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Andrew C. Baker
Title Adjunct Assistant Professor
Affiliation/Department CERC, Columbia University; Director, Coral Research Laboratory, Wildlife Conservation Society; Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science, New York Aquarium
Telephone 718-265-3496
email abaker@wcs.org
Professional degree Ph.D., Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 1999
Research Keywords coral reef ecology; marine symbiosis; marine biology; molecular systematics; climate change
Research Description
Representative Publications Baker AC, Jones SH IV, Lee TS (in press) Symbiont diversity in Arabian corals and its relation to patterns of contemporary and historical environmental stress. Fauna of Saudi Arabia

Baker AC (2001) Reef corals bleach to survive change. Nature 411: 765-766. See also: Baker AC (2002) Is bleaching really adaptive? ­ reply to Hoegh-Guldberg et al. Nature 415: 601-602.

Glynn PW, Maté Touriño J, Baker AC, Calderón MO (2001) Coral bleaching and mortality in Panamá and Ecuador during the 1997-1998 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event: spatial/temporal patterns and comparisons with the 1982-1983 event. Bull. Mar. Sci. 69(1): 79-110

Lirman D, Glynn PW, Baker AC, Leyte Morales GE (2001) Combined effects of three sequential storms on the Huatulco coral reef tract, Mexico. Bull. Mar. Sci. 69(1): 267-278

Baker AC (1999) Symbiosis ecology of reef-building corals. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Miami, 120pp.

Rowan R, Knowlton N, Baker AC, Jara J (1997) Landscape ecology of algal symbiont communities explains variation in episodes of coral bleaching. Nature 388: 265-269

Baker AC, Rowan R (1997) Diversity of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae) in scleractinian corals of the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Proc. 8th Int. Coral Reef Symp. Panamá 2: 1301-1305

Baker AC, Rowan R, Knowlton N (1997) Symbiosis ecology of two Caribbean acroporid corals. Proc. 8th Int. Coral Reef Symp. Panamá 2: 1295-1300

Baker AC (1995) Solar UV-A inhibition of planula larvae in the reef-building coral Pocillopora damicornis. In: Gulko D, Jokiel PL (eds.) Ultraviolet radiation and coral reefs. HIMB Technical Report 41: UNIHI-SEA GRANT CR-95-03 pp 149-163
Current Research Andrew Baker is a tropical marine ecologist with special interest in coral reef ecosystems, climate change and coral bleaching. His current research uses molecular techniques to study how reef corals respond to biogeographic and environmental variables by changing the types of symbiotic algae they contain. This work suggests that reef corals may be able to mitigate the effects of environmental change by switching or shuffling different algal partners. Dr. Baker's field research currently involves reefs in Bermuda, Brazil, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Kenya, Australia, Panama, the Galapagos and the US.
Current Teaching The coral reef: Symbiosis in extremis (CERC Certificate in Conservation Biology)