Dr Iliana Chollett

 

Marine Spatial Ecology Lab
School of Biological Sciences
University of Queensland
St. Lucia Brisbane, Qld 4072
Australia

tel: +61 (0)7 3365 1671
email: i.chollettordaz@uq.edu.au / i.c.chollett-ordaz@exeter.ac.uk

My interests are centred in large-scale problems in disturbance ecology that can be tackled using remote sensing and modelling tools.
Coral reefs are large ecosystems constituted by slow-growing organisms. Specific tools are needed to monitor and manage these systems. In this sense, remote sensing technologies provide the broad cover needed to describe reef patterns at an appropriate spatial scale, while modelling approaches provide insight into coral reef processes and dynamics in useful time scales.
I am currently an Associate Research Fellow for the FORCE (Future of Reefs in a Changing Environment) project. I’m assessing the environmental regime in the Caribbean basin using remote sensing and in situ datasets, and providing a categorization of the basin according to its different climates in order to describe the ‘reef weather’ in the Caribbean. I am using this information to assess how the environment is likely to determine the dynamics and distribution of reefs in the Caribbean using modelling tools. The data that I’m producing is being used by several researchers to answer different questions within the FORCE project. Through FORCE, the data will be available to the wider community to answer further questions in coastal marine community ecology in the Caribbean area.

Career

2010-2012 Associate Research Fellow – FORCE project – Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
2009-2009 Project Manager – Belizean reefs using ESA data – Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
2008-2008 Research assistant – FORCE project proposal – Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
2003-2007 Biologist – CARIACO project – Instituto de Tecnologia y Ciencias Marinas, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Venezuela
2002-2002 Biologist – Venezuelan Atlantic Front – Marine Community Lab, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Venezuela
2001-2001 Teaching assistant – Ecology lab – Environmental Studies Department, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Venezuela
2000-2001 Technician – Morrocoy National Park Agenda – Marine Community Lab, Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Venezuela

Qualifications

2012 PhD Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
2007 M.Sc. Biological Sciences, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela
2002 B.Sc. Biology (honors) Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela

Journal publications

Chollett I, Müller-Karger FE, Heron SF, Skirving W, Mumby PJ (in press). Seasonal and spatial heterogeneity of recent sea surface temperature trends in the Caribbean Sea and southeast Gulf of Mexico. Marine Pollution Bulletin

Chollett I, Mumby PJ (in press). Predicting the distribution of Montastraea reefs using wave exposure. Coral Reefs

Chollett I, Mumby PJ, Cortes J (2010). Upwelling areas do not guarantee refuge for coral reefs in a warming ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series 416:47-56

Castillo C, Chollett I, Klein E (2008). Enhanced duckweed detection using bootstrapped SVM classification on medium resolution RGB MODIS imagery. International Journal of Remote Sensing 29(19): 5595-5604.

Bone D, Chollett I, Rodríguez C (2007). Macrobenthos from deep waters in the Venezuelan Atlantic Coast. Interciencia 32(7): 477-481.

Chollett I, Bone D (2007). Effects of heavy rainfall on Thalassia testudinum beds. Aquatic Botany 87(3): 189-195

Chollett I, Bone D (2007). Effects of heavy rainfall on polychaetes: differential spatial patterns generated by a large-scale disturbance. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 340: 113-125