SelectedWorks - David Gilliam

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Selected Works of David Gilliam

Associate Professor

Dr. Gilliam's research interests focus on coral reef ecology as applied to restoration, assessment, and monitoring. His projects have strong resource management goals through collaboration with local, State, and Federal agencies. Research efforts include: investigating the basic ecology and potential restoration of Acropora cervicornis populations, two long-term SE Florida reef monitoring projects, and assessing the success of several reef restoration projects and investigating methods to improve restoration success. In addition to collaborating with resource managers on research projects, he actively works with and advise managers on marine and coastal issues.Dr. Gilliam is currently Vice Chairman for the Coral Advisory Panel for the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. He works very closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protect (FL DEP) and NOAA sponsored Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative. He is also an advisor for FL DEP and FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on reef damage and restoration issues.

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About David Gilliam

Dr. Gilliam's research interests focus on coral reef ecology as applied to restoration, assessment, and monitoring. His projects have strong resource management goals through collaboration with local, State, and Federal agencies. Research efforts include: investigating the basic ecology and potential restoration of Acropora cervicornis populations, two long-term SE Florida reef monitoring projects, and assessing the success of several reef restoration projects and investigating methods to improve restoration success. In addition to collaborating with resource managers on research projects, he actively works with and advise managers on marine and coastal issues.Dr. Gilliam is currently Vice Chairman for the Coral Advisory Panel for the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. He works very closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protect (FL DEP) and NOAA sponsored Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative. He is also an advisor for FL DEP and FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on reef damage and restoration issues.

Articles (44)

Frequent disturbances and chronic pressures constrain stony coral recovery on Florida’s Coral Reef (Nicholas P Jones, Rob R Ruzicka, Mike A Colella, et al.) Coral Reefs (2022)

Acute disturbances and chronic pressures have an important and increasing influence on the structure of coral reef communities. For the viability of benthic taxa such as stony corals, a balance between loss following disturbance and ...

Census of heat tolerance among Florida's threatened staghorn corals finds resilient individuals throughout existing nursery populations (Ross Cunning, Katherine E Parker, Kelsey Johnson-Sapp, et al.) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021)

The rapid loss of reef-building corals owing to ocean warming is driving the development of interventions such as coral propagation and restoration, selective breeding and assisted gene flow. Many of these interventions target naturally heat-tolerant ...

Should Hybrids Be Used in Coral Nurseries? A Case Study Comparing Caribbean Acropora spp. and Their Hybrid in the Bahamas (Cassie M. VanWynen, Morgan V. Hightshoe, Nicole D. Fogarty, et al.) Frontiers in Marine Science (2021)

For decades, coral reef ecosystems have been in decline due to environmental stressors such as rising sea temperatures, increased disease prevalence, and other local anthropogenic sources. Considering this decline, coral restoration efforts in the Caribbean ...

Temperature stress and disease drives the extirpation of the threatened pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, in southeast Florida (Nicholas P Jones, Lystina Kabay, Kathleen Semon Lunz, et al.) scientific reports (2021)

Rare species population dynamics can elucidate the resilience of an ecosystem. On coral reefs, climate change and local anthropogenic stressors are threatening stony coral persistence, increasing the need to assess vulnerable species locally. Here, we ...

Mechanical Properties, Spectral Vibrational Response, and Flow-Field Analysis of the Aragonite Skeleton of the Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) (Alejandro Carrasco-Pena, Mahmoud Omer, Bridget Masa, et al.) Coral Reefs (2020)

Understanding the structural and mechanical properties of coral skeletons is important to assess their responses to natural and anthropogenic challenges and to predict the long-term viability of hermatypic corals in a changing ocean. Here, we ...

Differential Survival of Nursery‐Reared Acropora cervicornis Outplants Along the Florida Reef Tract (Robert van Woesik, Raymond B. Banister, Erich Bartels, et al.) Restoration Ecology (2020)

In recent decades, the Florida reef tract has lost over 95% of its coral cover. Although isolated coral assemblages persist, coral restoration programs are attempting to recover local coral populations. Listed as threatened under the ...

