Corals & Climate Change Laboratory People

Dr. Chris Langdon

Langdon is an associate professor in the department of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. With a deep knowledge of the chemistry and the biology of oceans, his research interests are linked to understand how coral reefs will be impacted by global warming and ocean acidification.

He is co-founder of the South Florida Coral Reef & Climate Change Lab. Langdon pioneered the use of moesocosms and an experimental approach to study the impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs at Columbia University’s Biosphere 2 Center in Tucson, AZ.

Langdon got his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 1988.

Rebecca Albright, Ph.D. student

Albright completed her B.S. in Biology (marine biology concentration) at Duke University in 2003 and entered the Ph.D. program at Rosenstiel School in 2005. Her research focuses primarily on the effects of elevated carbon dioxide levels on early life history stages of reef-building corals. As coral recruitment, post-settlement survivorship and growth are critical to reef persistence and resilience, it is important to better understand the repercussions of climate change scenarios on such factors.

Additional projects include: the use of scanning electron microscopy to investigate ultra-structural differences in aragonite crystal structure and formation at varying carbon dioxide levels and differences in the mechanical strength of calcium carbonate skeletons precipitated at varying carbon dioxide levels.

Remy Okazaki, Ph.D. student

Remy entered the Ph.D. program at Rosenstiel School in 2006. He is studying changes in coral calcification processes within the context of climate change. His research is centered on in-situ measurements of coral growth in Florida Bay, which serves as a natural laboratory for changing pCO₂ levels. The goal is to determine whether corals have adapted or will adapt to changing pCO₂ and what mechanisms might be responsible for this persistence. Other subjects of interest for Remy are calcification mechanisms, how other ecological processes affect coral calcification, and how climate change may affect these interactions.

Nancy Muehllehner, Ph.D. student

Muehllehner is interested in physiological ecology and marine conservation. For her M.A., Nancy studied the biomineralization of two coral species to see whether morphological plasticity played a role in the response of these species to changing carbonate concentrations in seawater.

Muehllehner is currently researching selective pressure that the combined effects of increasing seawater temperature and changes in the carbon buffering system will have on marine ecosystems. Her particular interest is how this selective pressure will affect different biomineralizing species/genera and how this response could be altered by the history of abiotic conditions experienced by these organisms.