Christian R Voolstra
@reefgenomics.bsky.social
Dedicated Marine Scientist, Reef Genomicist, Computer/Musiq/Travel lover, Dad of 3, Professor of Genetics of Adaptation in Aquatic Systems, President International Coral Reef Society (ICRS), Scientific Coordinator Tara Pacific Expedition
new work: UniCor metric->wonder what bacteria associate w/ a variable of interest (sal, temp, stress etc pp)? doi.org/10.1093/isme...
- identifies UNIquely CORrelated eNtities (“UNICORNs”) linked to a variable of interest
- hierarchy-aware propagation to select features across taxonomic levels
- identifies UNIquely CORrelated eNtities (“UNICORNs”) linked to a variable of interest
- hierarchy-aware propagation to select features across taxonomic levels
UniCor and UniCorP: a novel metric and hierarchical feature selection algorithm for microbial community analysis
Abstract. The rapid advancement of technologies and methods in the life sciences has significantly increased the availability of big data, presenting new c
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 4:03 PM
new work: UniCor metric->wonder what bacteria associate w/ a variable of interest (sal, temp, stress etc pp)? doi.org/10.1093/isme...
- identifies UNIquely CORrelated eNtities (“UNICORNs”) linked to a variable of interest
- hierarchy-aware propagation to select features across taxonomic levels
- identifies UNIquely CORrelated eNtities (“UNICORNs”) linked to a variable of interest
- hierarchy-aware propagation to select features across taxonomic levels
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
The #TMHMS25 has just wrapped up!
It’s been four amazing days of stimulating discussions and sharing our science in a wonderfully relaxed and supportive atmosphere.
There was a truly genuine sense of community among all participants, which I really cherish.
Cheers, to the next one! 🌊
It’s been four amazing days of stimulating discussions and sharing our science in a wonderfully relaxed and supportive atmosphere.
There was a truly genuine sense of community among all participants, which I really cherish.
Cheers, to the next one! 🌊
October 27, 2025 at 2:10 PM
The #TMHMS25 has just wrapped up!
It’s been four amazing days of stimulating discussions and sharing our science in a wonderfully relaxed and supportive atmosphere.
There was a truly genuine sense of community among all participants, which I really cherish.
Cheers, to the next one! 🌊
It’s been four amazing days of stimulating discussions and sharing our science in a wonderfully relaxed and supportive atmosphere.
There was a truly genuine sense of community among all participants, which I really cherish.
Cheers, to the next one! 🌊
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Chris Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social kicking off the 2nd day of the #SPP2299 "Meeting & Status Seminar 2025" with a Perspective Lecture on "The future of reefs and reefs of the future"
October 7, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Chris Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social kicking off the 2nd day of the #SPP2299 "Meeting & Status Seminar 2025" with a Perspective Lecture on "The future of reefs and reefs of the future"
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
We are welcoming applications for a full professorship on Molecular and Evolutionary Zoology at Kiel Univerdity, Northern Germany, with fantastic facilities and infrastructure! @uni-kiel.de @crc1182.bsky.social @transevo.bsky.social www.nature.com/naturecareer...
W 3 professorship in Molecular and Evolutionary Zoology - Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (DE) job with Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel | 12844416
Kiel University aims to attract more qualified women to professorship positions. The Institute of Zoology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural...
www.nature.com
September 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
We are welcoming applications for a full professorship on Molecular and Evolutionary Zoology at Kiel Univerdity, Northern Germany, with fantastic facilities and infrastructure! @uni-kiel.de @crc1182.bsky.social @transevo.bsky.social www.nature.com/naturecareer...
new work: fascinating study demonstrating rapid viral activation & subsequent rapid antiviral innate immunity response by cnidarians under heat stress .. response conserved across symbiotic/non-symbiotic hexacorallia -> link to bleaching!? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @uni-konstanz.de
September 9, 2025 at 12:09 PM
new work: fascinating study demonstrating rapid viral activation & subsequent rapid antiviral innate immunity response by cnidarians under heat stress .. response conserved across symbiotic/non-symbiotic hexacorallia -> link to bleaching!? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @uni-konstanz.de
New paper: Do corals keep their thermal tolerance in nurseries? #CBASS assays show A. cytherea lose then recover, while A. florida retain tolerance=>To inform restoration, screening should be conducted prior to nursery propagation www.nature.com/articles/s42... @uni-konstanz.de @coralku.bsky.social
Species-specific retention vs. recovery of coral thermal tolerance following nursery propagation - Communications Biology
Standardized acute thermal assays (CBASS) of Acropora species reveal that nursery-reared corals either retain or recover thermal tolerance over time, suggesting adaptive traits are...
