Claudia Pogoreutz

I am a second year PhD student in the Coral Reef Ecology Research (CORE) Group at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology GmbH (ZMT) in Bremen. My project is part of an ongoing collaboration between the ZMT/Uni Bremen and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and investigates the responses of the coral holobiont of Pocillopora verrucosa to increased concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM). The aim of my ten months stay in the work group of my KAUST-based Co-Supervisor Christian R. Voolstra, the Coral Reef Genomics Lab, was to accomplish the practical component of my PhD. Throughout this time, I worked closely together with the Master’s student Nils Rädecker (CORE – ZMT) and the PhD student Anny Cárdenas (MPI Marine Microbiology and ZMT).

Its vicinity to coral reefs plus the availability of state-of-the-art facilities makes KAUST a highly attractive research environment, which allowed me to gain proficiency in a variety of methods, including hands-on experience in coral ecophysiology and biogeochemistry, as well as basic molecular skills and NextGeneration Sequencing applications. This unique combination of novel techniques and more “traditional” methods will allow me to tackle responses of the coral holobiont to a poorly investigated stressor in a holistic way, by addressing a decent range of response parameters from all three departments of the coral holobiont, i.e. coral animal, the endosymbiotic dinoflagellate Symbiodinium, and the coral-associated bacterial community. With the continuous support of Chris Voolstra and his lab and the cooperation of Nils and Anny, I learned a lot about research logistics and designing, trouble-shooting, and conducting manipulative experiments. Finally, my time at KAUST also turned out to be a great opportunity for extending and strengthening my academic network by meeting up with visiting scientists in the Reef Genomics Lab and by attending two conferences, the International Conference on the Marine Environment of the Red Sea (ICMERS) 2014, and the Coral Reefs of Arabia Conference 2015.

In a nutshell, my stay at KAUST has been a highly rewarding and nurturing time for my personal and professional development. I am very grateful for this valuable experience.
This research stay was funded by the DFG grant Wi 2677/6-1 to Christian Wild and the baseline research funds Coral Reef Genomics Lab of PI Christian R. Voolstra.

Acknowledgements
I would like to sincerely thank a number of people who made and still make my efforts possible. First of all my supervisor Prof. Christian Wild from ZMT who sent me out on this exciting adventure, and my Co-supervisor Chris Voolstra for his continuous support and hospitality throughout my time at KAUST; Nils Rädecker and Anny Cárdenas for cooperation and support during the project; the members of Chris’ Lab, particularly Camille Daniels, Anna Roik, Till Röthig, Maren Ziegler, Craig Michell, Matt Neave, Lauren Yum and Stephan Kremb for their invaluable support; Paul Muller, Ramzi Aljahdali, Haitham Aljahdali, David Pallett, Frank Mallon, Ioannis Georgakakis, and Brian Hession from CMOR for help with field and wetlab logistics; the skippers Ezam, Abdullah, Ghazi, and Mohammad from CMOR for taking me safely to the reef and back; and my colleagues from the Coral Reef Ecology Research Group (CORE) at ZMT, particularly Fritz, Ulisse, Nanne, and Laura for patiently answering my numerous emails about methods, as well as Andreas Petermann, Susanne Boin, and Hauke Schwieder for assistance with shipment logistics.