Sean Connolly

Sean Connolly is a Research Biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, Panama, and an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University, Australia.

Research in Sean's lab combines empirical work with mathematical and statistical modelling to study patterns, dynamics, causes and consequences of biodiversity at scales ranging from species interactions at hte scale of individual coral reefs, to implications of dispersal of larvae across seascapes, to global-scale dynamics of origination and extinction that play out over tens of millions of years in the fossil record. Much of this work focuses on coral reef ecosystems.

In nearshore marine ecosystems like coral reefs, human activity ranging from coastal development and fishing to global climate change profoundly affects contemporary patterns and trends in biodiversity, making human impacts one focus of our work