Research
Corals reefs worldwide are under threat from a variety of local and global anthropogenic stressors. In the Castillo Lab, we seek to understand how these stressors have impacted corals in the past, how they are affecting corals in the present, and how they will likely shaped future coral reef populations, communities, and ecosystems. Currently, we conduct research on temperate corals on the North Carolina coast, and on tropical corals in Florida, Belize, and Panama.
Research Sites
NORTH CAROLINA
Radio Island, North Carolina
Oculina arbuscula
Oculina arbuscula
FLORIDA
Florida Keys Reef Tract
Florida Trip 2018
Castillo Lab Dive Team
Diving the FKRT
BELIZE
Tropic Air, Belize PGIA
Hunting Caye, Belize
Belize Barrier Reef
Sea Life, Lime Caye, Belize
PANAMA
Air Panama, Panama City
Smithsonian Tropical Research Station, Bocas
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Bocas Del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Focus Areas
| Focus Area | Image |
|---|---|
| Ocean warming, ocean acidification, and coral reefs |  |
| Coral acclimatization and adaptation |  |
| Coral response to global change across ecological scales |  |
| Coral bleaching in the western Caribbean Sea |  |
| Reconstruction of environmental history on coral reefs |  |
| Winter warming and temperate corals |  |
| Storm impacts on coral reefs |  |
| Microplastics impact on coral reefs |  |
Funded Projects
| Funding Agency | Funded Project |
|---|---|
 | Storm impact and resilience of corals across spatial scales on the FloridaKeys |
| Investigating the influence of thermal history on coral growth response to recent and predicted end-of-century ocean warming across a cascade of ecological scales |
 | Using multielement-isotope coral paleothermometry to reconstruct the thermal history of seawater across a Caribbean barrier reef system over the past century and evaluation of its impact on coral extension rates |