Israel Muñiz Castillo is a marine biologist. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the LEEAC Lab at CINVESTAV Merida Unit and an active collaborator of the Healthy Reefs Initiative. His training is as a marine ecologist focused on the analysis of spatial and temporal changes in tropical marine ecosystems. He has experience in ecological data analysis, geographic information systems, field methods applied to benthic groups in coral reefs, and statistical programming tools such as R. He is currently developing a doctoral thesis about the ecological vulnerability of the Mesoamerican coral reefs. His major interests are the identification of drivers of change, the development of early warning systems for ecological risks, the ecological restoration and conservation of coral reefs.