Dr. Dodge is a recognized authority on corals and coral reefs. His research has centered on the growth rates of reef-building corals, coral reef structure, fossil coral reefs, the ecology of recent corals reefs, coral reef damage assessment, and oil effects on corals and coral reefs. He has conducted reef related research in Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Panama, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Florida. Dodge has held grants and contracts for reef related work from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the US Geological Survey, the U.S. Navy, Florida SeaGrant, NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Spill Response Corporation, Office of Naval Research, State of Florida, Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection, and the US Department of Justice. He is the author of many publications in the scientific literature and reports for various agencies and companies. He has served as an expert witness. He has been involved in on coral reef ecosystem injury and restoration related matters.

Dr. Dodge has conducted research in assessing and analyzing coral reefs. This includes research on sedimentation effects, bomb range impacts, ship grounding injuries, as well as adverse effects of oil to coral reefs and coral reef environments. He has worked extensively in examining coral climate relationships. Studies and projects have included evaluating sedimentation and other impacts of dredging for construction and beach renourishment projects, as well as of Naval land bomb range usage on offshore reefs.

Dr. Dodge and team serves as contracted biological scientists for Broward County on beach renourishment monitoring and assessment. Dr. Dodge has experience on investigation and analysis of the effects of ship groundings on coral reefs. He has worked on many grounding events including the ships Wellwood, Elpis, Mavro Vetranic, Mini-Laurel, Sealand Atlantic, Hind, Firat, Igloo Moon, the nuclear submarine Memphis, and the Captain Joe. His experience includes use of HEA (Habitat Equivalency Analysis) to determine amounts of compensatory restoration that may be required following an injury to natural resources.

Dr. Dodge has been involved in reef restoration investigations including hypothesis based restoration following the grounding of a nuclear submarine on a high-latitude coral reef. He serves on the Reef Restoration Working Group of the World Band GEF Targeted Research Project. Dr. Dodge has been involved in projects involving effects of oil, oil drilling products (drill mud), and oil dispersants on coral reefs. He has conducted experiments in Bermuda and Panama on dispersed oil effects. He has served for 5 years as a member of the Scientific Review Board of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to oversee a Minerals Management Service contract with the Smithsonian dealing with the Galeta oil spill on a Panama coral reef. He was a principal investigator on the Tropical Oil Pollution Investigations in Coastal Systems (TROPICS) study investigating effects of experimental dosing of coral reefs, seagrasses, and mangroves with oil and dispersed oil in Panama. He conducted a 10-year follow up study on reefs of Panama.

• Kevin Helmle, Ph.D. student. Sclerochronological Investigations of coral density, extension, and calcification.
• Daniel Anderegg, MS. Barium and carbon and oxygen isotope chronologies from two southeast Florida Coral species - Environmental Implications
• Rowena P. Garcia, MS. Skeletal architectural variability as basis of density banding in the reef coral Montastrea annularis
• Stephanie M. Morris, MS, Effects of dredging-induced sedimentation and turbidity on two species of stony corals of southeast Florida
• John D. Hocevar, MS, A survey of the stony coral community composition of Pompano Ledge, Broward Co, FL with a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of mooring buoys in reducing coral damage
• Elizabeth Glynn Fahy, MS, Growth and survivorship of Meandrina meandrites and Montastrea cavernosa transplants to an artificial reef environments and the effectiveness of plugging coral holes in transplant donor colonies

  
  

Selected Publications (Complete publication list)

Riegl B.M., S.J. Purkis, K.E. Kohler, and R.E. Dodge, 2005. Spatial patterns in Arabian Gulf coral assemblages (Jebel Ali, Dubai, U.A.E.) in response to temperature-forcing. Proceedings of the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium, Okinawa Japan. (In press).

Swart, P.K., A. Szmant, J.W. Porter, R.E. Dodge, J.I. Tougas, and J.R. Southam, 2005. The isotopic composition of respired carbon dioxide in scleractinian corals: Implications for cycling of organic carbon in corals.Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 69, No. 6, pp. 1495-1509, 2005.

Turgeon, D.D., R.G. Asch, B.D. Causey, R.E. Dodge, W. Jaap, K. Banks, J. Delaney, B.D. Keller, R. Spieler, C.A. Matos, J.R. Garcia, E. Diaz, D. Cantanzaro, C.S. Rogers, Z. Hillis-Starr, R. Nemeth, M. Taylor, G.P. Schmahl, M.W. Miller, D.A. Gulko, J.E. Maragos, A.M. Friedlander, C.L. Hunter, R.S. Brainard, P. Craig, R.H. Richmond, G. Davis, J. Starmer, M. Trianni, P. Houk, C.E. Birkeland, A. Edward, Y. Golbuu, J. Gutierrez, N. Ideochong, G. Paulay, A. Tafileichig, and N. Vander Velde. 2002. The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2002. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / National Ocean Service/National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. Silver Spring, MD. 265pp.

Helmle, K.P., R.E. Dodge, and R.A. Ketcham, 2002. Skeletal architecture and density banding in Diploria strigosa by x-ray computed tomography. Proceedings of 9th Int Coral Reef Symp. Bali, Indonesia Oct. 23-27 2000, Vol. 1, pp 365-371.

Milon, J.W. and R.E. Dodge. 2001. Applying habitat equivalency analysis for coral reef damage assessment and restoration. Bulletin of Marine Science 69(2): 975-988.

Dodge, R.E., B.J. Baca, A.H. Knap, S.C. Snedaker, and T.D. Sleeter. 1995. The effects of oil and chemically dispersed oil in tropical ecosystems: 10 years of monitoring experimental sites. Marine Spill Response Corporation, Washington, D.C. MSRC Technical Report Series 95-014, 82 pp +app.

Dodge, R.E., R. Garcia, A.M. Szmant, P.K. Swart, A. Forrester, and J.J. Leder. 1992. Skleletal structural basis of density banding in the reef coral Montastrea annularis. Abstract and paper presented at Proc. 7th Inc. Coral Reef Symp. Guam. June. 1992., Vol. 1, p 186-195.

Dodge, R.E. and A. Szmant-Froelich. 1985. "Effects of drilling fluids on reef-building corals: A review", Abstract and talk presented at 3rd Int. Ocean Disposal Symp. WHOI Oct, 1981, pp 152-153, Published in: Wastes in the Ocean, Volume 4: Energy Wastes in the Ocean, eds., I.W. Duedall, D.R. Kester, and P.K. Park, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chap. 13, pp 341-364.

Dodge, R.E., S. Wyers, H.R. Frith, A.H. Knap, C. Cook, R. Smith, and T.D. Sleeter, 1984. Coral calcification rates by the buoyant weight technique: effects of alizarin staining. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 75, 217-232.

Dodge, R.E., R.G. Fairbanks, L.K. Benninger, and F. Maurrasse. 1983. Pleistocene sea levels from raised coral reefs of Haiti. Science, 219, 1423-1425.

Fairbanks, R.G., and R.E. Dodge, 1979. Annual periodicity of the skeletal oxygen and carbon stable isotope composition in the coral Montastrea annularis. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 43, 1009-1020.

Dodge, R.E., R.C. Aller and J. Thomson, 1974. Coral growth related to resuspension of bottom sediments. Nature, 247, 574-577.