Dr. Shakil Visram
Practitioner Fellow at World Wildlife Fund
Location:
Coral reefs near Mombasa in Kenya
Project Title: Understanding How Coral Reef Habitats Shape Interactions Between Corals and Their Symbiotic Algae (Zooxanthellae), Including the Coral Bleaching Response
Publications and Presentations: Technical Report for Alcoa Foundation's Conservation and Sustainability Fellowship Program
Project Description
Coral reefs are sensitive barometers of environmental conditions, with scientists predicting that 60% of the world's coral could die within a quarter century due partly to global warming.
Dr. Shakil Visram is investigating how different types of reef habitats in northern Kenya shape coral's response to environmental stress, including rising ocean temperatures.
Coastal populations of developing nations are heavily reliant on coral reefs for fisheries and tourism-related incomes. The reefs, however, are increasingly under pressure from a number of human-induced threats, including expanding human populations, over-fishing, destructive fishing methods, marine pollution, and climate change. The latter is one of the world's most pressing issues and is impacting the health of coral reefs around the world.
Coral bleaching is a common response to such environmental stresses and involves the paling or whitening of coral tissues due to the expulsion of symbiotic algae, called zooxanthellae, that live within the coral. Due to loss of photosynthesis capacity, bleached corals are increasingly prone to disease, have diminished rates of growth and calcification, and feature reduced reproductive capacity. In the event of severe or prolonged stress, they die.
The primary environmental trigger of coral bleaching is elevated ocean temperature, which is linked to global climate change. Dr. Visram's project involves quantifying the density, genetic identity, and concentration of photosynthetic pigments in the symbiotic algae in corals from three reef habitats—shallow lagoons, deep lagoons, and outer reef slopes."
For each of the habitats, Dr. Visram is monitoring three conditions that are important for coral bleaching response—water flow, intensity of sunlight received, and water temperature. From these data, he hopes to determine how the habitats and the coral's response to them differ.
"If the data indicate that corals from certain reef habitats have heightened tolerance to high temperature and are less prone to coral bleaching, then these habitats may be prioritized for marine protection," said Dr. Visram. "The surviving corals from these habitats could be a likely source of recruits for reefs affected by major bleaching events, and they may also be used in transplant experiments as a means to increase the resistance of bleaching-susceptible reefs."
Biographical Information
Dr. Shakil Visram earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Eastern Africa in Kenya, an M.Sc. in immunology and immune genetics from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. from the University of York in the United Kingdom.
After his undergraduate program in 1995, he was briefly involved in research on the endangered Grevy's zebra in northern Kenya. It was through his voluntary work with CORDIO (Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean) in East Africa that he learned of the disastrous impacts of the 1998 El Nino-associated coral-bleaching event on Kenyan reefs.
He currently serves as a research associate/post-doctoral scientist for CORDIO East Africa, where his research interests are factors that shape coral resistance and resilience to bleaching stressors.
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