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 FRE Lab
About FRELab
The research in my laboratory focuses on broad-scale ecological processes in coral reefs and on the functional importance of reef organisms to the resilience of this ecosystem – We aim to understand how individual characteristics of reef organisms could influence their response to stressors, and how environmental changes could shape functions of the coral reef ecosystem and the services they provide to human society. Therefore, we develop a trait-based approach centered on the description of species performance and their role in the ecosystem. We have a specific interest on reef organisms from marginal community, i.e. species successfully colonizing and/or expanding in suboptimal environments. In particular, species expanding from shallow tropical locations to mesophotic zones and high-latitude areas may have developed specific features to survive a wide range of environmental conditions and could be the keys species for the future of the coral reefs. Overall, our work consists in analyzing how current human and climatic-modifications could reconfigure the coral reefs in the future and the functional consequences of these changes.
Our Team
Vianney Denis, Ph.D.
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Assistant Professor
Functional Reef Ecology Lab
Institute of Oceanography, Room 406
National Taiwan University
Taipei, TAIWAN

Keyword:  Coral reefs, Ecosystem resilience, Functional ecology, Acclimatization and adaptation abilities, Anthropogenic disturbances, Environmental changes


Tel: +886.920.270.950
email: vianney.denis(at)gmail(dot)com
skype: vianney.denis
Scholar profile: Vianney Denis
Positions held
2015-Current: Assistant Professor, Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University
2011-2015: Post-Doctoral Researcher, CREEG Lab, Biodiversity Research Centre, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
2009-2010: Temporary Teacher and Researcher, Department of Biology, University of Reunion, France
2006: Research Assistant, Laboratory of Marine Ecology, University of Reunion, France
2004: Research Assistant (summer), Laboratory of Benthic Ecology, CNRS, Biological Station of Roscoff, France
Our Assistant
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Yen-Li Liu
Administrative Assistant

Make our lab smooth
Our Students
PhD
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Vicky Yu Ting Lin
Benthic Ecology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography, Taiwan
Diversity and structure of mesophotic coral assemblages in Taiwan
Master to finish
Qi  Chen
Coral Physiology
NTU, Fisheries Institutes, Taiwan
Delineate coral species niches for assessing their tolerance to changes
Master (2nd yr)
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Bill Ching-Wei Wang
Soft Coral Physiology & Ecology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography, Taiwan
Adaptive strategies in soft corals
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Eric Yun-Li Hsieh
Coral Physiology, Isotopes
NTU, Institute of Oceanography, Taiwan
Plasticity in coral diet and  trophic ecology
Master (1st yr)
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Angel Tzu-Yu Lai
Coral Physiology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography & AS, Biodiversity Research Center, Taiwan

Coral fertility across borders
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Victoria Hsiao
Benthic ecology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography, Taiwan

Reef nuances and their local determinants
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Guan-Lin Liu
Coral Microbiology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography & AS, Biodiversity Research Center, Taiwan

Coral microbes across borders
Assistants and helpers
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Tony Tsai-Hsaun Hsu
Benthic Ecology
NTU, Institute of Oceanography , Taiwan

Training our AI for replacing Vicky
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Clement Chua
3D coral scanning & digital museum
Defining coral morphologies by photogrammetry
(Our ghosts - not there anymore but still haunting the lab)
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Heidi Annala
Volunteer
(2017-2018)
Diversity of coral associated Symbiodinium across habitats
Jian-Wen Chen
Master student
(2015-2017)
Ecological role of reef fish in Taiwan
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Nicolas Sturaro, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral researcher student
(2016-2017)
Coral trophic ecology