The Harvell Lab has varied research interests ranging from marine invertebrate biology and diversity to climate change and its impacts on coastal ecology. Here’s an overview of the Harvell Lab’s research. A list of publications can be found here.
Coral Reef and Seagrass Health & Sustainability
Coastal ecosystems are among the most important for humankind, as sources of food,
protection, medication, and recreation for nearby communities. However, heavy resource use,
indirect, and direct habitat damage threaten vital nearshore ecosystems like coral reefs and
seagrass beds. One component of our research investigates the link between human and
ecosystem health – how seagrasses ecosystems deactivate human and wildlife pathogens and
sewage pollution; both wildlife (coral, seastars and otters) and human health may be
threatened by land-based pollution entering coastal waters (Lamb et al. 2017; Fiorenza et al
2024; Dawkins et al 2024). Coral disease has been recognized as a significant driver of coral
decline, and wasting disease of seagrass is also a major factor in eelgrass decline (Aoki et al
2023; Graham et al 2023). Managing these diseases and their influencers will be important to
conserving functioning coastal ecosystems.
Ocean Outbreaks and Changing Environments
Environmental conditions play an important role in diseases of many marine organisms. Our lab focuses on how corals, seagrasses, and sea stars fend off pathogens in a changing climate, and how the pathogens themselves react to different environments. Recently, we have uncovered a link between temperature anomalies and the sea star wasting disease outbreak (Eisenlord et al. 2016), linked thermal anomalies to shifting coral microbiota (Tracy et al. 2015), and developed projections for climate-induced coral disease outbreaks (Maynard et al. 2015). Ongoing research on sea grass seeks to determine the relationship between virulence and environment and mechanisms of waterborne transmission (Eisenlord et al 2024) in the Pacific Northwest. Our newer research focuses on developing strategies for coastal resilience by identifying refugia from disease (Graham et al 2023; Graham, Harvell et al 2024) and
developing new tools for continental scale surveys like drone surveys (Yang et al 2023) and AI
assisted diagnostics (Aoki et al 2022).