If you want to be a leading scientist in your field, it has historically paid to have a myopic vision; that's how most Nobel Prizes are won. However, if you want to save the world, your outlook must instead become more holistic.

Coral reefs are in jeopardy across the globe due to the rising seawater temperatures associated with climate change, not to mention more local insults. However, in our field, most conservation decisions are made based on the "gut feelings" of well-intentioned individuals who typically only have experience in one specific discipline, e.g., coral reef restoration. If you did your Ph.D. in marine park planning, for instance, then everywhere you look is a prospective marine protected area. I argue here that data-driven approaches will lead to superior ecosystem outcomes (such as abundance and climate resilience of the resident organisms) versus simply going with the single approach that aligns most closely with the area(s) of expertise/interest of senior personnel.

To showcase this, I leverage the power of JMP Pro to explore several large coral reef data sets, showcasing how the data can be used to quickly and robustly optimize conservation strategies within a predictive modeling framework. Saving coral reefs may never be an exact science, but as our collective ability to amass and analyze data continues to grow alongside new technological developments, we could soon possess the data-driven decision framework needed to confidently say that, in the end, we at least did the best we could with the resources we had.