustin Kemp, a postdoctoral research associate in the Odum School of Ecology, received $169,254 from the National Science Foundation for collaborative research on the symbiosis ecology and physiology of sympodinium trenchi, a dinoflagellate alga that has become increasingly common in numerous corals throughout the Caribbean Sea, but is often at low abundance relative to other symbiotic organisms. The research, to be conducted in the Caribbean Sea near the island of Curacao, and in the Pacific Ocean in Palau, will provide information about how-or if-a widely distributed symbiotic algal species may influence the resilience of reef-building corals and their potential to survive projected increases in ocean warming due to climate change.