Octocoral Who's Who
September, 2009
Here is a brief synopsis of researchers currently working with octocorals
Additional individuals can be found on Gary Williams site
HERE
Catalina Aguilar Hurtado
Masters student
University of the Ryukyus
Okinawa, Japan
·
“Octocoral systematics
of the family Melithaeidae in the Ryukyus Archipelago (JAPAN)"
(Undergraduate with Ass. Prof. Juan A.
Sánchez,
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia)
Dr. Phil Alderslade 
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Tasmania, Australia
·
For the last
couple of years I have been working part time on the identification of octocoral
collections from seamounts predominantly off the south and east coasts of
Australia.
This work is being done for the CSIRO Marine and
Atmospheric Research laboratories in Tasmania. I am also working on descriptions
of new deep water genera and species found to occur on the seamounts and new
shallow water taxa from the tropics amassed during my days at the Museum and Art
Gallery of the Northern Territory.
These new taxa come from many different families.
·
I am also coordinating
work on a new edition of the “Illustrated Trilingual Glossary of Morphological
and Anatomical terms applied to Octocorallia”.
Nestor Ardila Espitia
PhD student
(supervisor Ass. Prof.
Juan
A.
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
He has been working on his doctoral research in the taxonomy, phylogeny and
phylogeography of the precious corals (Coralliidae) based on morphology and
nuclear and mitochondrial genes, which will provide an opportunity to resolve
phylogenetics relationships among an important and endangered family of deep-sea
corals.
·
He has been studying during the past three years the octocoral communities in
the Tropical Eastern Pacific (Colombia, Ecuador) and he is very interested in
the emerging impacts of diseases and ocean acidification in gorgonian corals in
this region. These studies are been carried out in the Molecular Marine Biology
Lab-BIOMMAR.
Jaret Bilewitch
·
My project examines
evolutionary patterns and phylogenetic relationships of octocorals in
Australia's shallow- and deep-seas. I will test the hypothesis that different
bathymetric zones may act as storerooms of evolutionary diversity, capable of
re-colonizing other depths following periods of localized extinction or stress.
Using the phylogenetic systematics of the Ellisellidae, a family distributed
from sub-tidal zones to a kilometer deep, I can examine historical patterns of
shallow-to-deep and deep-to-shallow diversification of lineages. The ellisellids
are also in need of a taxonomic review, and the evolutionary relationships
determined here, combined with morphological characterization, will provide a
natural systematic basis for their revision. Ancestral reconstruction of the
depth at which octocorallians originated and underwent successive
diversifications has not been attempted and could determine whether deep-seas
are responsible for spawning this lineage. This would have implications for the
conservation of deep water habitats as important ecosystems that foster
evolutionary innovation and biodiversity.
·
A past project
documenting the octocoral biodiversity of Bermuda (shallow & deep-water).
Odalisca Breedy
Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias
del Mar y Limnologia
Univeridad de
Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa Rica
·
Revision of
eastern Pacific gorgonian genera such as
Pacifigorgia,
Leptogorgia, and
Eugorgia
Dr. Stephen Cairns
Research Scientist/Chair
Department of Invertebrate
Zoology
Smithsonian Institution
Washington D.C., USA
·
I have just finished part 3 of my revision of the primnoids
from the Hawaiian Islands. Part 1 was published in 2008, part 2 will be
out in summer 2009, and I will submit part 3 in June 2009. All three will
be in Pacific Science.
·
I am currently working on a morphological revision of the
primnoid octocorals know from off Alaska, about 26 species. The material
results from the Albatross,
Amy Baco Taylor’s cruises, and NOAA specimens collected by Bruce Wing and Bob
Stone.
·
I also plan to work on the deep-sea calcaxonian octocorals
from the Galapagos Islands, this material resulting from the
Albatross and
Johnson Sea-Link.
Chandran Rethnaraj
PhD student (supervisor K. Padma kumar)
Dept. of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
University of Kerala,
Trivandrum, India
·
Biodiversity of soft
corals (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) in South India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala)
Dr. Thanongsak Chanmethakul
or
Phuket Rajabhat University,
Phuket,
Thailand
-
Taxonomic
description of Sarcophyton
from Thai water.
-
Distribution of
gorgonian in the Andaman Sea.
-
Transplantation technique of Dendronephthya
spp.
