Marcelino's Lab at Northwestern University

Climate change effects on coral reefs, coral adaptation and acclimatization to warmer oceans

Journal Publications

Look up Luisa Marcelino on Google Scholar or Northwestern Scholars.

Swain, T. D., Lax, S., Gilbert, J., Backman, V. and Marcelino, L. A., 2021. A phylogeny-informed analysis of the global coral-Symbiodiniaceae interaction network reveals that traits correlated with thermal bleaching are specific to symbiont transmission mode.


Swain, T. D., Lax, S., Backman, V., and Marcelino, L. A. 2020. Uncovering the role of Symbiodiniaceae assemblage composition and abundance in coral bleaching response by minimizing sampling and evolutionary biases


Spicer G.L.C.*, Eid A.*, Wangpraseurt D., Swain T.D., Winkelmann J.A.*, Yi J., Kühl, Marcelino L.A., Backman V., 2019. Measuring light scattering and absorption in corals with Inverse Spectroscopic Optical Coherence Tomography (ISOCT): a new tool for non-invasive monitoring, Scientific Reports


Swain T.D., Lax S., Lake N.*, Grooms H.*, Backman V., Marcelino L.A., 2019. Relating coral skeletal structures at different length scales to growth, light availability to Symbiodinium, and thermal bleaching, Frontiers in Marine Science


Swain T.D., Bold E.C.*, Osborn P.C.*, Baird. A.H., Westneat M.W., Backman V., Marcelino L.A. 2018. Physiological integration of coral colonies is correlated with bleaching resistance, Mar Ecol Prog Ser


Swain TD, Westneat WM, Backman V, Marcelino L.A. 2018. Phylogenetic analysis of symbiont transmission mechanisms reveal evolutionary patterns in thermotolerance and host specificity that enhance bleaching resistance among vertically transmitted Symbiodinium.


Swain, T.D., DuBois, E.*, Goldberg, S.J. *, Backman V., Marcelino, L.A., 2017. Bleaching response of coral species in the context of assemblage response, Coral Reefs 36: 395–400


Swain T.D, Vega-Perkins J.B. *, Oestreich W. *, Triebold C. *, DuBois E.*, Henss J., Baird A, Siple M., Backman V., Marcelino L.A. 2016. Coral bleaching response index: a new tool to standardize and compare susceptibility to thermal bleaching, Glob Chang Biol


Swain T.D., DuBois E.*, Gomes, A.*, Stoyneva V.P.*, Radosevich A.J.*, Henss J., Wagner M.E.*, Velazquez E.*, Traub J., Kennedy B.J.*, Janczak C.M., Grigorescu A.A., Westneat M.W., Sanborn K., Levine S., Schick M., Parsons G., Rogers J.D., Backman V., Marcelino L.A. 2016. Skeletal light scattering decreases bleaching susceptibility of reef-building corals, BMC Ecol


Swain T.D, Chandler J.*, Backman V., Marcelino L.A., 2016. Consensus thermotolerance ranking for 110 Symbiodinium phylotypes: an exemplar utilization of a novel iterative partial rank aggregation tool with broad application potential. Functional Ecology


Marcelino L.A.,Westneat M., Stoyneva V.*, Henss J., Rogers J.D., Radosevich A.*, Turzhitsky V.*, Siple M.*, Fang A.*, Swain T.D., Fung J.* and Backman V. U 2013. Light scattering in coral skeleton - evolutionary trends in coral bleaching and in light amplification, PLoS One, 8 :e61492

Conference Proceedings and Presentations

  1. Swain TD, Lax S, Gilbert J., Backman V. Marcelino LA. 2022. Heightened frequency of association with thermotolerant Symbiodiniaceae correlates with bleaching-susceptibility only among vertically transmitting coral species. 10th International Symbiosis Society Congress, Lyon, France.
  2. Swain TD, Lax S, Gilbert J., Backman V. Marcelino LA. 2022. Phylogeny-informed analysis of coral-Symbiodiniaceae interaction networks to assess bleaching-susceptibility and symbiont thermotolerance. 15th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bremen, Germany
  3. Swain TD, Backman VB, Marcelino LA, Phylogenetic analysis of Symbiodinium transmission modes reveal evolutionary patterns in thermotolerance and host specificity that may contribute to coral bleaching resistance, 2018, 9th International Symbiosis Society Congress, July 15-20, 2018, Oregon USA
  4. Swain TD, Backman VB, Marcelino LA. Symbiodinium thermotolerance and coral susceptibility to bleaching. 13th International Coral Reef Symposium, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 2016.
  5. Marcelino LA, Swain TD, Backman VB. Coral skeletal light scattering and susceptibility to thermal bleaching. 13th International Coral Reef Symposium, Honolulu, Hawaii. June 2016
  6. Swain TD, DuBois E, Gomes A, Stoyneva VP, Radosevich AJ, Henss J, Wagner ME, Derbas J, Grooms HW, Velazquez EM, Traub J, Kennedy BJ, Janczak CM, Grigorescu AA, Westneat MW, Sanborn K, Levine S, Schick M, Parsons G, Rogers JD, Backman VB, Marcelino LA. Efficient light transport through coral skeletons precipitates bleaching response. 44th Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting, Québec, Canada, 4-7 March 2015
  7. Swain T.D., Gomes A., Lake N., Radosevich A., Pickard K., Kennedy B., Humecki P., Westneat M.W., Backman V., Luisa A. Marcelino, Coral skeletal fractality modulates light-backscattering to symbionts and bleaching susceptibility, International Coral Reef Symposium, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 9-13 July 2012
  8. Swain T.D., Pickard K, Lake N, Henss J., Radosevich A, Gomes A., Westneat M.W., Backman V., Luisa A. Marcelino “Light-scattering properties of coral skeletons at multiple morphological length-scales increase the risk of Coral Bleaching” Benthic Ecology Meetings, Mobil, Alabama, March 16-20, 2011