Researcher ORCID Identifier
0009-0003-7523-6624
Graduation Year
2026
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Biology
Second Department
Art
Reader 1
Sarah Gilman
Reader 2
Aly Ogasian
Rights Information
2026 Emma G Garman
Abstract
This thesis investigates the relationship between humans and marine ecosystems through two complementary lenses: scientific research and artistic practice. The biology chapter proposes a five-year coral reef monitoring study across four Queensland, Australia islands — two heavily visited and inhabited (Fitzroy and Green Islands) and two minimally visited and uninhabited (High and Woody Islands) — to assess whether human activity correlates with bleaching severity over time. Grounded in preliminary survey data from Green Island in 2024, which revealed approximately 54% of coral bleached or dead, the study hypothesizes that reefs adjacent to inhabited islands will exhibit greater bleaching severity, consistent with the compounding stressor model. Findings would contribute to the ongoing debate over the relative influence of local anthropogenic pressures versus global climate drivers on coral health.
The art chapter presents three distinct bodies of work that use tide pools and marine ecosystems as models of reciprocity. Entangles (2025, oil on canvas) depicts a human figure that appears only as a reflection embedded in a tidepool. At the Tide's Edge (2026, watercolor) uplifts the symbiotic interactions of marine life through a collection of tidepool moments. Field Notes (2026, watercolor), made directly in the ocean and painted with seawater, brings us into the tidepools themselves. Grounded in Anna Tsing et al.'s theoretical framework of multispecies entanglement and Robin Wall Kimmerer's philosophy of ecological reciprocity, this work invites viewers towards a relationship with the natural world founded on symbiosis and reciprocity.
Together, the two chapters argue that human activity is deeply entangled with marine ecosystems— and that this interaction demands both rigorous study and a reimagining of how we understand our place in the natural world.
Recommended Citation
Garman, Emma Gray, "Corals, Creation, and Conservation: Evaluating Human-Marine Relations Through Coral Reef Biology and Artistic Practice" (2026). Scripps Senior Theses. 2725.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2725
