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
- 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
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Natural history of coral-algae competition across a gradient of human activity in the Line Islands
Barott, K. L., Williams, G. J., Vermeij, M. J. A., Harris, J., Smith, J. E., Rohwer, F. L. & Sandin, S. A., 2012, In: Marine Ecology Progress Series. 460, p. 1-12Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Natural variation in coral reef trophic structure across environmental gradients
Heenan, A., Williams, G. & Williams, I., Mar 2020, In: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 18, 2, p. 69-75Research 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
- E-pub ahead of print
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., 10 Jul 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 104107.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Nitrogen enrichment in macroalgae following mass coral mortality
Vaughan, E., Wilson, S., Howlett, S., Parravicini, V., Williams, G. J. & Graham, N. A. J., 12 Apr 2021, In: Coral Reefs.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Ocean currents magnify upwelling and deliver nutritional subsidies to reef-building corals during El Niño heatwaves
Fox, M., Guillaume-Castel, R., Edwards, C., Glanz, J., Gove, J. M., Green, M., Juhlin, E., Smith, J. & Williams, G. J., 14 Jun 2023, In: Science Advances. 9, 24, eadd5032.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Ocean warming and acidification have complex interactive effects on the dynamics of a marine fungal disease
Williams, G. J., Price, N. N., Ushijima, B., Aeby, G. S., Callahan, S., Davy, S. K., Gove, J. M., Johnson, M. D., Knapp, I. S., Shore-Maggio, A., Smith, J. E., Videau, P. & Work, T. M., 7 Mar 2014, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281, 1778Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Outbreak of Acropora white syndrome following a mild bleaching event at Palmyra Atoll, Northern Line Islands, Central Pacific
Williams, G., Knapp, I. S., Work, T. M. & Conklin, E. J., Sept 2011, In: Coral Reefs. 30, 3, p. 621-621Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Parsing human and biophysical drivers of coral reef regimes
Jouffray, J-B., Wedding, L., Norstrom, A. V., Donovan, M., Williams, G., Crowder, L., Erickson, A., Friedlander, A. M., Graham, N. A. J., Gove, J. M., Kappel, C., Kittinger, J., Lecky, J., Oleson, K., Selkoe, K., White, C., Williams, I. & Nystrom, M., Feb 2019, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 286, 1896, 20182544.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review