Influence of the microbiome on climate resilience
We know that environmental changes have the capacity to affect changes in the coral microbiome. But can these changes be beneficial to the coral under climate change?
Kiritimati, a coral atoll located in the central Pacific Ocean, was at the epicentre of the 2016 El Niño event that resulted in an unprecedented 10 months of heat stress. Using this “natural experiment”, my current work in the Baum Lab is to identify whether any changes in the coral microbiome are able to confer (or predict) coral survival.