#019: Coral Reefs Through Time - Dr. Stuart Sandin

In this episode we are joined by Dr. Stuart Sandin. Stuart is the Oliver Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. He is a professor in the Marine Biology Research Division, and he serves as director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation.  Sandin has coordinated multiple ship- and land-based expeditions to the remote islands of the central and south Pacific Ocean, with much work conducted in the Line Islands archipelago. He has been using this island gradient and others to study the individual and interacting roles that local human activities and oceanographic context play in the fisheries dynamics and general functioning of coral reef ecosystems. The work in the Pacific has led to the development of the 100 Island Challenge research campaign.   In this episode, Stuart and I discuss what Caribbean reefs used to look like and why they've changed.  Further, we explore how Stuarts Lab is using structure from motion technology to map out reefs systems over time. We broach the topics of self organization, resilience, evolutionary succession, and technology driven ecological research.   Learn more about this project at 100IslandChallenge.org. https://sandinlab.ucsd.edu/