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Justin H Baumann

SPIRE Postdoctoral Fellow, Mount Holyoke College
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:

About Justin

Baumann's research focuses on coral reef ecology, physiology and biogeochemistry. Specifically, Baumann studies how coral reef ecosystems are impacted by climate change and how some corals are better suited to survive such stressors than others. Overarching themes in Baumann's writings include impacts of global climate change on coral diversity, community structure, growth, and energetics. Baumann is a volunteer and writer with Citizens Climate Lobby, frequent guest speaker in classrooms in North Carolina and elsewhere, and an organizing team member of SciREN Triangle -- an outreach event that trains researchers in lesson plan writing and connects them with educators from around North Carolina.

Contributions

In the News

"North Carolina Can Lead the Fight against Climate Change if We Make it Our Priority," Justin H Baumann (with Laura Mudge and Catie Alves), The Herald Sun, December 11, 2018.
"Why Sharks are Thriving Near the NC Coast," Justin H Baumann (with Charles Bangley), The News & Observer, August 14, 2018.
"What's Going on with the Earth's Climate?," Justin H Baumann (with Walter Robinson and Lisa Falk), The News & Observer, February 16, 2018.

Publications

"Coral Symbiodinium Community Composition across the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System is Influenced by Host Species and Thermal Variability" Microbial Ecology 75, no. 4 (2018): 903-915.

Coral-associated algal symbionts (Symbiodinium) vary across environmental gradients for some but not all reef-building corals and dominant symbionts do not vary suggesting that the coral host is likely responsible for adaptation/acclimatization to stress in the study site (Belize).

"Temperature Regimes Impact Coral Assemblages along Environmental Gradients on Lagoonal Reefs in Belize" (with Joseph E. Townsend, Travis A. Courtney, Hannah E. Aichelman, Sarah W. Davies, Fernando P. Lima, and Karl D. Castillo). PLOS One (2016).

Coral cover, diversity, and abundance is lower on nearshore, warmer, and more thermally variable reef environments than on offshore, cooler, and less thermally variable reef environments suggesting that as the climate continues to warm coral ecosystems will continue to break down.

"Photoautotrophic and Heterotrophic Carbon in Bleached and Non-Bleached Coral Lipid Acquisition and Storage" (with A.G. Grottoli, A.D. Hughes, and Y. Matsui). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 461 (2014): 469-478.

Coral acquire most of their energy via photosynthetic symbionts when healthy but when bleached corals lose these symbionts suggesting a need to switch feeding modes. Most corals do not switch feeding modes when bleached but all corals in this study utilized autotrophic (from photosynthesis) and heterotrophic (from feeding) energy when building fat stores even when healthy demonstrating that coral feeding (heterotrophy) is an important source of energy in both healthy and bleached corals.