One of the most exciting portions of my research program is my collaboration with marine microbiologist Rebecca Vega Thurber (Oregon State University) to understand how alterations to top-down and bottom-up forces drive coral reef decline. We have been running an NSF-funded field experiment, Project HERBVRE  (Habitat Enrichment & Removal: Bacteria, Viruses, & Reef Ecology), testing the roles of overfishing and eutrophication in affecting algal-coral-microbe interactions and the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria on corals. In response to our herbivore exclusion/nutrient enrichment manipulations we have been monitoring changes in: (1) macroalgal abundance and diversity, (2) coral survivorship and growth, and (3) the taxonomic and functional/metabolic diversity of coral-associated microbes. These experiments represent novel field examinations blending traditional community ecology methods with cutting-edge molecular and metagenomics tools to address the synergistic impacts of multiple stressors on the benthic reef habitat and coral-microbial mutualisms.