New Lab Music Video!
Check it out!
2024 Updates!
Read about our lab’s success this year so far!
Casey Butler’s interviews!
(click picture for link to article)
The Guardian: ‘Knight in spiny armor’: could lobsters help save Florida’s dying corals? - May 25, 2024
Garden & Gun: In a time of crisis for corals, consider a lobster - July 9, 2024
2023 Lab Round-Up
Read to find out all of the accomplishments our lab has achieved this year!
FIU & Butler Lab to Host 51st Benthic Ecology Meeting!
Location: Hyatt Regency Downtown Miami, FL
When: April 26-29th 2023
This year’s activities:
•Banquet
•Biscayne Lady Cruise
•Field Trips: Florida Keys, Aquarius Research Station, Everglades, etc.
Could Lobsters Help Save Florida’s Corals?
Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida
JULY 30, 2021
More Crabs! Scientists Discover a Way to Help Dying Coral Reefs
NPR Interview
December 10, 2020
As mysterious disease kills Florida’s reefs, a massive ‘Noah’s Ark’ effort tries to save them
Miami Herald SEPTEMBER 2, 2021, 7:00 AM
Reef Grazer Workshop
In mid February 2022, our lab hosted a 2-day workshop for 35 scientists and coral reef managers at FIU’s Kampong facility.
The purpose of the workshop was to:
•Discuss impediments and advances in the use of grazers for coral reef restoration in south Florida and the Caribbean.
•Develop a coordinated approach for the study and use of reef grazers in coral reef restoration, particularly in association with NOAA’s Mission: Iconic Reefs program in the Florida Keys.
Lab Presentations at the 50th Benthic Ecology Meeting in Portsmouth, NH April 2022
“Can vegetarian crabs help save coral reefs?”
Mark Butler, Samantha Glover & Leah Cifers
“Facilitating coral reef restoration by enhancing the density of a native herbivorous crab”
Nick Evans & Mark Butler
“Defining the “sweet spot” for healthy coral-algal relationships on Caribbean coral reefs”
Mary Williams & Mark Butler
“Can herbivorous crabs boost coral reef fish abundance, diversity, and grazing?”
Tiffany Wood & Mark Butler
“Oceanic drivers of spiny lobster postlarval recruitment and its population implications in the Florida Keys”
Jack Butler, Jason Goldstein, Denice Robertson, Donald Behringer & Mark Butler