O’Donnell preserving Symbiodinium samples with her daughter. Photo credit Kelli O’Donnell.
Kelli O’Donnell is PhD student in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Florida. She was awarded the Florida Sea Grant Guy Harvey Fellowship in 2025.
Since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to work in the marine sciences field. With my father being in the Coast Guard, I’ve had multiple opportunities to live in the Florida Keys. I was always by the water, exploring its creatures. It was those experiences, along with trips to other reefs around the world that grew my love for the coral reef. However, it was not until later in life that I realized the decline happening to the Florida Reef Tract and what it meant increasing my appreciation towards the protections afforded by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS).
As I became involved with multiple aspects of conservation through my career, I understood more about the intricate connections coral reefs have with providing habitat, coastal protection, supporting tourism, and the amazing nature of the coral itself. Learning, the reef can absorb up to 97% of wave energy, absorb nearly one-third of the carbon dioxide generated from burning fossil fuels , produce 17% of all globally consumed protein), and at least 25% of all marine species are dependent on the reef at some point in their lifecycle, infers that many species’ well-being is contingent on the coral reef existing.
Coral cover has declined to approximately 3% in the entirety of the FKNMS due to multiple stressors, but 25% cover is needed to support a healthy ecosystem and allow for natural recovery. Wanting to research questions that needed to be answered to help it reach that target, I originally joined the University of Florida (UF) under Dr. Josh Patterson’s Lab for my masters.
Under his guidance, I completed a two-project thesis that provided information on comparison of two different methods to grow coral and then compared success of the same genotypes after outplant to their performance in the nursery. We found that suspended grow out methods yielded higher coral growth, but that benthic grow out methods were able to survive longer after an extreme bleaching event. We also found that nursery observations were not predictive of performance following outplant. This research provided evidence on the trade off in grow out methods and the need to preserve genetic diversity during outplanting vs. focusing only on certain high performing nursery genotypes.
It was not until later in life that I realized the decline happening to the Florida Reef Tract and what it meant increasing my appreciation towards the protections afforded by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary .
O’Donnell conducting outplant sampling for masters work. Photo credit Kelli O’Donnell.
As I continued in my career and witnessed coral bleaching becoming a yearly event, the Florida Reef Tract was then hit with stony coral tissue loss disease, which had severe negative impacts on survival of remaining coral. Then came the summer of 2023, which was the most intense heating event on record, and resulted in an extreme setback for years’ worth of outplanting work.
While emergency efforts to conserve coral species and genotypes were initiated, this event necessitated bold ideas to conserve what was left of the reef and to ensure future survival of outplants. I realized there were still questions to be answered to ensure sustainability of our renewable marine resources and again joined the Patterson Lab at UF for my PhD with a research project idea ready.
My research focuses on exploring if deeper waters can provide a refuge for coral outplants in the face of increasing thermal stress. This is the first study of this topic to be performed in the FKNMS. Given the continued stressors corals are likely to face and the need to assist the reef to reach needed density to be self-sufficient, identifying successful practices under this predicted environment is needed.
Addressing this knowledge gap can inform small- and large-scale restoration practitioners if they should follow this method and if successful, increase coral cover. Additionally, success would promote a path to a healthy ecosystem, which in turn would support multiple marine species who are dependent on coral reefs. So can deeper outplanting provide relief? I look forward to providing that information as my research continues.
O’Donnell meeting Guy Harvey in 2018. Photo credit Busch Gardens.
While stressors still need to be addressed, identifying successful restoration efforts will maintain key ecosystem services until environmental homeostasis is again reached. In the future, I plan to expand involvement by using my experience as a pilot and marine biologist to explore the use of an electric seaplane to reduce transport time of coral samples and other reef species that are moved around Florida. This would allow rapid response to reefs affected by natural disasters and physical damage. By reducing sample trip duration from a couple days to a few hours, reduced stress on species and reduced staff time out of office will be observed. I believe this practice will add value to the knowledge base and contribute to the long-term success of a healthy ecosystem.
Want to learn what the rest of the Guy Harvey Fellows are up to?
Check out these student-written blogs to read about their respective backgrounds and research: https://www.flseagrant.org/tag/ghf-blog/
