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Alexandra Dempsey
Chief Executive Officer
Bio
Ms. Alex Dempsey is the Chief Executive Officer for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. Alex has participated in all 15 Global Reef Expedition missions as the lead benthic scientist. She directed and now oversees the coral reef ecology research and analysis for Living Oceans Foundation. She graduated magna cum laude from the College of Holy Cross with a Bachelor's of Science in Environmental Science and a Bachelor's of Arts in Environmental Philosophy. Later, Ms. Dempsey attended Nova Southeastern University obtaining a Master's of Science degree in Marine Biology and Coastal Zone Management.
Missions
- Andros, Bahamas
- Austral Islands, French Polynesia
- Cay Sal, Bahamas
- Chagos Archipelago
- Colombia
- Cook Islands
- Fiji
- Galapagos Islands
- Gambier Islands, French Polynesia
- Great Barrier Reef
- Inaguas and Hogsty Reef, Bahamas
- Jamaica
- Kingdom of Tonga
- Navassa Island
- New Caledonia
- Palau
- Society Islands, French Polynesia
- Solomon Islands
- Tuamotu, French Polynesia
Articles
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2024
Published in ICES Journal of Marine Science Abstract Millions of people’s livelihoods rely on artisanal fisheries. However, in many regions fishers are increasingly facing ciguatera poisoning, a seafood-borne illness. The toxin, produced by benthic dinoflagellates, can spread through marine food …
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2024
Remotely Sensed Spectral Variability Predicts Reef Fish Diversity
Published in Ecological Indicators Abstract In terrestrial landscapes, the spectral variability hypothesis (SVH) enables estimation of species diversity from satellite data, thereby allowing biodiversity assessments to be upscaled. Whether the SVH works in the marine realm is an open question. …
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2024
Remotely sensed habitat diversity predicts species diversity on coral reefs
Published in Remote Sensing of Environment Abstract The ability to map coral reef biodiversity from orbit would greatly advance marine spatial planning. Presently, reef biodiversity is measured in situ by divers, but this method is inefficient and expensive. Remote sensing techniques …
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2023
The 2022 Hunga-Tonga Mega-tsunami: Near-Field Simulation of a Once-in-a-Century Event
Published in Science Advances Abstract The 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption generated a once-in-a-century magnitude tsunami. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) volcanic eruption in January 2022 generated a catastrophic tsunami and contends for the largest natural explosion in more than a …
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2022
Published in Applied Sciences Abstract Numerous physical, chemical, and biological factors influence coral resilience in situ, yet current models aimed at forecasting coral health in response to climate change and other stressors tend to focus on temperature and coral abundance …
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2022
Published in Coral Reefs Abstract Diver assessments can reveal much about coral reef condition, but fieldwork is expensive and challenging. To address this limitation to effective reef assessment, we identified predictive relationships between diver measurements of reef condition collected at 650 …
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2022
Environmentally-Driven Variation in the Physiology of a New Caledonian Reef Coral
Published in Oceans Abstract Given the widespread threats to coral reefs, scientists have lost the opportunity to understand the basic biology of “pristine” corals whose physiologies have not been markedly perturbed by human activity. For instance, high temperature-induced bleaching has been …
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2021
Published in Frontiers in Marine Science Abstract Empirical methods for estimating shallow-water bathymetry using passive multispectral satellite imagery are robust and globally applicable, in theory, but they require copious local measurements of water depth for algorithm calibration. Such calibration data have …
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2021
Global Reef Expedition Final Report
The Global Reef Expedition Final Report summarizes the findings from our 10-year research mission to survey and map coral reefs across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans as well as the Red Sea. The Expedition involved hundreds of research scientists …
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2021
Global Reef Expedition: Chagos Archipelago Final Report
The Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition to assess the state of coral reefs around the world. This ambitious five-year scientific mission was designed to evaluate the status of the benthic and reef fish …
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2021
Tongan socio-environmental spatial layers for marine ecosystem management
Published in Pacific Conservation Biology Abstract Environmental conditions and anthropogenic impacts are key influences on ecological processes and associated ecosystem services. Effective management of Tonga’s marine ecosystems therefore depends on accurate and up-to-date knowledge of environmental and anthropogenic variables. Although …
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2021
Pacific-wide pH snapshots reveal that high coral cover correlates with low, but variable pH
Published in Bulletin of Marine Science Abstract Ocean acidification (OA) is impairing the construction of coral reefs while simultaneously accelerating their breakdown. The metabolism of different reef organism assemblages alters seawater pH in different ways, possibly buffering or exacerbating OA …
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2021
Revisiting the paradigm of shark‐driven trophic cascades in coral reef ecosystems
Published in Ecology Abstract Global overfishing of higher‐level predators has caused cascading effects to lower trophic levels in many marine ecosystems. On coral reefs, which support highly diverse food‐webs, the degree to which top‐down trophic cascades can occur remains equivocal. …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: Mission to Tonga
MarineLink by Alexandra Dempsey April 16, 2020 Assessing the health of coral reefs in the Kingdom of Tonga Healthy coral reefs provide critical ecosystem services for millions of people globally, but with climate change and anthropogenic stressors, the landscape of …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: The Republic of Palau Final Report
The Global Reef Expedition: The Republic of Palau Final Report provides a comprehensive summary of our findings from the Global Reef Expedition mission to assess the status of coral reefs and reef fish in Palau. It also includes recommendations that can help Palau continue …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: Solomon Islands Final Report
The Global Reef Expedition: Solomon Islands Final Report provides a comprehensive summary of our findings from our research mission to assess the health and resiliency of coral reefs in the Solomon Islands along with recommendations for preserving these reefs into the future. …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: New Caledonia Final Report
The Global Reef Expedition: New Caledonia Final Report provides a comprehensive summary of our findings from our research mission to assess the health and resiliency of coral reefs in New Caledonia along with recommendations for preserving these reefs into the …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: Mission to Tonga
Marine Technology Reporter by Alexandra Dempsey April 16, 2020 Assessing the health of coral reefs in the Kingdom of Tonga Healthy coral reefs provide critical ecosystem services for millions of people globally, but with climate change and anthropogenic stressors, …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: Cook Islands Final Report
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—to study the coral reef crisis on a global scale. As part of the 5-year expedition, an international team …
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2020
Global Reef Expedition: Kingdom of Tonga Final Report
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—to study the coral reef crisis on a global scale. As part of the 5-year expedition, an international team …
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2019
Global Reef Expedition: French Polynesia Final Report
In April 2011 the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history. As part of the 5-year Expedition, an international team of scientists worked with local partners …
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2019
National-scale marine bioregions for the Southwest Pacific
This scientific paper, by KSLOF scientists Alex Dempsey and Sam Purkis, shows how they used data-based methods to develop the first comprehensive oceanic and marine bioregions for the South Pacific. These marine bioregions enable the design of ecologically representative national marine protected areas in Pacific nations.
