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Mesophotic Reef Thesis

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I want to be a scientist who is able to make real connections between seemingly disparate problems or challenges, especially that of finding the human value of scientific knowledge, new and established. For my doctorate research, I wish to pursue inquiry into unfamiliar marine organisms in unfamiliar habitats with the hope of contributing to new knowledge and discovering new species. To these ends, I wish to connect my graduate research on sea cucumbers with my ongoing research on mesophotic reefs. Sea cucumbers are diverse worm-like organisms in Class Holothuroidea that have evolved and diversified in a span of 400 million years. Today, all large species are threatened by overfishing. Mesophotic reefs are dimly-lit ecosystems found at depths of 30 to 150 meters that were established after the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago. In my country, the Philippines, these deep reefs offer something of a “last hope” for sustaining biodiversity and fisheries given the progressive destruction of the shallower reefs from both …show more content…

UF's museum has the largest and most diverse collection of tropical sea cucumbers in the world and is an excellent starting point for my investigation, given that some of these may have been collected from mesophotic depths.
2. I am a collaborator for an international, NSF-funded project (led by Prof. Paulay) that will revise over 200 sea cucumbers species. This will provide me training opportunities and access to a community of experts.
3. The Philippines, being the epicenter of marine biodiversity, provides excellent study sites. As a Filipino, I have easy access to collecting sites and will also be able to give back to the research community there.
4. There are ongoing projects on sea cucumbers (led by Prof. Juinio-Meñez) and mesophotic reefs (led by Prof. Siringan) in the Philippines that could help provide logistical and technical support for my

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