Structural and Mechanical Properties of Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) CaCO3 Aragonite Skeletons, Cleaned by Chemical Bleaching and Biological Processes (Mahmoud Omer, Alejandro Carrasco-Pena, Nina Orlovskaya, et al.) Advances in Applied Ceramics (2020)

Coral reefs provide habitat for most oceanic life forms, however, they are declining worldwide due to pollution, increased ocean temperature, diseases and other factors. In this paper, structural and mechanical properties of endangered coral (Acropora ...

Thermal Stress-Related Spatiotemporal Variations in High-Latitude Coral Reef Benthic Communities (Nicholas P Jones, Joana Figueiredo and David S Gilliam) Coral Reefs (2020)

High-latitude coral reef communities have been postulated as the first areas to undergo reorganisation under climate change. Tropicalisation has been identified in some high-latitude communities and is predicted in others, but it is unclear how ...

Identifying Causes of Temporal Changes in Acropora cervicornis Populations and the Potential for Recovery (Elizabeth Goergen, Alison L. Moulding, Brian K. Walker, et al.) Frontiers in Marine Science (2019)

Corals, specifically the Atlantic staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, are under major threat as disturbance events such as storms and disease and predation outbreaks increase in frequency. Since its population declines due to a wide spread ...

Impacts of a Regional, Multi-Year, Multi-Species Coral Disease Outbreak in Southeast Florida (Charles Walton, Nicole K. Hayes and David S Gilliam) Frontiers in Marine Science (2018)

Globally coral reefs have been declining at alarming rates as a result of anthropogenic stressors, leading to increased frequency and severity of widespread bleaching and disease events. These events are often associated with increased water ...

Outplanting Technique, Host Genotype, and Site Affect the Initial Success of Outplanted Acropora cervicornis (Elizabeth Goergen and David S Gilliam) PeerJ (2018)

Acropora cervicornis is the most widely used coral species for reef restoration in the greater Caribbean. However, outplanting methodologies (e.g., colony density, size, host genotype, and attachment technique) vary greatly, and to date have not ...

Bleaching Events Regulate Shifts from Corals to Excavating Sponges in Algae-Dominated Reefs (Andia Chaves Fonnegra, Bernhard Riegl, Sven Zea, et al.) Global Change Biology (2017)

Changes in coral–sponge interactions can alter reef accretion/erosion balance and are important to predict trends on current algal-dominated Caribbean reefs. Although sponge abundance is increasing on some coral reefs, we lack information on how shifts ...

Regional Restoration Benchmarks for Acropora cervicornis (S. Schopmeyer, Diego Lirman, Erich Bartels, et al.) Coral Reefs (2017)

Coral gardening plays an important role in the recovery of depleted populations of threatened Acropora cervicornis in the Caribbean. Over the past decade, high survival coupled with fast growth of in situ nursery corals have ...

Genotype and Attachment Technique Influence the Growth and Survival of Line Nursery Corals (Elizabeth Goergen, Zachary Ostroff and David S. Gilliam) Restoration Ecology (2017)

The Caribbean staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, was once a dominant habitat creating coral, but its populations have declined dramatically in recent decades. Numerous restoration efforts now utilize coral gardening techniques to cultivate this species, growing ...

Coral-Excavating Sponge Cliona delitrix: Current Trends of Space Occupation on High Latitude Coral Reefs (Ari Halperin, Andia Chaves-Fonnegra and David S. Gilliam) Hydrobiologia (2017)

The recent increase in abundance of coral-excavating sponges is a threat to the health of coral reefs. However, the distribution and growth of these sponges are poorly documented on high latitude reefs where corals live ...

