Coral Reef Fish Ecology
In the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean
Ph.D. research topic
Quantifying drivers of community assembly in Neotropical cryptobenthic reef fishes
P.h D. student in Simon Brandl's Lab Fish and Functions
Biography
Rivera-Higueras’ research interests are focused on marine ecology. Since 2015, she has worked on the impact of invasive marine fish over the coral reef fish community in the Gulf of Mexico. Included the lionfish and the regal demoiselle.
She obtained her master’s degree evaluating the impact of the invasive lionfish, not only over the trophic web reef fish community of Veracruz, Mexico; that included cryptobenthic endemic reef fishes. The deep knowledge that she obtained in her master’s degree started her commitment to the study of the cryptobenthic reef fish community. As a result, she started her Ph.D. degree at the Marine Science Institute in the University of Texas at Austin. She hopes to describe the cryptobenthic fish community in the southwest reef of the Gulf of Mexico and to describe the ecological processes in which cryptobenthic reef fishes are involved.
