Room: 303 Craig Mair      Phone: +44(0)1248 382588

E-mail: g.j.williams@bangor.ac.uk      Twitter 

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I graduated in Marine Biology (University of Liverpool) in 2004 and completed an MSc in Marine Environmental Protection (Bangor University) in 2006. I began a PhD in Marine Biology (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) in 2007 in coral disease ecology, combining macroecology, experimental ecology, and histopathology to identify disease baselines and drivers of disease prevalence on Pacific coral reefs. A focus study site of mine was Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited atoll in the Northern Line Islands. After obtaining my PhD in 2011, I was awarded a post-doctoral scholarship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego (UCSD) where I continued to work on the macroecology of Pacific coral reefs. This role at Scripps transitioned into an Assistant Project Scientist position within the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation in 2013. I left Scripps in late 2015 to return to the UK and take up my full-time role within the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University.  

I am a marine ecologist specialising in coral reef ecology. My work focuses on the interaction of organisms with their environment, often taking a macroecological approach. I am particularly interested in how human activities and natural biophysical gradients interact to drive community patterns across multiple trophic levels (microbes to sharks) and scales (individual reefs to entire ocean basins). Much of my work incorporates remote coral reefs free from direct human impact, providing key replication at the unimpacted end of an intact-to-degraded ecosystem spectrum. By surveying across extensive geographical areas we address broad questions pertaining to: 1. the human, climatic and oceanographic drivers of coral reef ecosystem structure and function, 2. climate change impacts to coral reef ecosystems, 3. the spatial ecology of coral reefs, and 4. disease dynamics on coral reefs.

Research Areas 

  • MSc: Marine Environmental Protection
  • BSc: Marine Biology
    University of Liverpool,
  • PhD: Coral disease and the environment in the Pacific Ocean
    Victoria University of Wellington,

I teach a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in marine ecology, applied statistics, and statistical programming.

Current PhD students (primary supervisor)

  • Lisa Goberdhan (2021-present) - Thesis title: Functional role of uncharted coral reef habitats in the Anthropocene.
  • Alice Lawrence (2019-present) - Thesis title: The natural and anthropogenic drivers of reef fish community structure and function across scales. 
  • Helen Ford (2017-present) – Thesis title: The seascape ecology of disturbance and recovery on Pacific coral reefs.
  • Bethanie Francis (2016-present) – Thesis title: Biological signals of the Island Mass Effect.
  • Tim Jackson-Bue (2016-present) – Thesis title: The use of high-resolution remote sensing to advance temperate reef ecology.

Current PhD students (co-supervisor)

  • Megan O'hara (2021-present) - Thesis title: What drives cold pulses at remote tropical reefs?
  • Catherine Sheppard (2020-present) - Thesis title: Do species interactions after overfishing enhance or inhibit coral reef recovery?
  • Janeen Hadj-Hammou (2017-present) – Thesis title: Functional changes in coral reef marine protected areas (Lancaster University).
  • Stacey Carless (2016-present) – Thesis title: Spatiotemporal variability of internal wave dynamics on Pacific coral reefs.

Past PhD students

  • Anna Woodhead (2016-2021) – Thesis title: Capturing ecosystem service delivery from coral reefs (Lancaster University).
  • Ellie Vaughan (2016-2021) – Thesis title: Quantifying nutrient signals on coral reefs (Lancaster University).