www.nature.com
August 28, 2025 at 10:38 AM
New paper: Do corals keep their thermal tolerance in nurseries? #CBASS assays show A. cytherea lose then recover, while A. florida retain tolerance=>To inform restoration, screening should be conducted prior to nursery propagation www.nature.com/articles/s42... @uni-konstanz.de @coralku.bsky.social
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
🪸 CBASS Workshop – Maldives 🌡️
24 Nov–2 Dec ’25 @ MaRHE Center, Magoodhoo
Hands‑on CBASS experiments, lectures, snorkeling & SCUBA with Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social
Deadline: 17 Sep ’25 | Limited spots!
🔗 en.unimib.it/news/2nd-edi...
#CBASS #CoralReefConservation #MarineWorkshop
24 Nov–2 Dec ’25 @ MaRHE Center, Magoodhoo
Hands‑on CBASS experiments, lectures, snorkeling & SCUBA with Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social
Deadline: 17 Sep ’25 | Limited spots!
🔗 en.unimib.it/news/2nd-edi...
#CBASS #CoralReefConservation #MarineWorkshop
July 23, 2025 at 6:20 PM
🪸 CBASS Workshop – Maldives 🌡️
24 Nov–2 Dec ’25 @ MaRHE Center, Magoodhoo
Hands‑on CBASS experiments, lectures, snorkeling & SCUBA with Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social
Deadline: 17 Sep ’25 | Limited spots!
🔗 en.unimib.it/news/2nd-edi...
#CBASS #CoralReefConservation #MarineWorkshop
24 Nov–2 Dec ’25 @ MaRHE Center, Magoodhoo
Hands‑on CBASS experiments, lectures, snorkeling & SCUBA with Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social
Deadline: 17 Sep ’25 | Limited spots!
🔗 en.unimib.it/news/2nd-edi...
#CBASS #CoralReefConservation #MarineWorkshop
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
SPP 2299 members @thomasfelis.bsky.social @reefgenomics.bsky.social and Christian Wild contributed to a recent article lead by Andrea Grottoli on the "Future of coral bleaching research" url: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
Future of coral bleaching research
Abstract. Coral bleaching is the largest global threat to coral reef ecosystem persistence this century. Advancing our understanding of coral bleaching and
academic.oup.com
July 6, 2025 at 1:12 PM
SPP 2299 members @thomasfelis.bsky.social @reefgenomics.bsky.social and Christian Wild contributed to a recent article lead by Andrea Grottoli on the "Future of coral bleaching research" url: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
pumped that CBASSED50 R package now officially released on CRAN cran.rstudio.com/web/packages... ... easy for everyone to install package for R Studio processing! #CBASS #coral #bleaching #ThermalTolerance
CBASSED50: Process CBASS-Derived PAM Data
Tools to process CBASS-derived PAM data efficiently. Minimal requirements are PAM-based photosynthetic efficiency data (or data from any other continuous variable that changes with temperature, e.g. r...
cran.rstudio.com
June 16, 2025 at 2:29 PM
pumped that CBASSED50 R package now officially released on CRAN cran.rstudio.com/web/packages... ... easy for everyone to install package for R Studio processing! #CBASS #coral #bleaching #ThermalTolerance
pretty amazing how much money publishers make, how they pay little to zero to their reviewers/editors , and how they do not invest better in ensuring fair, transparent, and quality peer-review .. paying your reviewers/editors, entails pathway to identity check: www.science.org/content/arti...
‘It felt very icky’: This scientist’s name was used to write fake peer reviews
Elsevier retracts dozens of journal articles that were published based on “fictitious” reviews
www.science.org
June 10, 2025 at 8:40 AM
pretty amazing how much money publishers make, how they pay little to zero to their reviewers/editors , and how they do not invest better in ensuring fair, transparent, and quality peer-review .. paying your reviewers/editors, entails pathway to identity check: www.science.org/content/arti...
new work: "Spatially restricted coral bleaching"-> why do corals (start to) bleach in one place but not another? what implications does it hold if bleaching susceptibility differs across a colony surface? read on: www.nature.com/articles/s42... thanks to coauthors! @uni-konstanz.de @icrs.bsky.social
Spatially restricted coral bleaching as an ecological manifestation of within-colony heterogeneity - Communications Biology
This perspective highlights spatially restricted coral bleaching as an underexplored ecological phenomenon that offers critical insight into within-colony heterogeneity.
