Unraveling fungi community patterns in Red Sea coral reefs
Internship Description
Workshop Description
It is widely known that
coral reefs represent one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. There
have been numerous attempts to quantify and evaluate species richness and
functional diversity in reef environments. However, the majority of research so
far has focused on macro organisms - most likely due to difficulties in
evaluating the hidden “cryptobiome” of reefs in a standardized way. The
deployment of Autonomous Reed Monitoring Structures (ARMS), in combination with
metabarcoding, successfully performed by KAUST scientists in the recent past
can be key to identify taxonomic and functional groups of Red Sea coral reefs
associated organisms. Studies using ARMS in the Red Sea so far have targeted
eukaryotic and bacterial taxa. However, fungal communities that can play
critical roles in reef functioning have been overlooked. To close the knowledge
gap on fungal communities in Red Sea coral reefs, we are looking for a student
(undergraduate or graduate) to investigate the following aspects: (1)
Evaluation of fungal community compositions and their spatio-temporal
distribution throughout Red Sea ARMS deployment sites, based on metabarcoding
data analysis. Which gradients do emerge and how do they relate to
environmental variables, such as sea surface temperature?; and (2) How are
fungal communities connected to bacterial communities identified by Pearman et
al. (2019)?
Deliverables/Expectations
Deliverables
The overall aim of the
project is a peer-reviewed publication with the student being the first author
Faculty Name
Daniele Daffonchio
Student Monthly Allowance
$1,000.00
Field of Study
Field Of Study
Coral reef biodiversity and
functioning