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2019
High-resolution habitat and bathymetry maps for 65,000 sq. km of Earth’s remotest coral reefs
A study from scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and the University of Miami offers a new way to accurately map coral reefs using a combination of Earth-orbiting satellites and field observations. Using this new method, the scientists mapped over 65,000 km2 of coral reefs and surrounding habitats–by far the largest collection of high-resolution coral reef maps ever made.
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2019
Modeling environmentally-mediated variation in reef coral physiology
Published in Journal of Sea Research, March 2019 By Anderson Mayfield, Alexandra Dempsey, and Chii-Shiarng Chen Abstract Increases in seawater temperature associated with global climate change are causing the mutualistic relationship between reef-building corals and the symbiotic dinoflagellates (genus Symbiodinium) …
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2019
A statistical platform for evaluating coral health in an era of changing global climate
Published in Platax 15: 1-35, 2018 By Anderson Mayfield, Alexandra Dempsey, Javed Inamdar, and Chii-Shiarng Chen Abstract Given the significant threats against coral reef ecosystems, there is an urgent need to develop the capacity to make predictions as to which …
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2018
The molecular ecophysiology of closely related pocilloporid corals of New Caledonia
The molecular ecophysiology of closely related pocilloporid corals of New Caledonia Mayfield et al. Platax 2017 By, Anderson B. Mayfield, Chii-Shiarng Chen, Alexandra C. Dempsey Abstract Given the severe threats against Earth’s coral reef ecosystems, there is an urgent need to collect …
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2017
The molecular ecophysiology of closely related pocilloporids of the South Pacific: a case study from the Austral and Cook Islands Platax 13: 1-25, 2016 By Anderson B. Mayfield, Chii-Shiarng Chen, Alexandra C. Dempsey, Andrew W. Bruckner January 25, 2016 Abstract In …
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2017
Coral Bleaching and Mortality in the Chagos Archipelago
Coral Bleaching and Mortality in the Chagos Archipelago Atoll Research Bulletin, November 2, 2017 By Charles Sheppard, Anne Sheppard, Andrew Mogg, Dan Bayley, Alexandra C. Dempsey, Ronan Roche, John Turner, Sam Purkis Abstract The atolls and coral banks of the Chagos …
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2017
Biomarker profiling in reef corals of Tonga’s Ha’apai and Vava’u archipelagos
Biomarker profiling in reef corals of Tonga’s Ha’apai and Vava’u archipelagos PLoS ONE12(11): e0185857 By Anderson B. Mayfield, Chii-Shiarng Chen, Alexandra C. Dempsey November 1, 2017 Abstract Given the significant threats towards Earth’s coral reefs, there is an urgent need to document the …
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2017
Identifying corals displaying aberrant behavior in Fiji’s Lau Archipelago
Identifying corals displaying aberrant behavior in Fiji’s Lau Archipelago PLoS ONE 12(5):e0177267 May 24, 2017 By Anderson B. Mayfield, Chii-Shiarng Chen, Alexandra C. Dempsey Abstract Given the numerous threats against Earth’s coral reefs, there is an urgent need to develop …
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2017
Global Reef Expedition Final Report: Fiji
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is conducting the Global Reef Expedition – the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history. The Global Reef Expedition is a five-year mission to survey the health and resiliency of coral …
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2016
Spread of the green snail Turbo marmoratus in French Polynesia
This article on the spread of the green snail in French Polynesia published in Ocean & Coastal Management was a result of research conducted by Living Oceans Foundation Chief Scientist Andrew Bruckner and Coral Reef Ecologist Alexandra Dempsey with other …
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2014
This paper stems from our field research in the Bahamas conducted at the start of the Global Reef expedition. It discusses how Cay Sal Bank was formed how and why it differs from the rest of the Bahamas. The Bahama …
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