Shedd Aquarium

Trinity Conn is a postdoctoral fellow at John G. Shedd Aquarium working with Ross Cunning, Ph.D. in their conservation research department. Trinity completed her Ph.D. in biology at the Pennsylvania State University in 2024. Trinity’s research focuses on how the genomes of reef-building corals evolve over time and how they may respond to environmental change. Trinity combines laboratory, field, and computational methods to detect genomic signals of adaptation in reef-building corals in the Caribbean and the tropical Pacific and to identify potentially novel sources of inter- and intra-colonial genetic variation. This work can then be applied to improve coral reef conservation and restoration efforts.

Project Summary

Leveraging Genomics to Restore Climate-Resilient Reefs

Tropical coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse and valuable ecosystems on the planet. In a rapidly changing climate, restoration must prioritize genetic diversity and individuals that are the best adapted to survive worsening marine heatwaves. By combining large-scale sampling of corals with extensive whole genome sequencing and analysis, and close collaboration with coral restoration practitioners in Florida, this project will catalog remaining genetic diversity in understudied species and identify genomic signatures of heat tolerance. This knowledge will be used to optimize nursery and gene bank collections and transform restoration approaches to build more climate resilient reefs.