Alicia Reigel

Dr. Alicia Reigel is an interdisciplinary biologist who studies the intricate relationships between marine hosts and their microbial symbionts. Her research explores how anthropogenic stressors impact these partnerships and their connections to surrounding ecosystems. She has investigated these questions across diverse aquatic environments—from salt marshes to tropical coral reefs—and in a variety of organisms including sponges, corals, oysters, barnacles, and fish.

Before joining W&L in Fall 2023, Dr. Reigel was an NSF-funded postdoctoral researcher at Appalachian State University, where she studied the role of sponge holobionts in reef nutrient cycling. She earned her Ph.D. in Biology from Louisiana State University, where her dissertation examined how environmental factors and host genetics shape microbial symbiont communities and how stress affects both microbiome composition and function.

At W&L, Dr. Reigel teaches courses in microbiology, symbioses, marine biology, and environmental studies. She is passionate about mentoring undergraduate researchers and helping students discover the hidden world of marine microbes.

For more information about Dr. Reigel’s research and teaching, visit her website.

Selected Publications

• Durham, B. P., Johnson, W. M., Bannon, C. C., Bertrand, E. M., Ingalls, A. E., ... & Reigel, A. M. (2025). An ecological framework for microbial metabolites in the ocean ecosystem. Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 10(5), 636-659.
  
  
• Reigel, A. M., Easson, C. G., Apprill, A., Freeman, C. J., Bartley, M. M., & Fiore, C. L. (2024). Sponge-derived matter is assimilated by coral holobionts. Communications Biology, 7(1), 146.
  
  
• Reigel, A. M., Easson, C. G., Fiore, C. L., & Apprill, A. (2024). Sponge exhalent metabolites influence coral reef picoplankton dynamics. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 31394.
  
  
• Reigel, A. M., & Hellberg, M. E. (2023). Microbiome environmental shifts differ between two co-occurring octocoral hosts. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 720, 59-83.
  
  
• Reigel, A. M., Paz-García, D. A., & Hellberg, M. E. (2021). Microbiome of a reef-building coral displays signs of acclimation to a stressful shallow hydrothermal vent habitat. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 652633.