-
Completed PhD
thesis with Dr. Alderslade and Dr. Benayahu as supervisors
Dr. Suchana Chavanich (Apple Chavanich)
Assistant Professor
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand
·
Diversity of
octocorals in the Gulf of Thailand
Jei-Ying Chen
Masters student (supervisor Curator
Gary Williams)
Department of
Invertebrate Zoology and Geology
California Academy of Sciences
San
Francisco, California, USA
and
Department of Biology
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, California, USA
·
Comparative morphology
and phylogenetic implications of calcaxonian gorgonians and pennatulaceans
Dr. Tatyana Dautova
Senior
Researcher
Laboratory of
Benthos Ecology
Institute of
Marine Biology (IMB) FEB Russian Academy of Sciences
AND
Curator of
Cnidaria Department
Museum (MIMB)
of IMB FEB RAS
AND
Head of the
Russian-Vietnamese International Laboratory of the Marine Biology and Ecology
researches from Russian side (FEB RAS – VAST) Institute of
Marine Biology (IMB) FEB Russian Academy of Sciences,
Vladivostok, Russia
·
“Octocorallia of South
China Sea – fauna and taxonomy” Now in processing: “Soft corals of Nha Trang
Bay”.
·
“Soft corals of
the Seychelles” Now in processing:
“The genus Sinularia
at Seychelles, Indian Ocean” (joint project with L.P. van Ofwegen, Nationaal
Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis, Leiden).
·
“Octocorallia of
Temperate Pacific – fauna, taxonomy, dispersal ways”
·
Now in
processing:
“Calcigorgia and
Paragorgia gorgonians of Kurile
Islands”.
“Soft corals of Russian waters of the East Sea (Sea
of Japan)”
Released:
“Gorgonians of Russian waters of the East Sea (Sea
of Japan)
Luisa Dueñas
completed Masters
student (supervisor Ass. Prof.
Juan Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Luisa has been working with Bamboo corals from New Zealand, sub-Antarctic and
Antarctic since 2006, during her Masters studies. She works specially with
Isidids from the Keratoisidinae and Mopseinae subfamilies, and her research
focuses on molecular phylogeny and taxonomy of this group. Her other interests
are character evolution, description of new species found during her research,
and phylogeography of big Keratoisidids. Next year, Luisa will apply to be a
Ph.D. student with Ass. Prof.
Pablo
López-González at
Universidad de Sevilla (Sevilla, Spain), to continue her studies on Antarctic
Bamboo Corals.
Peter Etnoyer
PhD Candidate (almost finished)
(supervisor ?)
Harte Research Institute
Texas A&M University
Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
·
Depth, distribution, and diversity of octocorals in the Gulf of Mexico using
geographic information systems (GIS) on large datasets of octocoral occurrences
in the Gulf
·
The focus
of the studies is largely deep-water Paramuricidae, but I have some experience
with deep-sea Isididae, and shallow tropical West Atlantic Plexauridae and
Gorogniidae
Klaus Feussner
Masters Student (supervisor Phil Alderslade)
University of South Pacific
Fiji
·
Octocorals are one
group of animals that we screen for their bioactivity (besides mainly sponges
and ascidians and algae).
·
I’m writing up
my thesis on Sarcophyton-
the molecular part is completed and the sequences have been uploaded on NCBI. We
have 14 undescribed species and I/we are getting 3-D images (Helicon focus) of
the sclerites.
Dr. Scott France
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana USA
·
My interests are in
the evolution of deep-sea hard-substrate fauna, using octocorals as a model. My
lab group is working on taxonomic, systematic and population-level questions,
employing molecular tools for each question. My primary focus is on the bamboo
coral subfamily Keratoisidinae (in collaboration with Dr. Les Watling).
·
Graduate
students in my lab are currently working on Chrysogorgiidae (Eric Pante),
Acanthogorgiiidae (Jana Thoma) and the genus
Paramuricea (Jana Thoma).
Carlos
Gomez Soto
Masters
student (supervisor Ass. Prof. Juan
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Muricea
Mohamed Habib
·
Survey to list what
octocorals are occurring in the Red Sea
Jennifer Harris
Masters student (supervisor Curator Gary Williams)
Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology
California Academy of Sciences
San
Francisco, California, USA
And
Department of Biology
San
Francisco State University
1600
Holloway Avenue
San
Francisco, California, USA
·
Bioluminescence in pennatulaceans
Yosephine Tuti Hermanlimianto 
Indonesian Institute for Sciences
Jakarta, Indonesia
·
Working at the
Research Centre for Oceanography-Indonesian Institute of Sciences since 1986, on
corals, especially on gorgonians.
·
Now I am working on
gorgonians biodiversity in Indonesia. Identifying some gorgonians with the help
from Dr. Leen van Ofwegen and Dr Phil Alderslade.
·
In 2008 at Naturalis,
doing Melithaeids from Indonesia and some other families, not finished yet.
