Grazers | Smith Lab

Herbivore management may be the key to balancing the energetic budget on coral reefs

A new paper published by Emily Kelly and colleagues explains how we can balance the energetic budget on Hawaiian coral reefs through herbivore management and protection. Herbivores on coral reefs play an important role in controlling algal growth, but in systems where density of herbivores is low, algae can grow at a faster rate than they are consumed, resulting in a … Read More

Do different species of herbivorous fish have unique grazing roles on coral reefs, or are they all grazing alike?

Coral reefs are home to a large diversity of organisms. The herbivorous fishes, those fish that eat algae in competition with corals, are no exception to such diversity. But do the many species of herbivores have unique grazing roles on reefs or are all herbivorous fishes grazing alike? This was the focus of a study recently published in Oecologia … Read More

Adventures in Chagos

By Samantha Clements. This year, during the months of March and April, I conducted coral reef benthic surveys for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) in Chagos. Chagos is the largest archipelago in the world and lies within the British Indian Ocean Territory. The islands of the archipelago are very far from any continents and have been uninhabited … Read More

Influential conservation papers of 2014 – featuring Smith Lab’s Clinton Edwards!

Clint Edwards, et al. publication, Global assessment of the status of coral reef herbivorous fishes: evidence for fishing effects, has been selected as one of the most influential conservation papers of 2014!! Congratulations Clint & Smith Lab!!! http://conservationbytes.com/2014/12/22/influential-conservation-papers-of-2014/

My first summer in the field – by Gideon Butler

My first summer in the field When I tell people that I spent six weeks on Maui this summer, nobody seems to believe that it wasn’t a vacation. I tell them that I was working from dawn to dark every day and that my body was covered in scrapes and bruises by the end, but all they hear is, … Read More

Smith Lab’s Clint Edwards Publishes New Paper!

Smith Lab’s Clinton Edwards is now a proud author of the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology! His Master’s thesis: Global assessment of the status of coral reef herbivorous fishes: evidence for fishing effects examines the global status of herbivorous fish and how their presence affects the dynamics of the marine ecosystem. Abstract: Coral reefs are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet due … Read More

Smith Lab Collects Data From Year Long Ocean Acidification Experiment

Members of the Smith Lab have been hard at work in collaboration with Emily Donham from Scott Hamilton’s Lab at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories to collect data from a year long ocean acidification experiment looking at effects of pH on marine benthic communities in kelp beds.