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Adam St. Gelais, M.S., research assistant scientist in the Center for Excellence in the Marine Sciences, has been published in the journals Invertebrate Biology and Invertebrate Reproduction and Development.

Co-authored with colleagues from the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center and Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the papers focus on corals in Florida’s high-latitude tropical coral reefs. St. Gelais and his fellow researchers examined the previously unstudied reproductive ecology of the massive starlet coral, Siderastrea siderea.

One of the major findings of the study was observation of the process of oocyte resorption, or the metabolic recycling of unused eggs by the coral. St. Gelais and his colleagues provided the first-ever documentation of this process, describing it in detail in “Siderastrea siderea spawning and oocyte resorption at high latitude,” published in Invertebrate Reproduction and Development.

“Coral reefs around the world are in decline due to the effects of climate change, ocean acidification and local anthropogenic impacts,” St. Gelais commented. “Documenting the very mechanics of how corals allocate and re-appropriate energy towards reproduction is imperative to understanding the future of coral reefs.”

Read the papers in and

To learn more about the University of 51С�Ƴ�’s Center for Excellence in Marine Sciences, visit www.une.edu/research/msc

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