Presenter: Garrett Fundakowski
Format: Poster
Hi there, my name is Garrett Fundakowski and I am a Marine Biology PhD student at the University of St Andrews in Scotland studying the 3D structure of corals!
The 3D structure of corals is pivotal for coral reef ecosystem functioning – having implications for the communities they support, the services they provide, and their response to disturbance. However, it is still unclear how the structure and morphology of corals develop as they grow, and how this is related to the surrounding reef environment.
Specifically, I research how the 3D size and shape of coral changes over time. I study this using a method called photogrammetry which takes in hundreds of photographs and gives out a 3D digital reconstruction of the coral. By following the corals size and shape over time, we can estimate growth rates and quantify how the structure of corals changes a reef over time.