Professor Gareth Williams
Reader / Director of Impact and Engagement
Affiliations
Links
- https://www.bangor.ac.uk/oceansciences/staff/gareth-williams
Department Home Page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EfvZsI8AAAAJ&hl=en
Google Scholar Page
Contact info
Room: 303 Craig Mair Phone: +44(0)1248 382588
E-mail: g.j.williams@bangor.ac.uk Twitter
I graduated in Marine Biology (University of Liverpool) in 2004 and completed an MSc in Marine Environmental Protection (Bangor University) in 2006. I began a PhD in Marine Biology (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) in 2007 in coral disease ecology, combining macroecology, experimental ecology, and histopathology to identify disease baselines and drivers of disease prevalence on Pacific coral reefs. A focus study site of mine was Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited atoll in the Northern Line Islands. After obtaining my PhD in 2011, I was awarded a post-doctoral scholarship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego (UCSD) where I continued to work on the macroecology of Pacific coral reefs. This role at Scripps transitioned into an Assistant Project Scientist position within the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation in 2013. I left Scripps in late 2015 to return to the UK and take up my full-time role within the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University.
I am a marine ecologist specialising in coral reef ecology. My work focuses on the interaction of organisms with their environment, often taking a macroecological approach. I am particularly interested in how human activities and natural biophysical gradients interact to drive community patterns across multiple trophic levels (microbes to sharks) and scales (individual reefs to entire ocean basins). Much of my work incorporates remote coral reefs free from direct human impact, providing key replication at the unimpacted end of an intact-to-degraded ecosystem spectrum. By surveying across extensive geographical areas we address broad questions pertaining to: 1. the human, climatic and oceanographic drivers of coral reef ecosystem structure and function, 2. climate change impacts to coral reef ecosystems, 3. the spatial ecology of coral reefs, and 4. disease dynamics on coral reefs.
Research Areas
- Published
The fundamental links between climate change and marine plastic pollution
Ford, H. V., Jones, N., Davies, A. J., Godley, B. J., Jambeck, J. R., Napper, I. E., Suckling, C. C., Williams, G. J., Woodall, L. & Koldewey, H. J., 1 Feb 2022, In: Science of the Total Environment. 806, Pt 1, 150392.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Spatial scaling properties of coral reef benthic communities
Ford, H., Gove, J. M., Davies, A., Graham, N. A. J., Healey, J., Conklin, E. & Williams, G. J., 1 Feb 2021, In: Ecography. 44, 2, p. 188-198 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Large-area imaging reveals biologically driven non-random spatial patterns of corals at a remote reef
Edwards, C., Eynaud, Y., Williams, G., Pedersen, N., Zgliczynski, B., Gleason, A., Smith, J. & Sandin, S., Dec 2017, In: Coral Reefs. 36, 4, p. 1291-1305Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Near-island enhancement in mesopelagic micronekton communities off Hawaiʻi
Drazen, J., Clark, B., Gove, J. M., Phipps, J., Copeland, A., Lecky, J., Green, M., Kobayashi, D., Turner, J., Whitney, J. & Williams, G. J., Sept 2023, In: Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 199, 104107.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Combining fish and benthic communities into multiple regimes reveals complex reef dynamics
Donovan, M. K., Friedlander, A. M., Lecky, J., Jouffray, J.-B., Williams, G. J., Wedding, L. M., Crowder, L. B., Erickson, A. L., Graham, N. A. J., Gove, J. M., Kappel, C. V., Karr, K., Kittinger, J. N., Norström, A. V., Nyström, M., Oleson, K. L. L., Stamoulis, K. A., White, C., Williams, I. D. & Selkoe, K. A., 16 Nov 2018, In: Scientific Reports. 8, 16943.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Coral reef resilience differs among islands within the Gulf of Mannar, southeast India following successive coral bleaching events
Diraviya Raj, K., Aeby, G., Mathews, G., Williams, G. J., Caldwell, J., Laju, R. L., Selva Bharath, M., Dinesh Kumar, P., Arasamuthu, A., Gladwin Gnana Asir, N., Wedding, L., Davies, A., Moritsch, M. & Patterson Edward, J. K., Aug 2021, In: Coral Reefs. 40, 4, p. 1029-1044Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Social-environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene
Darling, E. S., McClanahan, T. R., Maina, J., Gurney, G. G., Graham, N. A. J., Januchowski-Hartley, F., Cinner, J. E., Mora, C., Hicks, C. C., Maire, E., Puotinen, M., Skirving, W. J., Adjeroud, M., Ahmadia, G., Arthur, R., Bauman, A. G., Beger, M., Berumen, M. L., Bigot, L., Bouwmeester, J., Brenier, A., Bridge, T. C. L., Brown, E., Campbell, S. J., Cannon, S., Cauvin, B., Chen, C. A., Claudet, J., Denis, V., Donner, S., Estradivari, Fadli, N., Feary, D. A., Fenner, D., Fox, H., Franklin, E. C., Friedlander, A., Gilmour, J., Goiran, C., Guest, J., Hobbs, J.-P. A., Hoey, A. S., Houk, P., Johnson, S., Jupiter, S. D., Kayal, M., Kuo, C.-Y., Lamb, J., Lee, M. A. C., Low, J., Muthiga, N., Muttaqin, E., Nand, Y., Nash, K. L., Nedlic, O., Pandolfi, J. M., Pardede, S., Patankar, V., Penin, L., Ribas-Deulofeu, L., Richards, Z., Roberts, T. E., Rodgers, K. S., Safuan, C. D. M., Sala, E., Shedrawi, G., Sin, T. M., Smallhorn-West, P., Smith, J. E., Sommer, B., Steinberg, P. D., Sutthacheep, M., Tan, C. H. J., Williams, G., Wilson, S., Yeemin, T., Bruno, J. F., Fortin, M.-J., Krkosek, M. & Mouillot, D., 12 Aug 2019, In: Nature Ecology and Evolution. 3, 9, p. 1341-1350Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Three-dimensional digital mapping of ecosystems: a new era in spatial ecology
D'Urban Jackson, T., Williams, G. J., Walker-Springett, G. & Davies, A., 12 Feb 2020, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B.. 287, 1920, 20192383.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Antarctic sea-ice microbial communities show distinct patterns of zonation in response to algal-derived substrates
Cowie, R. O., Williams, G. J., Maas, E. W., Voyles, K. M. & Ryan, K. G., 2 Oct 2014, In: Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 73, 2, p. 123-134Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Macroalgae exhibit diverse responses to human disturbances on coral reefs
Cannon, S., Donner, S., Liu, A., Gonzalez Espinosa, P., Baird, A., Baum, J., Bauman, A., Beger, M., Benkwitt, C., Birt, M., Chancerelle, Y., Cinner, J., Crane, N., Denis, V., Depczynski, M., Fadli, N., Fenner, D., Fulton, C., Golbuu, Y., Graham, N., Guest, J., Harrison, H., Hobbs, J.-P., Hoey, A., Holmes, T., Houk, P., Januchowski-Hartley, F., Jompa, J., Kuo, C.-Y., Valentino Limmon, G., Lin, Y., McClanahan, T., Muenzel, D., Paddack, M., Planes, S., Pratchett, M., Radford, B., Reimer, J., Richards, Z., Ross, C., Rulmal Jr., J., Sommer, B., Williams, G. J. & Wilson, S., 1 Jun 2023, In: Global Change Biology. 29, 12, p. 3318-3330Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review