student in computer science, traveled in May to the CARMABI marine biology research station, Curaçao. Moses, along with the UNM team of Matthew Fricke, a research assistant professor in computer science, and Julie Hayes, a Ph.D.

They are seeking to understand how fish, coral and algae interact in a changing ocean to predict how coral can best be protected in increasingly inhospitable conditions. The team’s goal? To create a software model called SIMReef that represents millions of fish foraging for algae on coral reefs.

The $3 million project, which is a collaboration between multiple universities, is funded through Sept. Melanie Moses, professor of computer science, is a co-principal investigator of a National Science Foundation project called “ Emergence of function and dynamics from ecological interaction networks” being led by ecology and evolutionary biology assistant professor Mike Gil from the University of Colorado, Boulder. That is the focus of research being conducted by University of New Mexico researchers in the Department of Computer Science who recently undertook fieldwork in Curaçao to model some out-of-the-ordinary data points they could not access in land-locked New Mexico: coral reefs. As we all endure a record-hot summer that scientists say is largely the result of climate change, the tangible evidence is all around us, including triple-digit temperatures, wildfires, drought and floods.Īnd while the impacts of a changing climate are evident and trackable above ground, a lesser-known area of study involves the impact it is having where we can’t see - in the ocean.

Fishing planet florida map