2022 Field Biology Award: Richard Coleman

Richard Coleman’s pioneering work seeks to understand the processes behind patterns of biodiversity in coral reef systems. His research questions span from ecological to evolutionary timescales, and his approaches range from technical rebreather diving in deep waters to genomics research at the lab bench.

Coleman’s biodiversity studies focus on three areas with implications for conservation of marine systems. He evaluates how natural history, environmental factors and life-history strategies determine the spatial scales of populations. He discovers the mechanisms that make novel biodiversity possible. And, He assesses the role of ecological characteristics and biological traits on species distribution. Collectively, this work helps us understand drivers of speciation in the tropical reef environments across multiple vertical and horizontal scales, including geographic isolation and disruptive selection. With a recent invasion of a tropical damselfish into Hawaiian waters, Coleman showed that hybridization between the invasive and native species was much higher than previously understood, and important in the evolutionary process.

Coleman’s ability to dive below normal SCUBA diving depths allowed him to access discoveries previously unattainable. Technical diving using rebreathers poses many challenges and requires intensive training to safely do this work, which few have mastered for science. He has organized or participated in research expeditions to Micronesia, Philippines, Vanuatu, Kiritimati, Papua New Guinea, the Red Sea, Northwest Hawaiian Islands and other locations where few, if any, scientists have documented diversity on both low light and deep reefs.

For more information, visit http://richard-coleman.com.

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