Bio


Courtney completed her B.S. in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University Galveston, her M.S. in Biology at Florida Atlantic University in the Voss lab, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at Old Dominion University in the Barshis lab. She recently finished a postdoctoral research position with More Marine Laboratory in Summerland Key, FL, where she examined nursery coral resilience and/or resistance under multiple coral stressors (temperature and acidification) and investigated tolerant symbiotic associations to inform and assist in coral restoration interventions. At Stanford, she will be involved with mapping coral heat resistance across multiple Pacific reefs as part of a collaborative (NSF) Super Reefs project, where she will train and collaborate with local students and researchers on coral tolerance experiments. By investigating the influence of environment, physiological plasticity, and genetic adaptation on the stress tolerance scope of corals, her research aims are to understand how corals will respond to future climate change and identify putatively tolerant corals for management. When she isn't doing science, Courtney enjoys running, surfing, and hiking with her husband and dog, Hank.

Stanford Advisors


Current Research and Scholarly Interests


Courtney will be involved with mapping coral heat resistance across multiple Pacific reefs as part of a collaborative (NSF) Super Reefs project, where she will train and collaborate with local students and researchers on coral tolerance experiments. By investigating the influence of environment, physiological plasticity, and genetic adaptation on the stress tolerance scope of corals, her research aims are to understand how corals will respond to future climate change and identify putatively tolerant corals for management.

All Publications


  • The roles of heating rate, intensity, and duration on the response of corals and their endosymbiotic algae to thermal stress JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY Evensen, N. R., Bateman, T. G., Klepac, C. N., Schmidt-Roach, S., Barreto, M., Aranda, M., Warner, M. E., Barshis, D. J. 2023; 567
  • The Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS): A low-cost, portable system for standardized empirical assessments of coral thermal limits LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY-METHODS Evensen, N. R., Parker, K. E., Oliver, T. A., Palumbi, S. R., Logan, C. A., Ryan, J. S., Klepac, C. N., Perna, G., Warner, M. E., Voolstra, C. R., Barshis, D. J. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1002/lom3.10555

    View details for Web of Science ID 000995408300001