Gareth J. Williams

We're advertising a PhD project to investigate the hydrodynamics of Aldabra Atoll @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social! We are looking for a student with strong quantitative skills and interest in ocean modelling. Competitive funding available through ILESLA. Please share with anybody who may be interested!

Reef in the Vatu-i-Ra Seascape, Fiji, with new coral growth post Tropical Cyclone Winston. Photo (c) Tom Vierus

Coral reefs with high ecological integrity are able to quickly recover from extreme climate impacts. In our new study in Coral Reefs, we found high integrity Fiji reefs were able to rebound rapidly following a category 5 cyclone.
Full study:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Persistent eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean upwelling since the warm Pliocene Upwelling generates a nutrient-rich “cold tongue” in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean (EEP), with impacts on global climate, oceanic biological productivity, and the carbon cycle. The cold tongue ...

Today, we published a study long in the making on how upper and subsurface tropical Pacific waters responded (and maybe will adjust) to warmer global climate. Here’s the story of how we got here after 15 years. many authors but shout out @jfarmersalmanac.bsky.social
🌊
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Pygmy Shark (Euprotomicrus bispinatus), the world’s second smallest shark species and one of the species with a high overlap with proposed deep sea mining. Credit: Blue Planet Archive / Masa Ushioda.

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨

Today in @currentbiology.bsky.social, we found that 30 species of #sharks, #rays, and #chimaeras overlap with proposed #deepseamining in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction #ABNJ - over 60% are already #threatened with #extinction 🦈

📸 Blue Planet Archive / Masa Ushioda

Figure 1: highlighting various pathways through which mining can impact sharks, rays, and chimaeras including collector impact and plumes, and discharge plumes.

Figure 2: The diversity of sharks, rays, and chimaeras impacted by deep sea mining operations. Nearly 2/3 of these species are already at an elevated risk of extinction.

New paper led by @seaprinceaaron.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social looking at the threats deep sea mining poses for sharks, rays, and chimaeras. We found 30 species are threatened via various pathways including collector impact and plumes at depth and pelagic discharge plumes.

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Lecturer in Marine Biology and Scientific Diving (University of Plymouth)

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOS637/l...

#jobs #lecturer #scientificdiving #plymouth #coralreefs #university #marinescience #marinebiology #marineecology #jobopportunity

This is figure 2, which shows reef accretion potential across western Atlantic reefs.

Over 70% of coral reefs in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean are projected to be in a state of erosion by 2040, increasing to nearly all reefs in 2100 if warming exceeds 2 °C above preindustrial levels, a study in Nature suggests. go.nature.com/48m9Y8F 🌊 🧪

Regarding the below Panama paper, we also documented climate disruptions to upwelling reaching shallow reefs across the Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean:

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New paper!

‘Climate change impacts to upwelling and shallow reef nutrient sources across an oceanic archipelago’

Out now in Limnology and Oceanography @aslo.org

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

⬇️🧵

Familiarity mediated by body size predicts intraspecific aggression in farming damselfishes - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abstract Aggressive territoriality can have significant benefits for resource acquisition yet is a costly behaviour. Selection should therefore favour mechanisms that allow individuals to modify their...

PAPER: Territorial damselfish are more aggressive to neighbours if their neighbour is larger, but this weakens If they don't know each other link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Led by my awesome former PhD student @sheppardcat.bsky.social @lec-reefs.bsky.social @envisiondtp.bsky.social #FishInBottles

For the first time since records began, Panama’s deep and cold ocean waters failed to emerge, possibly affecting fisheries and coral health The natural phenomenon of upwelling, which occurs annually in the Gulf of Panama, failed for the first time on record in 2025. A study led by scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institut...

#Panama's January to April #ocean #upwelling which brings normally cool, nutrient-filled waters from the deep. 2025 was different; "this vital oceanographic process did not occur for the first time" 😮

share.google/v7taeyp4vmr3...

Unprecedented suppression of Panama’s Pacific upwelling in 2025 - new in
@pnas.org
by O'Dea et al: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

We recently wrote about the urgent need to better quantify coral reef-ocean interactions under climate change in
@natecoevo.nature.com (see below).

Out today! ‘Quantifying coral reef–ocean interactions is critical for predicting reef futures under climate change’ in @natecoevo.nature.com
#EcologicalOceanography #InterdisciplinaryResearch #CoralReefs #OceanicSubsidies

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

@sosbangor.bsky.social

And here is the News & Views commentary by Kevin Lafferty, one of the experts who reviewed the paper:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease - Nature Ecology & Evolution The causative agent of sea star wasting disease has been elusive. This study used genetic datasets and experimental exposures to demonstrate that a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida caused di...

