Colette Feehan

Colette Feehan is an Associate Professor of Biology at Montclair State University, studying how disease outbreaks and climate change alter coastal marine ecosystems. Her research integrates marine ecology, disease dynamics, and climate science to understand ecosystem resilience.

Her research investigates how pathogen-driven disturbances transform kelp forests and coral reefs. Key projects examine sea urchin mass mortality events, kelp carbon sequestration under warming, and cyclone impacts on coastal ecosystems. She collaborates with resource managers on restoration strategies.

Feehan's publications reveal how hurricane activity facilitates disease transmission in sea urchins and accelerates kelp decomposition in warming oceans. Recent work quantifies tropical cyclone damage to North Atlantic ecosystems and develops seaweed co-location strategies for renewable energy sites.

Her Florida Keys research informs Diadema antillarum restoration through larval influx modeling. Field experiments test assisted migration techniques for climate-threatened kelp species.

Feehan directs a marine ecology lab training students in experimental and observational methods. She contributes to UN Environment Programme reports on sustainable aquaculture and holds grants from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.