I have a range of research interests in which PhD projects could be developed. Please contact me by email in the first instance regarding any of the following areas: coral reef ecology, marine spatial ecology, oceanographic drivers of coral reefs, marine climate change impacts, marine disease ecology, and ecological statistics.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • PublishedCoral reef ecology in the Anthropocene
    Williams, G. J., Graham, N. A. J., Jouffray, J-B., Norstrom, A. V., Nystrom, M., Gove, J. M., Heenan, A. & Wedding, L. M., Jun 2019, In: Functional Ecology. 33, 6, p. 1014-1022
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedCoral reef ecosystem services in the Anthropocene
    Woodhead, A. J., Hicks, C. C., Norstrom, A. V., Williams, G. J. & Graham, N. A. J., Jun 2019, In: Functional Ecology. 33, 6, p. 1023-1034
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedForaging consistency of coral reef fishes across environmental gradients in the central Pacific
    Zgliczynski, B. J., Williams, G., Hamilton, S., Cordner, E., Fox, M., Eynaud, Y., Michene, R., Kaufman, L. & Sandin, S. A., Oct 2019, In: Oecologia. 191, 2, p. 433-445
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedParsing human and biophysical drivers of coral reef regimes
    Jouffray, J-B., Wedding, L., Norstrom, A. V., Donovan, M., Williams, G., Crowder, L., Erickson, A., Friedlander, A. M., Graham, N. A. J., Gove, J. M., Kappel, C., Kittinger, J., Lecky, J., Oleson, K., Selkoe, K., White, C., Williams, I. & Nystrom, M., Feb 2019, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 286, 1896, 20182544.
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedPathogenesis of a tissue loss disease affecting multiple species of corals along the Florida Reef Tract
    Aeby, G. S., Ushijima, B., Campbell, J., Jones, S., Williams, G. J., Meyer, J., Hase, C. & Paul, V., 1 Nov 2019, In: Frontiers in Marine Science. 6, 678.
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedPrey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries
    Gove, J. M., Whitney, J., McManus, M. A., Lecky, J., Carvalho, F., Lynch, J., Li, J., Neubauer, P., Smith, K., Phipps, J., Kobayashi, D., Balagso, K., Contreras, E., Manuel, M., Merrifield, M., Polovina, J., Asner, G., Maynard, J. A. & Williams, G. J., 26 Nov 2019, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 116, 48, p. 24143-24149 7 p.
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedRed Sea SAR11 and Prochlorococcus Single-cell Genomes Reflect Globally Distributed Pangenomes
    Thompson, L. R., Haroon, M. F., Shibl, A. A., Cahill, M. J., Ngugi, D. K., Williams, G. J., Morton, J. T., Knight, R., Goodwin, K. D. & Stingl, U., Jul 2019, In: Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 85, 13, e00369-19.
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedRethinking coral reef functional futures
    Williams, G. J. & Graham, N. A. J., 7 Jun 2019, In: Functional Ecology. 33, 6, p. 942-947
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review
  • PublishedScale-dependent spatial patterns in benthic communities around a tropical island seascape
    Aston, E. A., Williams, G. J., Green, J. A. M., Davies, A. J., Wedding, L. M., Gove, J. M., Jouffray, J-B., Jones, T. T. & Clark, J., Mar 2019, In: Ecography. 42, 3, p. 578-590
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
  • PublishedSocial-environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene
    Darling, E. S., McClanahan, T. R., Maina, J., Gurney, G. G., Graham, N. A. J., Januchowski-Hartley, F., Cinner, J. E., Mora, C., Hicks, C. C., Maire, E., Puotinen, M., Skirving, W. J., Adjeroud, M., Ahmadia, G., Arthur, R., Bauman, A. G., Beger, M., Berumen, M. L., Bigot, L., Bouwmeester, J., Brenier, A., Bridge, T. C. L., Brown, E., Campbell, S. J., Cannon, S., Cauvin, B., Chen, C. A., Claudet, J., Denis, V., Donner, S., Estradivari, Fadli, N., Feary, D. A., Fenner, D., Fox, H., Franklin, E. C., Friedlander, A., Gilmour, J., Goiran, C., Guest, J., Hobbs, J-P. A., Hoey, A. S., Houk, P., Johnson, S., Jupiter, S. D., Kayal, M., Kuo, C., Lamb, J., Lee, M. A. C., Low, J., Muthiga, N., Muttaqin, E., Nand, Y., Nash, K. L., Nedlic, O., Pandolfi, J. M., Pardede, S., Patankar, V., Penin, L., Ribas-Deulofeu, L., Richards, Z., Roberts, T. E., Rodgers, K. S., Safuan, C. D. M., Sala, E., Shedrawi, G., Sin, T. M., Smallhorn-West, P., Smith, J. E., Sommer, B., Steinberg, P. D., Sutthacheep, M., Tan, C. H. J., Williams, G., Wilson, S., Yeemin, T., Bruno, J. F., Fortin, M-J., Krkosek, M. & Mouillot, D., 12 Aug 2019, In: Nature Ecology and Evolution. 3, 9, p. 1341-1350
    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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2011

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2008

2021

  • Ecography (Journal)

    Subject Editor

    1 Apr 2021 →

    Activity: Editorial activity (Editorial board member)

2017