Rate My Professor Ligia Collado-Vides

Ligia Collado-Vides serves as Teaching Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University. She earned her PhD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Recognized as a marine botanist, her research centers on the ecology of tropical and subtropical marine macroalgae, commonly known as seaweeds. Her work explores the tropical macroalgal flora in seagrass and reef communities across the Mexican Caribbean and South Florida. Key research areas include the recruitment, spatial and temporal distribution patterns of macroalgae, their physiological responses to changes in temperature and nutrients, and the impact of macroalgal epiphytes on seagrasses. She investigates clonal growth's ecological and evolutionary roles in macroalgae, spatial models using L-Systems, and phase-shifts from coral and seagrass-dominated communities to macroalgae-dominated ones due to global and local changes. Her laboratory, the Collado-Vides Laboratory for Marine Macroalgae Research, develops macroalgal indicators for changes in Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay, assesses macroalgae's role in coral reef phase-shifts and resilience, examines ocean acidification effects, and analyzes nutrient enrichment impacts on seagrass beds.