I’m currently a US National Park Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Barshis lab studying shallow and mesophotic coral reefs of American Sāmoa.

I’m a marine biologist who is fascinated by the mysteries of the ocean, from tropical shallow reefs to the deep-sea and mesophotic reefs in between! My research investigates how environmental factors affect coral biology and physiology. I use field-based experiments, biogeochemical techniques, and genetic tools to study corals in shallow versus deep reef environments, with a focus on low-light mesophotic coral ecosystems. I’m interested in understanding the impacts of ocean warming on coral physiology and recovery following thermal stress events that cause coral bleaching.

I received my Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA) and then worked in a deep-sea coral ecology lab (Prof Erik Cordes) at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA) where I was a research assistant and lab manager for two years. As a member of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, I completed my Ph.D. and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Coral Reef Ecosystems lab of Prof Hoegh-Guldberg and A/Prof Sophie Dove at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) studying tropical coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific. My Ph.D. was focused on understanding how the trophic ecology of shallow and deep corals is influenced by oceanographic processes such as upwelling, which brings important deep-water nutrients to shallow waters. Such nutrient fluxes may be important to the coral holobiont, which can utilize both dissolved and particulate food sources. My research examined how environmental differences such as depth and reef exposure affect coral holobiont metabolism. As an XL Catlin Seaview Survey Ocean Scholar during my Ph.D., I had the opportunity to survey coral reefs across the Coral Triangle and in several locations in the central Indian Ocean.

Contact:  vradice [at] odu [dot] edu

Twitter:  @Dr_Radice

Media:

Check out my “Behind the Science” blogs on the mesophotic.org website: http://www.mesophotic.org/posts/

My seminar for National Park Service’s Connected Conservation series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgBQlhF71vc

Diving into deep reef research, a blog for the National Park Foundation:

https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/diving-deep-sea-research-npf-science-fellow

Research profiles:

Google Scholar – Veronica Radice

ResearchGate – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veronica_Radice