SLA hosts 'Where they are now: Diseases of coral reefs'

HOLDERNESS — The Squam Speaker Series is held throughout the year on Wednesday evenings. Over the next few months we will hear from former Lake Region Conservation Corps members and Squam Conservation Interns to see where they are now. During this month's virtual talk on Wednesday, March 23 from 7-8 p.m., Erin Shilling will discuss her research investigating and treating coral reef diseases.

Diseases have been present on coral reefs for thousands of years, and relatively well documented in the Caribbean since the 1980s. Many of the same principles that are applied to human pandemics can be used to study these oceanic outbreaks, but unfortunately we know much less about the immune systems of corals than we do of humans. Erin served first as an SCI the summer of 2016, then came back to work as part of the first group of Lakes Region Conservation Corps from November 2017 to August 2018. She then went on to get her Master's degree in Biology at Florida Atlantic University focusing on coral disease research, and is now working as lab manager with the same laboratory.

For more information or register for this talk, visit the SLA website (squamlakes.org) or contact the SLA directly at 603-968-7336.