Dr 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
- 2016
- Published
Natural bounds on herbivorous coral reef fishes
Heenan, A., Hoey, A. S., Williams, G. & Williams, I. D., 23 Nov 2016, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B.. 283, 1843Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Guiding coral reef futures in the Anthropocene
Norstrom, A. V., Nystrom, M., Jouffray, J-B., Folke, C., Graham, N. A. J., Moberg, F., Olsson, P. & Williams, G., 1 Nov 2016, In: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Temporal dynamics and persistence of sponge assemblages in a Central Pacific atoll lagoon
Knapp, I. S. S., Williams, G. & Bell, J. J., Oct 2016, In: Marine Ecology. 37, 5, p. 1147-1153Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Hawaiʻi Coral Disease database (HICORDIS): species-specific coral health data from across the Hawaiian archipelago
Caldwell, J. M., Burns, J. H. R., Couch, C., Ross, M., Runyon, C., Takabayashi, M., Vargas-Ángel, B., Walsh, W., Walton, M., White, D., Williams, G. & Heron, S. F., Sept 2016, In: Data in Brief. 8, p. 1054-1058Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Reef Fish Survey Techniques: Assessing the Potential for Standardizing Methodologies
Caldwell, Z. R., Zgliczynski, B. J., Williams, G. & Sandin, S. A., 25 Apr 2016, In: PLoS ONE. 11, 4, e0153066.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Improving marine disease surveillance through sea temperature monitoring, outlooks and projections
Maynard, J., van Hooidonk, R., Harvell, C. D., Eakin, C. M., Liu, G., Willis, B. L., Williams, G., Groner, M. L., Dobson, A., Heron, S. F., Glenn, R., Reardon, K. & Shields, J. D., 5 Mar 2016, In: Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 371, 1689Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Near-island biological hotspots in barren ocean basins
Gove, J. M., McManus, M. A., Neuheimer, A. B., Polovina, J. J., Drazen, J. C., Smith, C. R., Merrifield, M. A., Friedlander, A. M., Ehses, J. S., Young, C. W., Dillon, A. K. & Williams, G., 16 Feb 2016, In: Nature Communications. 7, 10581.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 2015
- Published
Assessing relative resilience potential of coral reefs to inform management
Maynard, J. A., McKagan, S., Raymundo, L., Johnson, S., Ahmadia, G. N., Johnston, L., Houk, P., Williams, G., Kendall, M., Heron, S. F., van Hooidonk, R., Mcleod, E., Tracey, D. & Planes, S., 1 Dec 2015, In: Biological Conservation. 192, December, p. 109-119Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Cryptic species obscure introduction pathway of the blue Caribbean sponge (Haliclona (Soestella) caerulea), (order: Haplosclerida) to Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific
Knapp, I. S., Forsman, Z. H., Williams, G. J., Toonen, R. J. & Bell, J. J., 6 Aug 2015, In: PeerJ. 3Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Projections of climate conditions that increase coral disease susceptibility and pathogen abundance and virulence
Maynard, J., van Hooidonk, R., Eakin, C. M., Puotinen, M., Garren, M., Williams, G. J., Heron, S. F., Lamb, J., Weil, E., Willis, B. & Hervell, C. D., 4 May 2015, In: Nature Climate Change. 5, p. 688-694Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review