The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Dr. Cara Fiore, visiting assistant professor in Appalachian State University’s Department of Biology, more than half a million dollars in support of her continued research of sea sponges in the Caribbean.
Fiore said the primary goal of the project is to advance scientists, reef managers and policy decision-makers’ understanding of how sponges — “keystone benthic members of the reef ecosystem” — contribute to the base of the coral reef food web.