Sara Swaminathan

Postdoctoral Scientist
Phone: +1 (207) 315-2567, ext. 413
sswaminathan@bigelow.org

For media inquiries, please contact: communications@bigelow.org


BioPublicationsCV


Education

Ph.D., Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, 2024

  • Dissertation: Potential for Coral Reef Community Resilience in the Anthropocene
  • Faculty advisor: Andrew Altieri

B.S. Science in Society Program, Wesleyan University, 2017

Research Interests

I am a coral reef ecologist studying how coral reefs respond to environmental change. I use concepts from community ecology to understand how coral reef organisms – from microbes to fish – interact, and how ecological disturbances impact these interactions. I integrate molecular methods, laboratory and in situ experimentation, and survey methods to gain holistic understandings of these complex environments. I strive to conduct research that helps inform marine conservation and restoration.

Publications

2024

    • Swaminathan SD, Lafferty KD, Knight NS, and Altieri AH (2024). Stony coral tissue loss diseasealters reef communities. Science Advances, 10(18). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk6808.
  • Swaminathan SD, Meyer JL, Johnson MD, Paul VJ, Bartels E and Altieri AH (2024) Divergentof the coral holobiont to deoxygenation and prior environmental stress. Frontiers in Marine Science 10:1301474. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1301474.

2021

  • Johnson MD, Swaminathan SD, Nixon EN, Paul VJ, Altieri AH (2021) Differential susceptibility of reefbuilding corals to deoxygenation reveals remarkable hypoxia tolerance. Scientific Reports 11:23168. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01078-9.

2020

    • Altieri AH, Johnson MD, Swaminathan SD, Nelson HR, Gedan KB (2020) Resilience of Tropicalto Ocean Deoxygnation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 36(3):227-238. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.11.003.
  • Swaminathan SD, Craig Z, Didderen K, Lengkeek W, Merck D, Muller E, Van Der Heide T, Altieri AHexclusion improves coral reef restoration success in a marine protected area. Restoration Ecology (In Review)

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