When you see coral reefs appearing in nature documentaries, these are usually situated in high visibility, clear water conditions. This is also where the paradigm that coral reefs in nutrient poor conditions originates. However, coral reef ecosystems occur in a much wider range of conditions, and there occur many other animals than corals alone.
I am interested in looking at coral reefs from this perspective. Using the fossil record, we hypothesized that coral reefs probably evolved in murky waters. Ongoing research focusses on testing this hypothesis, and discovering the ecological dynamics of coral reefs and all their organisms in turbid conditions.