Tracy and family recently escaped Florida and are happily established in Massachusetts. She’s still working with (the remnants of) Caribbean reefs, and is doing a lot more offshore wind work because renewable energy feels like better praxis than Caribbean reef ‘restoration’.

Research interests

Ecology of marginal reef habitats, historical ecology, global climate change, land-use and anthropogenic stressors, implementation of research outcomes to policy, and resource recovery.

PhD project

Causes of change in coastal ecosystems, past, present and future.

Qualifications

PhD – University of Queensland

MSc in Biology –  University of South Florida, USA

BSc in Biology – University of South Florida, USA

Publications

• Yu K-F, Zhao J-x, Roff G, Lybolt T, Feng Y, Clark T, Li S (submitted) High-precision U-series ages of storm-transported coral blocks on Heron Reef (southern Great Barrier Reef) and their significance in interpreting periodic storm activities over last 100 years. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol
• Mengerink K, Jackson JBC, Roady SE, McClenachan L, Hughes TP, Baum JK, Causey BD, Day J, Farrier D, Feuerstein A, Gullet W, Hoecevar J, Jacquet J, Johnson AE, Lang M, Lybolt T, Ozich C, Smith J, Smyth C, Wilmot D, Pandolfi JM (submitted) Improving Ocean Governance by Fulfilling Legal Obligations to Know and Use Historical Baselines. Front Ecol Environ
• Hart S, Lybolt T, Roff G, Beck B, Gomez Cabrera MdC, Clark T, Greben M, Narayan R, Welsh K, Pandolfi JM (submitted) Incorporating Ecological Baselines into Marine Natural Resource Management. Ecol Lett

• Lybolt T, Neil D, Zhao J, Feng Y, Yu K-F, Pandolfi J (2011) Instability in a marginal coral reef: the shift from natural variability to a human-dominated seascape. Front Ecol Environ 9:154-160 [output product of PhD thesis]
• Makowski C, Prekel SE, Lybolt T, Baron RM (2009) The Benthic Ecological Assessment for Marginal Reefs (BEAMR) Method. Journal of Coastal Research 25:515-522
• Lybolt T, Tate S (2008) Rapid changes in nearshore habitat: Is resource burial an appropriate measure of project impact? Shore & Beach 76:15-20
• Somerfield PJ, Jaap WC, Clarke KR, Callahan M, Hackett K, Porter J, Lybolt T, Tsokos C, Yanev G (2008) Changes in coral reef communities among the Florida Keys, 1996-2003. Coral Reefs:1-15
• Porter JW, Kosmynin V, Patterson KL, Porter KG, Jaap WC, Wheaton J, Hackett KE, Lybolt T, Tsokos CP, Yanev G, Marcinek D, Dotten J, Eaken D, Patterson M, Meier OW, Brill M, Dustan P (2002) Detection of coral reef change by the Florida Keys coral reef monitoring project. In: Porter JW, Porter KG (eds) The Everglades, Florida Bay, and coral reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp749-769