Alejandra Ortiz
Colby College, ME·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Atolls are ring-shaped coral islands surrounding a central lagoon, sitting only a meter or two above the sea. They support distinctive ecosystems and the communities that live on them, and they face rising seas, ocean acidification, stronger storms, and direct human pressure.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Computer Science
- Topics
atolls
coral islands
coral reefs
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2030
What they work on
- Quantify how atoll islands have changed in size and shape over decades by combining the long Landsat satellite archive with high-resolution Planet Labs imagery, expanding a global database of atoll morphometrics.
- Automate land cover classification and shoreline mapping of atolls from satellite imagery using convolutional neural networks, a machine learning approach for image analysis, to extend spatial coverage and improve accuracy.
- Separate the drivers of atoll evolution, contrasting internal processes such as coral growth and sediment dynamics with external forcing from wave and storm climate and human activity, by linking per-atoll wave and storm data to observed change.
- Ground-truth satellite-derived maps with fieldwork at Glover's Reef Atoll in Belize and use the verified measurements to build numerical models predicting atoll response to sea-level rise and human impacts.
- Build an Environmental Computation curriculum at Colby College that blends data science, artificial intelligence methods, and field techniques with environmental studies, including undergraduate research and mentoring.
More about the research
Whether an atoll island shrinks, holds its ground, or grows depends on a tug-of-war between natural processes, such as coral growth and the movement of sand and rubble, and outside forces, such as the local wave and storm climate and human modification. This project measures how atoll islands have changed in size and shape over decades and models how they may respond as conditions shift, in order to flag which atolls are most at risk of losing land.
Why it matters
Atoll nations and communities need to know which islands are likely to lose land as seas rise and storms intensify, and on what timescale. A verified global database of atoll shape change, paired with wave and storm data and predictive models, could give policymakers and conservation planners concrete evidence for adaptation and conservation decisions, and for protecting the species and people that depend on these low-lying islands.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Tyler Cyronak
Georgia Southern University, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify how much total alkalinity flows out of sediments in two contrasting seagrass ecosystems, using field and laboratory chamber incubations and pore water analyses.
Adnan Rajib
University of Texas at Arlington, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Evaluate the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the Living Engineered Reef System on the Texas Gulf Coast through a pilot study, techno-economic assessment (weighing performance against cost), and community co-design workshops.
Mona Behl
William & Mary, VA·Social Science
Foster analysis and synthesis research on human mobility caused by coastal change, including displacement, migration and planned relocation, using existing datasets and legal and policy frameworks.
The school
Colby College: 2 labs on PI Pages, $5M a year on research.
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