Investigating the Spatial Distribution and Effects of Nearshore Topography on Acropora cervicornis Abundance in Southeast Florida (Nicole D'Antonio, David S. Gilliam and Brian K. Walker) PeerJ (2016)

Dense Acropora cervicornis aggregations, or patches, have been documented within nearshore habitats in Southeast Florida (SE FL) despite close proximity to numerous anthropogenic stressors and subjection to frequent natural disturbance events. Limited information has been ...

Siderastrea siderea Spawning and Oocyte Resorption at High Latitude (Adam T. St.Gelais, Andia Chaves Fonnegra, Alison L. Moulding, et al.) Invertebrate Reproduction and Development (2016)

At high latitudes (>25°), sexual reproduction and the maintenance of coral populations can be impaired by marginal environmental conditions. However, little is known about sexual reproduction of many coral species at high latitude on the ...

Fecundity and Sexual Maturity of the Coral Siderastrea siderea at High Latitude Along the Florida Reef Tract, USA (Adam T. St. Gelais, Andia Chaves-Fonnegra, Allison Brownlee, et al.) Invertebrate Biology (2016)

Siderastrea siderea is one of the most abundant corals at high latitude shallow sites along the Florida Reef Tract (25°–27°N). This species is able to tolerate wide seawater temperature fluctuations and sedimentation stress, but its ...

Effects of Excavating-Sponge Removal on Coral Growth (Ari Halperin, Andia Chaves Fonnegra and David S. Gilliam) Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (2016)

Some excavating sponges are strong competitors for space on coral reefs, able to kill live coral tissue and to overgrow entire coral colonies. Stony corals with excavating sponges can die or become dislodged. To date ...

Percent Recent Mortality (PRM) of Stony Corals as an Ecological Indicator of Coral Reef Condition (D. Lirman, N. Formel, S. Schopmeyer, et al.) Ecological Indicators (2014)

The reef communities of the Florida coral reef tract play a major role in supporting the regional economy but are threatened by increased exploitation and environmental factors. Coral reef ecosystem services are vital to the ...

Possible Recovery of Acropora palmata (Scleractinia:Acroporidae) Within the Veracruz Reef System, Gulf of Mexico: A Survey of 24 Reefs to Assess the Benthic Communities (Elizabeth Anne Larson, David S. Gilliam, Mauricio Lopez Padierna, et al.) Revista de Biologia Tropical (2014)

Recent evidence shows that Acropora palmata within the Veracruz Reef System, located in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, may be recovering after the die off from the flooding of the Jamapa River and a dramatic ...

Determining the Extent and Characterizing Coral Reef Habitats of the Northern Latitudes of the Florida Reef Tract (Martin County) (Brian K. Walker and David S. Gilliam) PLoS One (2013)

Climate change has recently been implicated in poleward shifts of many tropical species including corals; thus attention focused on higher-latitude coral communities is warranted to investigate possible range expansions and ecosystem shifts due to global ...

In Situ Coral Nurseries Serve as Genetic Repositories for Coral Reef Restoration After an Extreme Cold-Water Event (S. Schopmeyer, Diego Lirman, Erich Bartels, et al.) Restoration Ecology (2012)

During an unusual cold-water event in January 2010, reefs along the Florida Reef Tract suffered extensive coral mortality, especially in shallow reef habitats in close proximity to shore and with connections to coastal bays. The ...

Small-Scale Mapping of Indeterminate Arborescent Acroporid Coral (Acropora cervicornis) Patches (Brian K. Walker, E. A. Larson, Alison L. Moulding, et al.) Coral Reefs (2012)

Western Atlantic populations of the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis have drastically declined over the past few decades. Hence, interest in its ecology and spatial extent has increased. Acroporid corals with indeterminate arborescent growth like A.cervicornis ...

Coral Recruitment to Two Vessel Grounding Sites off Southeast Florida, USA (Alison L. Moulding, Vladimir N. Kosmynin and David S. Gilliam) Revista de Biologia Tropical (2012)

Over the last two decades, more than 10 major vessel groundings have occurred on coral reefs offshore southeast Florida. Lack of any published information on coral settlement, post-settlement survival, and juvenile coral growth in the ...