Santiago Herrera
Masters
student (supervisor Ass. Prof. Juan
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Bubblegum
corals worldwide
Dr Monika Schlacher-Hoenlinger
Research Scientist
Sessile Marine
Invertebrate Section
Queensland Museum
Brisbane, Australia
·
I
am a researcher of the Australian node
of the CReefs project (a global census of coral reefs),
which includes a network of researchers engaged in a long term initiative to
assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in
the oceans.
·
In
this position my primary aims are 1) to comprehensively document the tropical
Octocorallia fauna of the Australian East and West Coast, and 2) to undertake
taxonomic research to develop a specialization in some families of octocorals
prevalent in tropical reefs.
Beth Horvath
Assistant Professor of Biology
Westmont College
AND
Research Associate
Invertebrate Labs
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
·
Extensive overview of
gorgonian fauna of the CA Bight, based on a fairly extensive collection of
species housed at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, including
illustrative photos of colonies, in situ and preserved, along with close-up
shots of the branches, and arrays of the sclerites.
·
New species
descriptions from CA Bight
·
Study of the
gorgonians from Baja and Mexico held by the Santa Barbara Museum of Nat. History
Tran Quoc Hung 
Marine Research Officer
Department of Marine Conservation and
Biodiversity
Institute of Marine Environment and
Resources (IMER)
Haiphong City, Vietnam
·
Biodiversity and
conservation in general in Vietnam
·
Soft coral taxonomy,
ecology of soft coral and biochemical in Alcyoniidae family.
·
Conservation and
restoration of coral reefs
Yukimitsu Imahara 
Wakayama Laboratory, Biological Institute
on Kuroshio
(Kuroshio Biological Research
Foundation)
Wakayama-shi, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
·
Taxonomy of
Japanese octocorals, revision of some alcyonacean and pennatulacean genera such
as Scleronephthya,
Anthomastus and
Halipteris
Fumihito Iwase
Institute Head,
Biological Institute on Kuroshio (Kuroshio
Biological Research Foundation)
Otsuki-Town, Kochi, Japan
·
Distribution of the
gorgonians in Japan and the influence of the Kuroshio Current.
Michael Janes 
President & Senior Aquarist
AquaTouch
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
·
Family Xeniidae - Histology, Taxonomy, ex situ culture
Dr Samuel Kahng 
Assistant Professor of Oceanography
Hawaii Pacific University
Waimanalo, Hawaii
·
I am writing a review
of octocoral reproduction with Hudi Benayahu and Howard Lasker.
·
I am continuing
to research the impact of an invasive octocoral,
Carijoa riisei, on the deep coral reefs of Hawaii
·
This fall one of
my grad students will begin characterizing the reproduction of
Sarcothelia spp. in Hawaii
Samatha Lee 
Environmental Consultant
Environmental
Resources Management Hong Kong (ERM-HK)
Hong Kong
·
Finished my master
degree and worked as a research assistant in Chinese University of Hong Kong,
conducted a study commissioned by Hong Kong Government in establishing a
reference collection and verifying the species diversity and distribution of
octocorals in Hong Kong waters.
·
Currently working for
an environment consultant company, helping to assess the species diversity and
abundance of certain octocoral communities in Asia-Pacific areas.
Dr. Pablo
López-González
Profesor Titular de Universidad (Associate
Professor)
Biodiversidad y Ecologia de Invertebrados,
Marinos Departamento de Fisiología y Zoología
Facultad de Biología, Universidad de
Sevilla
Sevilla, Spain
·
I have currently
a PhD student (Rebeca Zapata) working on Antarctic and SubAntarctic primnoids
(especially Thouarella
and related genera), and other students are starting to work (last year of their
academic studies) on taxonomic characters from the soft parts in scleractinians,
reproduction of Antarctic octocorals, and population dynamic of littoral sea
anemones.
·
My current research
projects on octocorals are related to polar (especially Antarctic), deep-sea,
and littoral Atlantic-Mediterranean fauna. Octocoral taxonomy and biogeography
are my main interests. During the last years, descriptions of new or confused
species in the literature on most octocoral groups (except for Helioporacea)
have been published
·
I have just send a ms
on gorgonians from the Gulf of Cadiz (North Eastern Atlantic) and Mediterranean,
I'm now working on another Antarctic gorgonian, and close to me I have the next
two soft-coral species to be worked, one is from South Azores and the other from
Guinea-Bissau
Dr. Catherine McFadden
Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor
Department of Biology
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont, California, USA
·
My lab group is
working on molecular systematics of a wide variety of octocoral groups across a
variety of taxonomic levels, although our primary taxonomic focus continues to
be shallow-water alcyoniid soft corals.
