Dr. Kristen Brown

Sargassum natans: Sargassum is a floating, fast-growing algae that constantly extracts CO2 from the atmosphere

🚨 Post-doctoral position alert! 🚨

The Bhattacharya Lab at Rutgers University is seeking a postdoc in the field of algal multi-omics and metabolic engineering 🌊 🦠 🧬

Ideal start by June. Applications will be reviewed as received. Please share widely :)

jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/269...

#evobio

Calling all researchers working on *Genomics of Adaptation to Extreme Thermal Environments*
I'm serving as a guest editor of an upcoming collection in BMC Genomics and am eager to read your submission! More on scope and how to contribute here: bit.ly/4kH3PIx 🧪 @springer.springernature.com

‼️ ‼️ Paper alert ‼️ ‼️

Our latest study from the @oceanecol.bsky.social Lab in the @icrs.bsky.social journal @springernature.com shows why high-resolution temperature monitoring matters for assessing bleaching impacts.

doi.org/10.1007/s003...

Thanks to @hkust.bsky.social, it is #openaccess

Pressings of brown seaweeds from San Diego #SciArt

🪸 A recent study by WHOI Reef Solutions scientists shows that microbes and genetic material in seawater change when nearby corals are sick. Seawater was a better indicator of disease than sampling the corals themselves.

@amiposts.bsky.social has the scoop: go.whoi.edu/microbio-coral

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Follow these awesome women ocean scientists, many of whom I'm proud to call colleagues and delighted to call friends.

🧪🦑🌍🐟

go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo

GBE | Genome Skimming Illuminates Hidden Species Diversity and Symbiodiniaceae Associations in East Pacific Pocillopora Corals

@michaeltconnelly.bsky.social et al. sequenced 342 Pocillopora coral samples from the Eastern Tropical Pacific, revealing four distinct species; algal symbiont community profiling identified dominant symbionts that varied according to host species.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf235

#genome #evolution

📣 Call for proposals to support locally driven coral conservation 🪸🪸🪸. ➡️ cordap.org/clip-award/
#OceanGrants 💶🌊 thanks to @cordap.bsky.social

ALERT - Funding opportunity for coral researchers! @cordap.bsky.social just launched its Call for Proposals under the Coral Local Innovation Program. 🪸
cordap.org/clip-award/

https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/coast-to-coast-coral-assessment-reveals-thailands-reefs-losing-complexity/

Last year, ATMEC produced one of the largest assessments of Thai coral reefs to date. A new article in Mongabay has explored the findings from our work in the context of larger issues, reinforcing the value of foundational research to conservation!

Link in the comments!

#MarineEcology 🌐🌏🪸🌊🦑

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Cladophora graminea, or “mermaid’s hair,” is our seaweed of the week! #PhycologyFriday

🚨 Job Alert! TT Assistant Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks! Looking for a candidate with a focus on coastal ecology. Come be my colleague! Please share.

careers.alaska.edu/jobs/assista...

Some latest seaweed pressings: branching reds #SciArt #PhycologyFriday

New paper on using #coral nurseries as experimental units for studying host x symbiont genotype interactions. Congrats to recent PhD student (now Dr.) Matt Gamache! @cmarinescience.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eVA2C

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was founded with the purpose of increasing and sharing knowledge about the past, present and future of tropical ecosystems and their relevance to human welf...

🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 Marine Scientist Position – Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), full-time, permanent Marine Scientist position based in Panama. Application review begins February 15, 2026 (open until filled). Early-career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. www.stri.si.edu

🚨 Two funded PhDs (one int'l, one UK) - study coral restoration & corporate sustainability with us in Lancaster! Enquiries welcome, January 30, please share widely! 🚨

🪸🐠 Coral restoration (int'l): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🌴📊 Corporate sustainability (UK): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

This could be your dream job: working full time at the Friday Harbor Labs on marine invertebrate organismal biology. Nine month salary from an endowment, teaching and research faculty position.

apply.interfolio.com/178804

👶🪸 Can Caribbean corals recover naturally after the devastating effects of SCTLD? - Our new study in @commsearth.nature.com reveals that corals in their early life stages—either survived the outbreak or recruited afterwards—offering a positive sign of resilience at regional scales rdcu.be/eUJBc

Eisenia arborea (the “Southern sea palm”) is our seaweed of the week! #PhycologyFriday

Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations - Coral Reefs Reef recovery following a disturbance largely depends on successful coral recruitment and the absence of chronic stressors. However, recent recovery events show increasing homogenization, with dominan...

