Super Reefs on Maui and research on heat resistant coral to be presented at free webinar, Sept. 4

The Maui Nui Marine Resource Council (MNMRC) will host the September edition of its “Know Your Ocean Speaker Series” featuring Courtney Klepac, Ph.D. on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom.

In her talk, Klepac will present her work with Super Reefs to identify and protect heat-resistant reefs. The Super Reefs project was developed to combine advances in predicting, proving, and protecting heat resistance in corals so that communities could adopt the approach and advance their local conservation goals. 

In Maui, Klepac and her colleagues have been asked to target Olowalu Reef for its cultural and ecological importance. By collaborating with local practitioners, her team has tested over 250 corals along West Maui to find the most heat-resistant corals and reefs. Additionally, untested corals are currently being propagated for restoration, with the knowledge of the heat tolerance of their tested counterpart. Together, this information and biological material is available for Maui to proactively protect their ‘āko‘ako‘a for generations to come.

Klepac completed her B.S. in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University Galveston (TX), her M.S. in Biology at Florida Atlantic University (FL) , and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at Old Dominion University (VA). She has more than 10 years of experience examining the effects of local stressors and ocean warming on the health of coral reefs. Now at Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University, she is the Pacific Director for the Super Reefs project, which seeks to identify and characterize coral reef habitats that will be more resistant to ocean warming.

Registration for the talk is free and can be completed at https://bit.ly/KYO24CK.