As part of the NSF Cnidarian Tree of Life project
(and in collaboration with Dr. Scott France) we are constructing a molecular
phylogeny of Octocorallia with representatives of as many families and genera of
octocorals as we have been able to obtain.
We have also been constructing genus and
species-level phylogenies to try to understand the relationships of soft corals
in the family Alcyoniidae, and to use molecular phylogenetic relationships to
identify new, phylogenetically informative characters for morphological
identification of alcyoniids.
We are also compiling a database of molecular
"barcodes" for octocorals (based on mitochondrial msh1 and COI sequences), and
have consequently been opportunistically sequencing any material we receive, of
known and unknown taxonomic affinity.
·
Undergraduate students
in my laboratory are currently working on the following projects:
1. Mitochondrial gene order in several
families of scleraxonians.
2. Molecular phylogenetics of the family
Melithaeidae.
3. Molecular phylogenetics of sea
pens and deep sea soft corals (Anthomastus,
Gersemia, etc).
4. Elliptical Fourier-based analysis of
sclerite shape.
Dr. Tina N. Molodtsova
Senior Scientist
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS
Moscow, Russia
·
A revision of
the genus Anthomastus,
North Atlantic, hopefully extending worldwide
Kirrily Moore 
PhD student (supervisor Dr Phil Alderslade)
University of Tasmania
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Tasmania, Australia
· World-wide
revision of the taxonomy and phylogeny of
Primnoisis
and
Anthothela
using morphological and molecular characteristics.
·
Phylogeography of certain taxa from the Tasmanian seamounts, some sub Antarctic
Islands and eastern Antarctica continental shelf
Masanori Nonaka
Chief aquarist & Researcher
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (Okinawa
Expo Aquarium)
Okinawa, Japan
·
Taxonomy and
distribution of Japanese Octocorallia, especially Coralliidae (with Katherine
Muzik).
Laura Núnez Pons
PhD student (supervisor ?)
University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
·
Chemical ecology of
Antarctic invertebrates, (Porifera, Cnidaria and Tunicata)
·
Taxonomy of some
Octocorals from Antarctica (Alcyonium,
Thouarella,
Fannyella and Primnoisis).
Dr. Leen van Ofwegen 
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Curator of Coelenterata
National Museum of Natural History Naturalis,
Leiden,
Netherlands
·
Revision of the
soft coral genera Litophyton,
Nephthea and
Stereonephthya.
·
The position of the
centre of maximum octocoral biodiversity in the Indo-Pacific
Eric Pante 
PhD student in Environmental and
Evolutionary Biology (Supervisor Dr Scott France)
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA, USA
·
Evolutionary biology,
phylogenetics, biogeography, population genetics
·
Place of origin of
deep-sea and shallow calcaxonians (global geographical scale)
·
Phylogenetics and
global biogeography of the Chrysogorgiidae (Calcaxonia)
·
Population
connectivity in Metallogorgia melanotrichos
(Calcaxonia: Chrysogorgiidae) (global geographical scale)
·
Phylogenetics
and taxonomy of the genus Chrysogorgia (Calcaxonia:
Chrysogorgiidae) (global geographical scale, with focus on NW Atlantic and SW
Pacific species pools)
·
Taxonomic description
of a new genus of Chrysogorgiidae from New Caledonia
Andrea M. Quattrini and Eric Cordes
PhD student (supervisor Dr. Erik Cordes)
Temple University
Philadelphia, USA
·
The genetic
relationships of deepwater gorgonians in the Gulf of Mexico (and hopefully
beyond) focusing on Callogorgia americana delta
collaborating with Tim Shank and Peter Etnoyer
·
The genetic
connectivity of deepwater gorgonians in the Gulf of Mexico (and beyond) focusing
on Callogorgia americana delta, collaborating with Peter Etnoyer.
Anne Simpson
PhD student (supervisor Dr Les Watling)
University of Maine
Orono, Maine, U.S.A.
Over the last several years I’ve been studying reproduction
in the following families of deep-water octocorals: Chyrsogorgiidae,
Paramuricidae, Paragorgiidae, and Corallidae. Most of the species I’m working on
were collected from NW Atlantic seamounts. My work generally examines
basic reproductive biology, with a focus on comparative gametogenesis.
Bastian
T. Reijnen
Associate Researcher
National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis
Leiden, The Netherlands
Supervisor: Dr. L.P. van
Ofwegen
·
Ovulid snails associated with Octocorallians in the Indo-Pacific
·
Revision of the Indo-Pacific Acanthogorgiidae, with special reference to the
Siboga Expedition (1899-1900) specimens.
