Denise Perez

Dr. Denise Perez is a Spatial Analyst with the Science Team of The Nature Conservancy's Caribbean Division. She specializes in geographic information systems and remote sensing tools to support vital ocean and coastal conservation initiatives throughout the Caribbean region. Her work in geospatial analysis is informed by her deep interest and expertise in coral reef and seagrass ecology.

Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy in 2022, Denise worked in the Northern Mariana Islands on multiple coral reef restoration and monitoring projects, as well as crown-of-thorns outbreak response efforts. She completed her doctorate at the University of Queensland's Remote Sensing Research Centre, where her research focused on developing methodology to map coral reef and seagrass productivity and calcification using multi-spectral imagery. Prior to working in the Pacific, Denise completed her B.Sc. in biology at Florida Institute of Technology and her M.Sc. in marine biology at Nova Southeastern University.

Perez, D. I. (2020). Mapping coral reef primary production and calcification from a light-use efficiency model with in-situ and remotely sensed data.

Perez, D. I., Phinn, S. R., Roelfsema, C. M., Shaw, E., Johnston, L., & Iguel, J. (2018). Primary production and calcification rates of algae-dominated reef flat and seagrass communities. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 123, 2362–2375.

Heron, S. F., Johnston, L., Liu, G., Geiger, E. F., Maynard, J. A., de La Cour, J. L., Johnson, S., Okano, R., Benavente, D., Burgess, T. F. R., Iguel, J., Perez, D. I., Skirving, W. J., Strong, A. E., Tirak, K., & Eakin, C. M. (2016). Validation of reef-scale thermal stress satellite products for coral bleaching monitoring. Remote Sensing, 8(59), 1–16.

Kahng, S., Hochberg, E., Apprill, A., Wagner, D., Luck, D., Perez, D., & Bidigare, R. (2012). Efficient light harvesting in deep-water zooxanthellate corals. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 455, 65–77.