NSU Horizons Spring 2010

Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), one of four such facilities (located in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam) dedicated to coral reef re- search. Using federal funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), scientists from NCRI undertake a variety of research projects in many locations, ranging from Florida to the Red Sea and the Pacific and Indian oceans. Jose V. Lopez, Ph.D., OC associate professor, is using his five- year, $3.2-million grant from the National Science Foundation to study sponges that live among coral reefs to find important clues to their decline. Others, like Bernhard Riegl, Ph.D., NCRI associate director, are studying the effects of climate change on coral reefs. Riegl is examining the extent to which warmer ocean temperatures, likely caused by greenhouse gases, kill corals. “Without research, there is no clarity about which actions need to be taken to conserve nature,” Riegl said. Other researchers, such as Richard Spieler, Ph.D., director of the OC’s academic programs, and David Gilliam, Ph.D., OC assistant professor, have won prestigious awards. Last year, the team received the Gulf Guardian Award for their work surveying endangered reefs and fish species at the Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park in Mexico. Related Research Although coral reefs are an OC specialty, there are related research activities at the center. Genetics and conservation biology professor Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., a research heavyweight in the shark and billfish worlds, has made several pio- neering discoveries in the past decade. As director of the OC’s Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI), Shivji led an international research team in 2007 that showed for the first time that female sharks can reproduce without mating with a male. This is done through a type of asexual repro- duction called parthenogenesis. GHRI is dedicated to conducting the research required for conservation and proper management of the world’s wild fishes. “This discovery completely rewrites the text- book on how sharks can reproduce,” Shivji said. Shivji has also co-led a research team that discov- ered a new species of billfish that looks like the white marlin. This finding means that many white marlin have been misidentified for decades, casting doubt on previous scientific information about the over-fished species. The discovery could have a major impact on commercial fishing, which has reduced white marlin populations. Using DNA methods, Shivji and his students also traced hammerhead shark fins from the Hong Kong markets, where the fins are prized delicacies used in soup, to their geographic origins in the west- ern Atlantic Ocean, where the sharks are endan- gered. This discovery will better help conserve and manage the species. In addition, Shivji, who also directs the OC’s new Save Our Seas Shark Center, which is dedicat- ed to shark research and conservation, has invented a DNA test that can determine what species of shark a fin came from in a matter of hours. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice used his test to success- fully prosecute a Florida man who participated in dealing illegal shark fins. Shivji’s efforts have impressed America’s most famous museum: The Smithsonian Institution. The institution is now displaying his work at The Sant Ocean Hall inside the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. “It’s humbling to have our research make a difference and be recognized by such a prestigious museum,” Shivji said. His colleague, OC associate professor Edward O. Keith, Ph.D., is using his research skills to study man- atees being struck by boats and the causes of whale and dolphin beach strandings in the Southeast region. His goal is to reduce the number of deaths involving these gentle giants by discovering the causes. Keith is being assisted by his graduate students. OC students are helping just about every OC researcher. This promotes learning in the classrooms, knowledge application in the field, and laboratory work and analysis. “Anybody can dive on a reef, look at the coral, and say that coral isn’t doing very well,” said OC student Abby Renegar, who is working on her doc- torate in marine biology. “But why isn’t that coral doing very well? I’m doing my part to find out why the reefs here are damaged and what it will take to fix them.” That’s what separates OC students, faculty members, and scientists from everyone else—they don’t just ask questions, they find answers. n 17 horizons Freelance writer Tim Collie contributed to this article. The Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Science Research Facility will be located at the Oceanographic Center.