www.nature.com
May 13, 2025 at 2:01 PM
new work: "Spatially restricted coral bleaching"-> why do corals (start to) bleach in one place but not another? what implications does it hold if bleaching susceptibility differs across a colony surface? read on: www.nature.com/articles/s42... thanks to coauthors! @uni-konstanz.de @icrs.bsky.social
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Our new work in Environmental Microbiology on Symbiodiniaceae diversity between reef habitats and across the coral holobiont. Sediment, seawater, and turf algae-associated communities were distinct while the coral mucus and tissue showed nearly identical ITS2 type profiles.
tinyurl.com/mr2hasb5
tinyurl.com/mr2hasb5
Resolving Symbiodiniaceae Diversity Across Coral Microhabitats and Reef Niches
We characterised the Symbiodiniaceae ITS2-based diversity across a tropical coral reef to quantify the connectivity between seawater, turf algae, sediment, coral tissue and coral mucus communities. A...
tinyurl.com
March 6, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Our new work in Environmental Microbiology on Symbiodiniaceae diversity between reef habitats and across the coral holobiont. Sediment, seawater, and turf algae-associated communities were distinct while the coral mucus and tissue showed nearly identical ITS2 type profiles.
tinyurl.com/mr2hasb5
tinyurl.com/mr2hasb5
OUT NOW 'coral reef microbiome' by Springer Nature link.springer.com/book/10.1007... .. some 2.5 years in the making, jam packed: check out Ch.16 on Assisted Restoration as the sum of approaches required to deliver effective ecological restoration! Many thanks to all contributors @uni-konstanz.de
Coral Reef Microbiome
This book focuses on Structure, Function and Ecology of the coral microbiome and associated active interventions to conserve and restore coral reefs.
link.springer.com
March 6, 2025 at 3:06 PM
OUT NOW 'coral reef microbiome' by Springer Nature link.springer.com/book/10.1007... .. some 2.5 years in the making, jam packed: check out Ch.16 on Assisted Restoration as the sum of approaches required to deliver effective ecological restoration! Many thanks to all contributors @uni-konstanz.de
Don't miss out, October 22-25, 2025: International Symposium – Trends in Marine Host-Microbe Symbioses with an exciting lineup of speakers marinesymbioses.eu/invited-spea...; looking forward to insightful & inspiring discussions; registration: marinesymbioses.eu/register/ @uni-konstanz.de
Invited speakers – Trends in Marine Host-Microbe Symbioses Symposium
marinesymbioses.eu
February 28, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Don't miss out, October 22-25, 2025: International Symposium – Trends in Marine Host-Microbe Symbioses with an exciting lineup of speakers marinesymbioses.eu/invited-spea...; looking forward to insightful & inspiring discussions; registration: marinesymbioses.eu/register/ @uni-konstanz.de
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Interested in current & upcoming #standardization practices to accelerate discoveries of #heatstress impacts on #marine life?
Review paper @annualreviews.bsky.social
—> shorturl.at/kVuh9
@reefgenomics.bsky.social @amyapprill.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
Review paper @annualreviews.bsky.social
—> shorturl.at/kVuh9
@reefgenomics.bsky.social @amyapprill.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
February 8, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Interested in current & upcoming #standardization practices to accelerate discoveries of #heatstress impacts on #marine life?
Review paper @annualreviews.bsky.social
—> shorturl.at/kVuh9
@reefgenomics.bsky.social @amyapprill.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
Review paper @annualreviews.bsky.social
—> shorturl.at/kVuh9
@reefgenomics.bsky.social @amyapprill.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
new work: deep dive into microbiome differences of coral exhibiting thermally resilient & susceptible phenotypes, long time coming, great team effort @unikonstanz.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #coral #bleaching #microbiome
Inherent differential microbial assemblages and functions associated with corals exhibiting different thermal phenotypes
Key multidomain microbial members of thermal resistant corals represent putative avenues for conservation strategies.
www.science.org
January 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
new work: deep dive into microbiome differences of coral exhibiting thermally resilient & susceptible phenotypes, long time coming, great team effort @unikonstanz.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #coral #bleaching #microbiome
new ms, to all shark lovers out there: distinct bacterial niche habitats within the ‘microbial landscape’ of black-tip reef sharks @unikonstanz.bsky.social kudos to @cpogoreutz.bsky.social & team link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Microenvironments of black-tip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) provide niche habitats for distinct bacterial communities - Coral Reefs
Animal holobionts constitute diverse yet interconnected landscapes of microenvironments that harbor specific bacterial communities with distinct functions. An increasing body of literature suggests a ...
