Flavia Nunes, PhD

Received her degree in July 2009

Dissertation title:  Biodiversity and connectivity in peripheral populations of corals of the South and Eastern Atlantic

Postdoctoral Fellow, CAREN (Centre Armoricain de Recherches en ENvironnement) Université de Rennes I, France 

Undergraduate Degree:  Honours Bachelor of Science

Undergraduate University:  University of Toronto

Postgraduate Degree: MSC, PhD Candidate

Postgraduate University: UCSD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 

Email:  fnunes@ucsd.edu 

Advisors:  Dr. Richard Norris and Dr. Nancy Knowlton
Brief Bio:
Flavia Nunes is a PhD Candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, whose research interests focus on the evolution of marine organisms and marine conservation.  She is particularly interested in corals, because of their importance as habitat builders in the marine environment.  For her doctoral work, Flavia has been using genetic data from corals to examine dispersal and patterns of connectivity between populations of several species of corals.  Understanding how coral populations are connected and identifying isolated areas can help scientists prioritize conservation efforts and design effective marine reserve networks. Flavia is also interested biodiversity and understanding the evolutionary relationships among corals. Flavia’s fieldwork has taken her to the Caribbean and Brazil as well as more remote locations in the Atlantic such as São Tomé Island on the West African coast.   

Explorations Magazine (2008) : Corals Reclassified

Publications:
Nunes F, Fukami H, Vollmer S, Norris RD, and Knowlton N (2008) Re-evaluation of the systematics of the endemic corals of Brazil by molecular data, Coral Reefs 27: 423-432

Nunes F, Norris RD (2006) Abrupt reversal in ocean overturning during the Palaeocene/Eocene warm period. Nature 439: 60-63

Nunes F, and Norris RD. (2004) Data report: high-resolution stable isotope records across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, ODP Sites 1220 and 1221, in Wilson, P. A., Lyle, M. W., and Firth, J. V., eds., Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 199: 1-12