Phil Dustan

Research Interests: Ecology of estuarine fronts and the distribution of primary productivity in river, estuarine and coastal waters, Remote sensing and photoecology of coral reefs and phytoplankton in communities, Ecology and vitality of Caribbean reef-building corals.

Since 1995, I have been a principle investigator for the Coral Reef Monitoring Project, a multi-institutional project, examining the status and trends of the reefs of the Florida Keys as part of the US EPA Florida Keys Water Quality Assurance Program.

    In my "spare time" I am the Science Advisor for The Cousteau Society which takes me into the world of conservation biology.  The global decline of coral reefs is signaling the waning health of the world's oceans.  This rapid, almost lightening-speed decline of coral reefs around the world requires that we work hard for their conservation or future generations (including coral reef scientists) will only know the beauty of the seas from the films and reports that we  leave behind. 

Courtesy of the University of Charleston.