Lauren Valentino
Ocean Acidification
Bio
Lauren received her bachelor’s in Biology from the University of Rhode Island before moving to O‘ahu and working at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. She then moved to California for her master’s degree at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Her research focused on the effects of Ocean Acidification and bioerosion across the coral reefs that surround the island of Moorea, French Polynesia. There she was also a part of the Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research program which is a partnership between the UC Santa Barbara and CSUN. After receiving her M.S. she moved to Miami where she is currently a Senior Research Associate at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies. There she works with Dr. Derek Manzello to measure coral growth and bioerosion rates, as well as carbonate chemistry dynamics of reefs in Southeast Florida.
During the expedition, I will be collecting in-situ pH and pCO2 data and deploying oceanographic instruments to evaluate carbonate chemistry dynamics of benthic reef environments. I will also be collecting coral cores which will later be analyzed back in the lab at NOAA’s AOML. There we will determine growth rates using computed tomography scanning (CT scan) to analyze densities of annual skeletal bands that can vary based on temperature and other environmental conditions.
