Marcelina is a Ph.D. candidate in marine science at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on coral reef research. Her work examines how microbial communities influence coral resilience to extreme marine heatwaves. Using the natural environment of Heron Island on the southern Great Barrier Reef, she investigates how coral-associated microbes respond to environmental stress and whether these shifts contribute to long-term adaptation. By tracking microbial dynamics across multiple time points, she explores the potential for microbiome environmental memory to enhance coral health. With the support of the Graduate Marine Conservation Scholarship, Marcelina will integrate gene-toecosystem approaches to uncover microbial mechanisms that promote reef resilience—critical for marine ecosystem preservation in a changing climate.