Casey Benkwitt

Dr Casey Benkwitt

The Nature Conservancy

Casey was a Research Fellow at Lancaster Environment Centre, and has worked with the REEFS team from 2018 to 2025. Her work aimed to enhance both our basic understanding and conservation of ecological processes, with a focus on the behavioural, population, and community ecology of coral-reef fishes. Casey now works as an Ocean Recovery Scientist with The Nature Conservancy, California Oceans Program. She is focusing on the science and recovery of the endangered sunflower sea stars along the CA/Pacific coast. Casey continues to remain involved with the team as an Honorary Researcher.

Research Interests

Casey’s core research focused on how cross-ecosystem nutrient flows affect coral reefs. Specifically, she tested how nutrient subsidies from seabirds nesting on islands affect coral-reef ecology and resilience, including fish behaviour, demography, food web structure, and diversity; algal dynamics and productivity; and coral resistance and recovery following marine heat waves. She also examined the potential benefits of various island restoration interventions, including removing invasive rats and restoring native vegetation, on integrated land-sea ecosystems.

Selected Publications

Benkwitt CE, Bistolas KSI, DeVore JL, Ducatez S, Prado Gómez J, Wright R, Zubia M, Harnay P, Beguet T, Wedding LM, Burkepile DE, Murphy F, Graham NAJ, Vega Thurber R, Epstein HE (2025) Re-connecting ecosystems: Integrating coral reefs into monitoring of island restoration. Ecological Indicators 170: 113042
Benkwitt CE, D’Angelo C, Dunn RE, Gunn RL, Healing S, Marones ML, Wiedenmann J, Wilson SK, Graham NAJ (2023) Seabirds boost coral reef resilience. Science Advances 9: eadj0390
Benkwitt CE, Carr P, Wilson SK, Graham NAJ (2022) Seabird diversity and biomass enhance cross-ecosystem nutrient subsidies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289: 20220195.
Benkwitt CE, Gunn RL, LeCorre M, Carr P, Graham NAJ (2021) Rat eradication restores nutrient subsidies from seabirds across terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Current Biology 31: 2704-2711.
Benkwitt CE, Taylor BM, Meekan MG, Graham NAJ (2021) Natural nutrient subsidies alter demographic rates in a functionally important coral-reef fish. Scientific Reports 11: 12575.
Benkwitt CE, Wilson SK, Graham NAJ (2020) Biodiversity increases ecosystem functions despite multiple stressors on coral reefs. Nature Ecology and Evolution 4: 919-926.
Benkwitt CE, Wilson SK, Graham NAJ (2019) Seabird nutrient subsidies alter patterns of algal abundance and fish biomass on coral reefs following a bleaching event. Global Change Biology 25: 2619-2632.