My main research lines focus on the ecology and evolution of coral populations, species and the ecosystems they support. My initial research line focused on the ecology of tropical octocorals, specifically on the importance of biological processes such as reproduction and larval ecology on dispersal and population connectivity. Since moving to Portugal, given the high potential and richness of temperate coral ecosystems in the Algarve, I have focused my interests on establishing two inter-linked novel research lines: 1) in genomics of coral evolution and adaptation; and 2) in applied research for conservation of temperate corals, particularly in the areas of biodiversity assessment, habitat restoration and conservation genomics, which links to my coral genomics topics. Currently, I integrate different approaches to address relevant questions in these fields with the aim of developing dynamic decision- support tools for marine conservation and restoration. These include field ecology, eDNA metabarcoding, population genomics, phylogenomics and transcriptomics.