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.

Dr. Collado-Vides' projects align with the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Program, the Coastal Everglades Restoration Program, and collaborations with institutions in the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico. She evaluates land-based stressors' effects on coastal ecosystems, their potential impacts on coral reefs and seagrasses using macroalgal diversity, abundance, distribution, and nutrient content across spatiotemporal scales. Her studies address the carbon contribution of calcareous green algae in Florida Bay and the Mexican Caribbean, along salinity and nutrient gradients. Committed to applied research, she focuses on marine conservation and management in Marine Protected Areas in South Florida and the Caribbean. With 27 years of teaching experience, she instructs courses in Marine Biology, Phycology, and Marine Protected Areas, and engages in Collaborative Online International Learning initiatives with Mexico and Brazil. She is affiliated with the Southeast Environmental Research Center and serves on the Latin American and Caribbean Center Faculty Advisory Board. Her team contributes to citizen science efforts monitoring Sargassum landings in South Florida and the Caribbean.