Ligia Collado-Vides

Research Areas

• Ecological role of marine macroalgae on tropical coastal waters, including the use of macroalgae as indicators of anthropogenic stressors such as nutrient increase
• Carbon contribution of calcareous green algae
• Increase of macroalgae in coral reefs
• Taxonomy of selected species of the Laruencia complex and other blooming macroalgae
• Studies are conducted South Florida, the Mexican Caribbean, Cuba and Brazil.

Dr. Collado-Vides is a marine botanist with a research emphasis in ecology of tropical marine macroalgae, commonly known as seaweeds. She has experience in the tropical macroalgal flora of seagrass and reef communities in the Mexican Caribbean and south Florida. Her research focuses on evaluating the effects of land-based stressors on coastal ecosystems and their potential impact in coral reefs and seagrass ecosystems. She uses macroalgal diversity, abundance, distribution and nutrient content in different spatiotemporal scales to evaluate drivers of phase-shifts in these ecosystems. She is also interested in the effects of climate change on coastal ecosystems, and her laboratory is conducting research on the role of calcareous green algae in the carbon budget of Florida Bay and the Mexican Caribbean. She is estimating the organic and inorganic carbon produced by these algae along a salinity and nutrient gradient, as part of the Florida Coastal Everglades LTER. Dr. Collado-Vides is interested in conducting research that is directly applicable to marine conservation, and management of coastal ecosystems, particularly in Marine Protected Areas in South Florida and the Caribbean. As a Lecturer she has a heavy teaching load, she uses her teaching assignments as a great opportunity to educate students about environmental problems and solutions.

Publications

Heinen, J.T.; Roque, A., and Collado-Vides, L., 2017. Managerial implications of perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and awareness of residents regarding Puerto Morelos Reef National Park, Mexico. Journal of Coastal Research, 33(2), 295-303. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Brigitta I. van Tussenbroek a, ⁎, Héctor A. Hernández Arana b, Rosa E. Rodríguez-Martínez a, Julio Espinoza-Avalos b, Hazel M. Canizales-Flores a, Carlos E. González-Godoy a, M. Guadalupe Barba-Santos a, Alejandro Vega-Zepeda b, Ligia Collado-Vides. 2017. Severe impacts of brown tides caused by Sargassum spp. on near-shore Caribbean seagrass communities. Marine Pollution Bulletin (in press).

Ileana Ortegón-Azna, Andrea Chuc-Contreras, and Ligia Collado-Vides. Calcareous green algae standing stock in a tropical sedimentary coast. 2017. Journal of Applied Phycology, 29, 2685-2693. doi: 10.1007/s10811-017-1057-y

Education

• PhD. Sciences (1993) National University of Mexico (UNAM)
• Master in Marine Biology (1989) National University of Mexico (UNAM)
• B.A. Biology (1983) Metropolitan University of Mexico (UAM)