NEW PAPER “Pioneer generation shapes long-term recovery of coral populations"

Here we challenge what a reef recovery looks like and show:

🪸 Early recruits drive long-term recovery
🪸Later recruits failed to survive
🪸 Apparent recovery masks declining diversity

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A quote by Greta Thunberg stating that, "The one thing we need more than hope is actoin. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere." It's in white font on a blue sky background with puffy white clouds.

Nearly every panel I spoke on this year ended with the same question: "What gives you hope?"

My friends, that question expired years ago. (If you need receipts, my book Saving Us is literally a 300-page answer.)

The real question is: How are you PRACTICING hope?

Because Greta is right ..

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

Our lab from @HHMINEWS & @UCBerkeley is looking for undergrads to come for an internship!
www.hhmi.org/programs/cec...

On behalf of the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, we are excited to invite applications for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position in Ocean Biogeochemical Modeling at the rank of assistant professor. www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawa... position number 0082726

Deep-sea corals near cold seeps associate with sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs in the family Ca. Thioglobaceae - Microbiome Background Corals are known for their symbiotic relationships, yet there is limited evidence of chemoautotrophic associations. This is despite some corals occurring near cold seeps where chemosymbiotic fauna abound including mussels that host sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs from the SUP05 cluster (family Ca. Thioglobaceae). We investigated whether corals near cold seeps associate with related bacteria and report here that these associations are widespread. Results We screened corals, water, and sediment for Thioglobaceae using 16S metabarcoding and found ASVs associated with corals at high relative abundance (10 – 91%). These ASVs were specific to coral hosts, absent in water samples, and rare or absent in sediment samples. Using metagenomics and transcriptomics, we assembled the genome of one phylotype associated with Paramuricea sp. B3 (ASV 4) which contained the genetic potential to oxidize sulfur and fix carbon, and confirmed that these pathways were transcriptionally active. Furthermore, its relative abundance was negatively correlated with the stable isotopic composition of its host coral’s tissue suggesting some contribution of chemoautotrophy to the coral holobiont. Conclusions We propose that some lineages of Thioglobaceae may facultatively supplement the diet of their host corals through chemoautotrophy at seeps or may provide essential amino acids or vitamins. This is the first documented association between chemoautotrophic symbionts and corals at seeps and suggests that the footprint of chemosynthetic environments is wider than currently understood.

Corals are masters of obtaining nutrition via symbioses, in the light and in the dark: deep sea corals can associate with sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs, expressing pathways that oxidize sulfur and fix C. Corals hosting them derive some carbon from chemosynthesis. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Another excellent dive in the kelp forest today! 🤿 🌊 @stanfordhopkins.bsky.social

A rapidly closing window for coral persistence under global warming - Nature Communications Global warming is causing widespread coral mortality through bleaching. Here, simulations of coral eco-evolutionary dynamics forecast strong population declines in the 21st century. Coral reefs may co...

Dont remember seeing any Australian media articles about this - although i was at a conference last week. But it seems kind of a big deal that the # GBR wont survive till the end of the century and will decline sig by mid century. #auspol #qldpol #cop30

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island. The Department of Biological Sciences in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) at the University of Rhode Island (URI) invites applications for an academic year (9 month), tenure-track Assistant Professor position specializing in Marine Ecology. URI, the top public university in New England, is a land and sea grant research university located in Kingston, Rhode Island, a beautiful seaside community that is well connected by car, bus, and rail about 40 min from Providence, an hour from Boston and 3 hours from New York City.

Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island.

jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960

The Brown and Stachowicz labs are looking for a postdoc for an NSF-funded project on the thermal dependence of disease in eelgrass! As a bonus you get to be based at the Bodega Marine Lab! Interested? Find out more here: brown-ecology.com/join-us/