Sarah Davies Receives NSF Awards
Dr. Sarah Davies recently received two National Science Foundation (NSF) awards: a Biological Oceanography award and a co-funded Biological Oceanography and Biological Sciences award.
Dr. Davies is collaborating with Dr. Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser at WHOI for the NSF Biological Oceanography award, which will fund the proposal “Collaborative Research: How do selection, plasticity, and dispersal interact to determine coral success in warmer and more variable environments?”. Dr. Davies and Dr. Meyer-Kaiser will conduct coral spawning research in the Rock Islands in Palau alongside Palauan interns in spring 2022. This work will also fund a Reef Music event in collaboration with Multiverse. The event will be conducted in Spanish and will be free of charge to attendees in East Boston. Dr. Davies is the PI and Dr. Meyer-Kaiser is the co-PI.
Dr. Davies is collaborating with with Dr. Adrienne Correa at Rice University and Dr. John Parkinson at University of Southern Florida for the co-funded NSF Biological Oceanography and Biological Sciences award, which will fund the proposal “Collaborative Research: Building consensus around the quantification and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae diversity.” The overarching goal of this workshop is to recognize and build further consensus around the identification and analysis of Symbiodiniaceae (the coral’s algal symbiont) genetic variation and come up with a practical ‘consensus road map’. This workshop will take place via Zoom, with 75 researchers from across the world attending. Dr. Davies is the PI and Dr. Correa and Dr. Parkinson are the co-PIs.
Research in the Davies Lab leverages in situ environmental data and mesocosm/culturing work with large-scale genomic and transcriptomic data to identify the mechanisms underlying adaptation, dispersal, and symbiosis in corals. The lab’s long-term research vision aims to uncover mechanistic links from phenotype to genotype and predict evolutionary trajectories for this critical symbiosis under climate change.
Congratulations, Sarah!