David Kline

Marine Biodiversity: Understanding Threats & Providing Solutions IGERT
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography


Program Graduate

I am a sixth year graduate student in marine biology working with Nancy Knowlton and Forest Rohwer (S.D.S.U.). My thesis, which I will defend this year, is focused on the effects of anthropogenic stress on coral reefs. During the course of my thesis I have spent almost three years in Bocas del Toro, Panama working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Caribbean field station. In my research, I have been testing the effects of a range of human stresses to reefs including: components of sewage, run-off, asphalt, pesticides, sedimentation, increased seawater temperature, and synergistic effects. Using a culturing and dosing system that I helped design (the AADACS system, Aquatic Automated Dosing and Culturing System, Patent pending) I am working to determine what levels of different stressors cause coral disease either directly or by changing the relationship between the coral organism and its bacterial and algal symbionts. This research will improve our understanding of the relationship between a coral and its associated bacterial community, and how this relationship changes with stress and disease. It will also provide a better understanding of the connection between human activities and the incidence of coral disease, providing important data for the conservation and management of coral reefs.

Click here to edit your profile