Dr. Juan A. Sánchez
Director de Biommar
Profesor Asociado de la Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
Elia Sanmartãn-Paya
Writing up PhD (Universitat de Valencia,
Spain)
Currently in Sydney, Australia
·
“Octocorals from
Iceland”
Susana Soto de Matos-Pita
PhD student (supervisor Dr. Fran Ramil)
Universidad de Vigo
Vigo. España
·
My thesis work deals
with Octocorals collected by Spanish Antarctic Expeditions (BENTART) carried out
during the years 1994, 1995, 2003 and 2006 in West Antarctica (South Shetlands,
Antarctic Peninsula and Bellingshausen Sea).
·
Biogeography of the
identified species will be treated too.
Javier F. Tabima Restrepo 
Masters
student (supervisor Ass. Prof. Juan
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Gorgoniidae and hybridization
Michelle Taylor 
PhD student (supervisor Dr Alex Rogers at
the Institute of Zoology, London)
Imperial College
London, UK
·
A revision of the Thouarella
genus, phylogenetics of primnoids from the Patagonian Toothfish fishery around
South Georgia and the wider Antarctic, and the creation of a global octocoral
database that is being used to create maps of habitat suitability for octocorals
(if anyone has more data points, that would be greatly appreciated!).
Olga Lucía Torres Suárez 
Masters student (supervisor Ass. Prof.
Juan
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Pseudopterogorgia
and hybridization
Allan G. Valle Estrada
Masters student (supervisor Ass. Prof.
Juan
Sánchez)
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
·
Gorgonia
and hybridization
Stephen T. Viada
Senior Scientist
CSA International,
Inc.
8502 SW Kansas
Avenue
Stuart, Florida
34997
USA
Distribution and taxonomy of deep water octocorals of the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Voranop Viyakarn
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand
·
Diversity of
octocorals in the Gulf of Thailand
Dr. Les Watling
Professor of Zoology,
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
and
Emeritus Professor,
University of Maine.
·
I am studying the deep-sea octocorals of the North Atlantic
and Central Pacific, primarily focusing on a few families or genera that we have
collected. Our work began in 2003 with seamount dives using the submersible
Alvin on the New England seamounts, located off the US east coast. Since then we
have done either Alvin or ROV (Hercules) dives on 15 seamounts from Bear Smt in
the west to Corner Rise on the eastern end of this chain. We collected more than
400 specimens which will be deposited either at Yale Peabody Museum or in the
Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Contrary to expectations most of our
specimens are new to science and are in the process of being described. These
include new species of Iridogorgia,
Rhodaniridogorgia (new
genus, 1 species), Corallium
(in prep), Paragorgia
(in prep), Acanthogorgia,
Chrysogorgia (in prep),
and a large number of bamboo corals whose identities are still being worked out.
·
In 2009 we dove off the Bahamas using the ROV Global Explorer and collected a
large number of additional new species, primarily in the Keratoisidinae. With
the Scott France lab, we are using both molecular and morphological criteria to
establish genera and species boundaries.
·
Our future work will encompass more of the deep corals from the Northwest
Hawaiian Islands, and additional material collected in the eastern Pacific.
·
In addition, we are developing GIS databases for species in the Chrysogorgiidae
and Isididae, with all records checked for nomenclatural changes, etc.
http://www.dmc.maine.edu/sites/watlingsite/PAGES/index.html
Dr. Gary C. Williams
Curator and Chair
Department of Invertebrate
Zoology and Geology
California Academy of
Sciences
San Francisco,
California, USA
·
The nephtheid soft coral genus
Gersemia from western North America (with L.
Lundsten).
·
Sea fans and sea pens - morphology and phylogeny (with C. Chen).
·
New pennatulacean taxa from the Antarctic and North Atlantic (with P.J.
López-González).
·
“Rockpens”
- Pennatulaceans on hard substrata (with P. Alderslade).
·
Octocoral Research Center Website (continued revision and maintenance).
Li Xiubao
South China Sea Institute of Oceanology,
CAS
China
·
I have done some work
on taxonomy of gorgonians. Meanwhile, I want to study the taxonomy of soft
corals. We have already collected a lot of samples of octocorals in our museum.
The research is mainly on nearby mainland Seas
（Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi）,
Hainan Island (such as Sanya) and South China Sea. I have a small fund on
taxonomy of Family Ellisellidae from South China Sea.
Rebeca Zapata Guardiola
PhD student (supervisor
Ass. Prof.
Pablo
López-González)
Universidad de Sevilla
Sevilla, Spain
·
Taxonomy of
Antarctic octocorals focused in family Primnoidae and mainly in genus
Thouarella.
Masters
student (supervisor Dr. James Davis Reimer)