Bleached Hawaiian Reef 2014
Director: Andréa G. Grottoli , Professor, Ohio State University
Steering Committee:
Rebecca Vega Thurber , Associate Professor, Oregon State University
Robert van Woesik , Professor and Director of the Institute for Global Ecology, Florida Institute of Technology
Robert Toonen , Research Professor, University of Hawaii
Mark Warner , Professor and Associate Director of the Marine Bioscience Program, University of Delaware
Temperature stress is the single largest threat to coral reefs globally and was the focal topic of the Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network (CBRCN). The goals of the Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network (CBRCN) were to 1) develop experimental design, sample archiving, and data synthesis protocols, through three workshops and 2) facilitate the formation of interdisciplinary collaborative teams. These goals were addressed through four activity nodes: workshops, cyberseminars, student and Early Career Training, and RCN activity dissemination. The workshops were the centerpieces of the Coral Bleaching RCN and focus on four topics: 1) experimental design protocol framework design, 2) sample archiving protocol framework design, 3) data assimilation across scales, and 4) recommendations for the future of coral bleaching research. Invitations and selection of workshop participants and early career awardees were conducted in a way to optimize equity and diversity among participants and awardees.
The project successfully met all goals. In the first workshop, we found that there were major gaps in how coral bleaching experiments were conducted (McLachlan et al 2020) and proposed a framework for streamlining and strengthening coral bleaching experiments, while increasing methodological transparency (Grottoli et al 2021). Through the second workshop, we learned that there were many needs and strategies for collecting and preserving coral specimens (McLachlan et al 2021) and proposed a framework for optimizing coral preservation and enhancing collaborative opportunities for sharing specimens to maximize the information that could be learned from each sample (Vega Thurber et al 2022). In the third workshop, we explored the challenges to synthesizing data across biological scales, identified what data and metadata is needed, and identified which processes could be prioritized, to enhance coral bleaching research across scales ranging from the molecular to the ocean basin scale (van Woesik et al 2022). Both the second and third workshops were conducted virtually due to the pandemic. Finally in the last workshop, we explored future directions for coral bleaching research including the need for embedded inclusiveness, capacity building as a foundation for excellence, the role of technology and innovation in coral research, and the role of coral bleaching researchers in shaping policy (Grottoli et al in prep). Integral to all workshops was purposeful networking opportunities that fostered many new collaborations among participants.
The workshop outcomes were shared through publications, webinars, conference presentations, and the CBRCN website (https://u.osu.edu/grottoli.1/coral-bleaching-rcn/). In addition, 12 early career scientists were financially supported to pursue new skills or training. Four graduate students and two postdocs were also integral to the planning, content development, and execution of the workshops giving them first-hand experience in how to organize many competing ideas and network across academic disciplines. They were co-authors or lead authors on the resulting manuscripts and were active leaders for components of each workshop.
Through these activities, the CBRCN has developed a network of researchers and laid the foundation for developing a Coral Bleaching Consortium that could be a hub for planning, coordinating, and integrating global-scale coral bleaching research, innovation, and mitigation strategies. Such a consortium could facilitate a step-function change in how we address the coral bleaching crisis.
The CBRCN was funded by the United States National Science Foundation. As stipulated by the funding agency, at least 85% of workshop participants and all early career awardees must be affiliated with US institutions.
Workshops
Workshop #1 Experimental Design
22-24 May 2019 at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH USA
Workshop #2 Sample Archiving
30 June – 3 July 2020 (virtual on zoom)
Workshop #3 Data Assimilation
11-14 May 2021 (virtual on zoom)
Mini-Workshop #4 and Networking Event CBRCN Next Steps and Networking
2 July 2022 (in person in Bremen, Germany)
Outreach
Webinars: The results of each workshop will further be presented by a Steering Committee member as a live webinar. The videos will be archived for future viewing and available to the entire coral bleaching research community.
Early Career Training Program: This program will make available, on a competitive basis, funds for 16 individuals at US institutions to spend time in another US lab to learn new skills, methods, or analytical approaches, thus furthering interdisciplinary training.