Women & Allies in Climate: Neha Misra
Neha Misra नेहा मिश्रा is sharing solar and story power with people around the world.
Meet Sonia Rowley
Sonia Rowley wants deep-sea coral science to catch up with what she's finding.
By Andi Cross, Edges of Earth
A few miles off the coast of Oʻahu, the seafloor falls away faster than you’d realize. Past the reef shelf that draws snorkelers into the warm shallows of Waikiki, the water cools, darkens, and opens into a layered world where sunlight begins to fade. Somewhere between 30 and 180 meters down, in a stretch of ocean scientists call the Mesophotic zone, entire reef systems exist that almost no one has ever seen. Sea fans the size of dining tables reside along rock walls. Currents braid through them in slow, deliberate paths. Cold water carries fewer divers and fewer instruments, and very few answers.
For most of marine biology's modern history, coral science has stopped at roughly the limit of recreational scuba, which is about 30-40 meters. Below that, the diving becomes too complicated. The equipment too specialized, and the data too expensive to collect. As a result, the deeper reaches of coral habitat have been studied so lightly that they remain practically unmapped. Which is striking when you consider how much coral is actually there. Gorgonians alone, the soft, branching corals commonly called sea fans, make up roughly 64 percent of all corals on Earth. About 75 percent of those species are found 50 meters or deeper.
Specimens
Gorgonian specimens in Sonia Rowley's lab, many collected from depths beyond 140 meters.
© Edges of Earth
Specimens
Drawers of catalogued gorgonian specimens in the University of Hawaiʻi lab.
© Edges of Earth
Specimens
Gorgonian specimens in Sonia Rowley's lab, many collected from depths beyond 140 meters.
© Edges of Earth
Specimens
Drawers of catalogued gorgonian specimens in the University of Hawaiʻi lab.
© Edges of Earth
Sonia Rowley
Sonia Rowley at the University of Hawaiʻi
©
Edges of Earth
"There are so many unexplored places I'm eager to see within my lifetime."
Women & Allies in Climate Network Member
Wakatobi sits in Southeast Sulawesi province, a tangle of roughly 150 islands inside the Coral Triangle, which is one of the most biodiverse marine regions on the planet. Rowley has spent years there documenting the species composition of deeper reefs, in part because the Coral Triangle's biodiversity gradient remains one of the central puzzles of reef biology. That gradient is essentially the way certain corals disperse themselves: abundant in some locations while sparse in others. The patterns here hint at an untold evolutionary story playing out below the shallows, shaped by the unique pressures of this environment (light, temperature, oxygen saturation, etc.)
Pohnpei, several thousand kilometers further east, has been another proving ground for her. The reefs there drop quickly into mesophotic depths. But what makes all of this significant now more than ever, is climate. Shallow coral reefs are in well-documented decline. Marine heatwaves, bleaching events, ocean acidification, and freshwater runoff are pushing many of the world's best-studied reef systems toward collapse.
The deeper reefs of the Twilight Zone sit beneath those temperature spikes, in cooler and more stable water. For more than a decade, scientists have asked whether they might act as a kind of refuge, a place where shallow species can persist, recolonize, or evolve as the surface becomes inhospitable. The hypothesis is plausible. It's also almost entirely untested at scale, because there are very few people who can get down there to test it.
Support Women & Allies in Climate.
Our vision is to unite and support all those driving equitable solutions to climate change.
That gap has consequences for climate science directly. Gorgonians and their relatives play roles in the carbon cycle, in larval transport, and in supporting the fisheries that coastal communities depend on. If a meaningful share of reef function is being preserved in the Mesophotic Zone, that has implications for which protections are most likely to hold up over the coming decades, and where conservation budgets ought to be aimed. If those reefs are failing too, just out of sight, then that matters even more urgently. Either way, the science has to catch up, and that is exactly what Rowley is trying to make possible.
Today, Rowley is planning her next expeditions to the eastern hemisphere, testing biodegradable dyes on invasive species to track how currents move material through deep reef systems. For Rowley, the Twilight Zone is too large for any one career, and that is the part that keeps her going. "There are so many unexplored places I'm eager to see within my lifetime," she says.
But what's motivating her most is the question: what will it take to fund this work the way it actually has to be done? Longer, deeper dives, across more places globally than any single institution can support. Whether the answer turns out to be philanthropy or something built outside the usual grant system, what she needs is the same. More time in places most won’t venture.
About the Author
Edges of Earth is a global expedition and storytelling platform focused on ocean conservation, sustainable exploration, and environmental progress. Through longform content creation, field reporting, and scientific collaboration, the project documents people and places working toward positive environmental change around the world. In partnership with Women & Allies in Climate, Andi Cross of Edges of Earth supports storytelling and visibility efforts that elevate women leaders operating on the front lines of climate and conservation work.
More Women & Allies in Climate Stories
Women leaders are fighting to address the impacts of climate change in every sector—as scientists, philanthropists, legislators, tribal leaders and CEOs—and leading major victories for our planet.
