Shelby E. Gantt
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xestysponge.bsky.social
Shelby E. Gantt
@xestysponge.bsky.social
260 followers 90 following 4 posts
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow @BostonUniversity studying #sex-specific influences of #climatechange on #corals, alumni @kemp_lab @UABBiology, @imesalab @UNCW; views are my own
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xestysponge.bsky.social
A little late, but thrilled to share our latest paper! 🌊🪸

This study explores how environmental conditions shape reproductive traits in two cryptic lineages of a common Caribbean reef-building coral.

📄 PDF: rdcu.be/eR0Re

🔗 Full article: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Sex ratios and gamete production vary across cryptic coral lineages and thermal environments - Coral Reefs
Corals exhibit diverse sexual strategies that can shape their reproductive ecology and responses to environmental challenges. Meanwhile, thermal anomalies can impair coral reproduction, having broad i...
link.springer.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:55 PM
xestysponge.bsky.social
Just got back from a 3 week field expedition in Bocas del Toro, Panama🌴🌊🦥. We had hard days, a lot of fun, and some truly beautiful views. Excited to see what the data shows for these projects!
September 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Shelby E. Gantt
calebcbutler.com
Interestingly, last time I was in the field, one of my collaborators (@xestysponge.bsky.social) snapped an image of many Fungiid's aggregated together.

I am uncertain if this is a monospecific pairing (and wouldn't trust without genetic evidence first), but it's a very fascinating behavior.
A top-down image of a very crowded reef in Palau. There are lots of smaller colonies of branching corals of various shapes, sizes, and genera-species (notably, some Pocillopora, Seriatopora, Acropora, likely others). There are also some green grass-like sprouts here and there of kelp, but not much. The focal point of this image are a large number of disc-shaped Fungiids in multiple aggregations. They are all uniform in shape and size however, but do differ greatly in color. Some are light brown, dark brown, orange-ish brown, and there is one very unique one that is green. Some of them have pretty purple splotches on them as well. It is diffuclt to tell for certain as there's a branching coral on top of it, but there may also be a dark red one. There are a couple small (1-2 inch) long bright blue fish around in the image as well.
January 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
xestysponge.bsky.social
What great views during field work in Bocas del Toro, Panama!
February 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Shelby E. Gantt
drcarl.bsky.social
Hot off the presses at Global Change Bio - Yingqi Zhang's 3rd chapter - Performance of Orbicella faveolata larval cohorts does not align with previously observed thermal tolerance of adult source populations
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
Pic courtesy of NOAA/Allyson DeMerlis
October 18, 2023 at 3:55 PM
xestysponge.bsky.social
So excited to be on BlueSky! Follow me for cool posts about climate impacts on cnidarian symbioses! 🪸🌊🐠
October 18, 2023 at 2:51 PM