link.springer.com
December 19, 2024 at 7:07 PM
new ms, to all shark lovers out there: distinct bacterial niche habitats within the ‘microbial landscape’ of black-tip reef sharks @unikonstanz.bsky.social kudos to @cpogoreutz.bsky.social & team link.springer.com/article/10.1...
new ms: Coral thermal tolerance changes seasonally for some species, but not others. Such detail provides insight re. diff. coral ecologies & informs thermal tolerance screenings. Nice use case of CBASS acute thermal assays! Kudos to the team! @unikonstanz.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Seasonal changes in coral thermal threshold suggest species-specific strategies for coping with temperature variations - Communications Biology
Seasonal variations of temperature modify coral thermal tolerance threshold for Pocillopora verrucosa species while Acropora spp. remain unchanged when exposed to the same in situ conditions.
www.nature.com
December 19, 2024 at 6:59 PM
new ms: Coral thermal tolerance changes seasonally for some species, but not others. Such detail provides insight re. diff. coral ecologies & informs thermal tolerance screenings. Nice use case of CBASS acute thermal assays! Kudos to the team! @unikonstanz.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
🔬The first edition of the "CBASS in the Maldives" workshop has just ended, with the collaboration of Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social and his team.
A big thanks to everyone who made this workshop such a success! This is just the start—stay tuned for more updates on coral reefs. 🪸
A big thanks to everyone who made this workshop such a success! This is just the start—stay tuned for more updates on coral reefs. 🪸
December 16, 2024 at 4:08 PM
🔬The first edition of the "CBASS in the Maldives" workshop has just ended, with the collaboration of Prof. Christian Voolstra @reefgenomics.bsky.social and his team.
A big thanks to everyone who made this workshop such a success! This is just the start—stay tuned for more updates on coral reefs. 🪸
A big thanks to everyone who made this workshop such a success! This is just the start—stay tuned for more updates on coral reefs. 🪸
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Our thanks to outgoing Officers and Council members. Treasurer Anderson Mayfield; Recording Secretary Anastazia Banaszak; Council Members Nicole Browne, Luis Eduardo Calderon, Sarah Davies, Ilsa Kuffner, Vikash Munbodhe, Kennedy Osuka, Raquel Peixoto, Nikki Traylor-Knowles
November 27, 2024 at 2:01 PM
Our thanks to outgoing Officers and Council members. Treasurer Anderson Mayfield; Recording Secretary Anastazia Banaszak; Council Members Nicole Browne, Luis Eduardo Calderon, Sarah Davies, Ilsa Kuffner, Vikash Munbodhe, Kennedy Osuka, Raquel Peixoto, Nikki Traylor-Knowles
Reposted by Christian R Voolstra
Congratulations to the new ICRS Officers and Council members. Treasurer John Burt; Recording Secretary Mariana Rocha De Souza; Council Members Amy Apprill, Keisha Bahr, Ranjeet Bhagooli, Javier del Campo, Simon Harding, Maggie Johnson, Karen Neely, Alma Paola Rodriguez-Troncoso.
November 27, 2024 at 2:01 PM
Congratulations to the new ICRS Officers and Council members. Treasurer John Burt; Recording Secretary Mariana Rocha De Souza; Council Members Amy Apprill, Keisha Bahr, Ranjeet Bhagooli, Javier del Campo, Simon Harding, Maggie Johnson, Karen Neely, Alma Paola Rodriguez-Troncoso.
speaking truth to 'power' -> after all the recent bad press that restoration got, a more nuanced view was in order: let's not get lost in absolutes and mind the detail! rdcu.be/d1S5K @natureportfolio.bsky.social @unikonstanz.bsky.social cheers & hugs to my "partners in crime"
The critical role of coral reef restoration in a changing world
Nature Climate Change - Recent discussions have raised concerns about the long-term effectiveness of coral reef restoration efforts, questioning whether current interventions can effectively...
rdcu.be
November 29, 2024 at 11:11 AM
speaking truth to 'power' -> after all the recent bad press that restoration got, a more nuanced view was in order: let's not get lost in absolutes and mind the detail! rdcu.be/d1S5K @natureportfolio.bsky.social @unikonstanz.bsky.social cheers & hugs to my "partners in crime"
worth a read: www.nature.com/articles/d41... .. bsky as a safe space from digital toxicity ..
‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky
Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.
www.nature.com
November 27, 2024 at 12:10 PM
worth a read: www.nature.com/articles/d41... .. bsky as a safe space from digital toxicity ..