Márcio Coelho is a Postdoctoral Researcher at CCMAR with research interests on the ecology and evolution of coral populations, species and the ecosystems they support. He completed his integrated MSc in Marine Biology at the University of Algarve (Portugal) in February 2010 and his PhD in Evolution, Ecology & Behavior at the University at Buffalo - The State University of New York (USA) in February 2018. Márcio has published 9 articles in peer-review journals, 1 review chapter for a book published by Springer and 1 technical report. He has participated in several national and international events. Supervised multiple undergraduate and graduate internships, 4 MSc thesis and is currently supervising/co-supervising one more and one PhD thesis. His 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 and how those processes interact with environmental variability. Since moving to Portugal for his postdoctoral appointments, given the high potential and richness of temperate coral ecosystems in the region, he has focused his 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 his coral genomics topics. Currently, he integrates 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. He currently leads a Task and co-coordinate the BiodivERsA RESTORESEAS project developing asexual and sexual propagation methods for coral restoration with stakeholder involvement, and is the co-PI of CORALforests, a project looking to evaluate and develop innovative coral rearing and transplantation methods that optimize key biological functions such as growth and reproduction for effective restoration actions of temperate coral gardens. He is also the co-founder of PLANTACORAL, an ocean literacy and environmental stewardship initiative for the restoration of NE Atlantic coral gardens that engages fishermen in research.