​Abstract:
Coral reefs are among the most diverse and productive ecosystem's worldwide, but their future is threatened by a host of anthropogenic disturbances. To protect reefs and their services to humanity, calls for the management of "coral reef ecosystem functioning" have strengthened.
However, despite many decades of excellent research, our understanding of what makes a reef "functional" or not is still remarkably limited. In my talk, I highlight the surprising role of a thus far overlooked, but highly diverse group of coral reef animals for coral reef ecosystem functioning.
Specifically, by employing a hierarchical approach that re-builds the role of 'cryptobenthic' fishes from species' niches to energy fluxes throughout ecosystems, I show that the world's smallest marine vertebrates may play a fundamental part in the recycling of energy and nutrients on chronically nutrient-poor coral reefs. In doing so, I also offer a new perspective on the utility of trait based approaches in animal ecology and conservation challenges in the 21st century related to marine ecosystems.

Bio:
My main research interests are in the biodiversity and functioning of marine ecosystems, particularly small fishes and tropical coral reefs. I received my PhD from James Cook University in Australia in 2016. Since then, I have further developed my research as an independent postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Edgewater, Maryland (MarineGEO fellowship) and at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada (NSERC Banting fellowship).
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), based at the University of Perpignan in France.