Research Highlights
Research Interests
• Natural and anthropogenic drivers of marine ecosystems and water quality
• Plankton ecology and satellite biogeography
• Marine biodiversity monitoring
• Machine learning and computer vision applications for biodiversity science
• Marine carbon, nitrogen and oxygen cycling
• Collaborative research networks
• Capacity building, citizen science, and ocean literacy.
Enrique Montes, Ph.D.
Associate Scientist, Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division
305.361.4391
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149
“Ocean conditions are highly dynamic in space and time. Understanding the responses of marine life to a rapidly changing environment, from hours to decades and from local to global scales, is essential for managing and conserving the many services the ocean provides to society.”
Dr. Enrique Montes is an Assistant Scientist of the U. Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) and NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) studying responses of marine life to changes in atmospheric and oceanographic conditions. His research integrates hydrographic, bio-optical, genomic, and taxonomic measurements collected from ships with satellite data to resolve the oceanographic context of local observations and characterize the regional biogeography, ocean habitats, and their planktonic assemblages. He applies computer vision techniques for biodiversity monitoring from the coast to the open ocean. Dr. Montes coordinates international collaborative networks dedicated to sea life monitoring and capacity building in biodiversity observing.
Current Work
• Principal Investigator of the NASA-funded Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Pole to Pole of the Americas (https://marinebon.github.io/p2p).
• Principal Investigator of the ‘Omics Strategy for biodiversity monitoring using eDNA observations, plankton imagery, and satellite data.
• Co-Principal Investigator of the SECOORA project for augmenting ocean observing through Artificial Intelligence
• Co-Principal Investigator of the Southeast Marine Biodiversity Observation Network program (SE MBON; https://marinebon.org/).
• Co-Principal Investigator of the NOAA project for characterizing and forecasting coastal ecosystem responses to multiple stressors for management applications in South Florida.
Ph.D in Oceanography, University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, Tampa, Florida
B.S. in Biology, Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), Caracas, Venezuela
- Alarcon, V.J., A.C. Linhoss, C.R. Kelble, P.F. Mickle, A. Fine, and E. Montes. Potential challenges for the restoration of Biscayne Bay (Florida, USA) in the face of climate change effects revealed with predictive models. Oceans & Coastal Management, 247:106929, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2023.106929 2024
Ref. 4355 - Gonzalez, A., P. Vihervaara, A.E. Bates, E.Bayraktarov, P.J. Bellingham, A. Bruder, J. Campbell, M.D. Catchen, J. Cavender-Bares, J. Chase, N. Coops, M.J. Costello, B. Czucz, A. Delavaud, M. Dornelas, G. Dubois, E.J. Duffy, H. Eggermont, M. Fernandez, N. Fernandez, S. Ferrier, G.N. Geller, M. Gill, D. Gravel, C.A. Guerra, R. Guralnick, M. Harfoot, T. Hirsch, S. Hoban, A.C. Hughes, W. Hugo, M.E. Hunter, F. Isbell, W. Jetz, N. Juergens, W.D. Kissling, C.B. Krug, P. Kullberg, Y. Le Bras, B. Leung, M.C. Londono-Murcia, J.-M. Lord, M. Loreau, A. Luers, K. Ma, A.J. MacDonald, J. Maes, M. McGeoch, J. Baptiste Mihoub, K.L. Millette, Z. Molnar, E. Montes, et al. A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 7(12):1947-1952, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02171-0 2023
Ref. 4364 - Muller-Karger, F.E., G. Canonico, C. Baron Aguilar, N.J. Bax, W. Appeltans, K. Yarincik, V. Leopardas, I. Sousa-Pinto, M. Nakaoka, A. Aikappu, J. Giddens, E. Heslop, E. Montes, and J.E. Duffy. Marine life 2030: Building global knowledge of marine life for local action in the ocean decade. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 80(2):355-357, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac084 2023
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