A marine serial killer at large, caught at last: researchers identify the agent of the sea star wasting disease that nearly caused the collapse of kelp forests along the Pacific Northwest

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@hakai.org @science.ubc.ca @tula.org @nature.org @uwenvironment.bsky.social

❗️Job Alert: Deep-Sea Benthic Biologist (Assistant Professor) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA 🌊 Apply by Dec 1, 2025: apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04175

📷 Auckland Museum Collections (CC) #MarineBiology

Some don't like it hot - the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey @thembauk.bsky.social shows how marine heatwaves are reshaping phytoplankton communities in the Northeast Pacific 🌊🔬 Open Access Read @aslo.org 👉 aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

AWESOME JOB OPPORTUNITY: Aldabra Science Coordinator (The Seychelles Islands Foundation)

www.sif.sc/node/679

#jobs #seychelles #coralreefs #jobopportunity #marinescience #coral #sciencecoordinator #marineecology #careers #marinebiology

FULLY FUNDED PhD opportunity on edible crab disease
with a great team here in a stunning location @sosbangor.bsky.social @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @cefasgovuk.bsky.social

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Thrilled to be part of this new paper led by Mayukh Dey & Nature Conservation Foundation, summarizing 25 yrs of 🪸 reef resilience monitoring in Lakshadweep 🏝️ 🇮🇳

We find distinct recovery archetypes shaped by atoll location & coral assemblages

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Opportunity at the Australian Institute of Marine Science using decision support and ecological modelling to predict reef futures and inform restoration:

www.seek.com.au/job/85158879...

Local human impacts interact with geography to drive benthic community depth zonation on contemporary coral reefs #ProcB - find out more from authors in our blog - royalsociety.org/blog/2025/06...

Check out the new paper on coral reef benthic depth zonation led by @bexturner.bsky.social from @sosbangor.bsky.social in @royalsocietypublishing.org. I've long been fascinated with how variable coral reef communities across the Pacific are. Nice to see it so coherently summarised. Well done Bex!

Coral reefs face an uncertain recovery from the 4th global mass bleaching event – can climate refuges help? As baby corals float in the currents, they can expand their species’ range. But can they get to climate refuges fast enough to survive? A new study has good news and bad.

There is still hope to save irreplaceable coral ecosystems, but time is running out. Baby corals can ride ocean currents for hundreds of miles, but they can’t outrun climate change. And humans have a limited capacity to make new reefs in cooler waters. buff.ly/nY4jJs0 #WorldOceanDay

🪸 Announcing RCUK 2025! 🪸

📅 Saturday December 6th 2025
(With workshops Friday 5th @ 1 pm)

📍 Bangor University’s main campus
Main Arts Lecture Theatre & Prichard-Jones Hall

Call for abstracts opens in July – further details over the coming months.

More info: www.reefconservationuk.org
#RCUK2025

Trump Opens Marine National Monument to Commercial Fisheries (Gift Article) The president said the move was aimed at making the United States the world’s “dominant seafood leader.”

Commercial fishing is the most destructive activity we undertake in the ocean 🌊. Trump just issued an executive order opening the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. 🤬

🌊🌊🪸🪸 Ever wonder how a hurricane modifies the landscape structure of a coral reef? In this newly published study, we use high-resolution drone imagery to explore how the impact of disturbances modulates the spatial arrangement and distribution of Acropora palmate patches.

doi.org/10.1007/s003...

Protecting existing coral reefs must be our priority Nature Ecology & Evolution - A global analysis reveals that coral restoration sites are often located in areas with high human impacts and overlook current and future levels of thermal stress,...

Read only, open access link:

rdcu.be/egVs3

Restoration cannot be scaled up globally to save reefs from loss and degradation - Nature Ecology & Evolution An assessment of existing coral restoration projects finds that accessibility drives the choice of restoration sites more than environmental and ecological factors, and most restored reefs have been o...

This piece covers the new paper by Mula et al. in @natureecoevo.bsky.social

"Restoration cannot be scaled up globally to save reefs from loss and degradation"

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Protecting existing coral reefs must be our priority - Nature Ecology & Evolution A global analysis reveals that coral restoration sites are often located in areas with high human impacts and overlook current and future levels of thermal stress, which places most restoration projec...

Protecting existing coral reefs MUST be our priority.

A message that's been voiced several times before by @profterryhughes.bsky.social and others, but one that we should not lose sight of.

My short 'News&Views' piece in @natureecoevo.bsky.social

Link: tinyurl.com/2jfskntd