Leon’s research focuses on understanding how individual organismal physiology drives the geographic distribution of marine species, particularly as anthropogenic forces alter reef habitats. As ocean conditions change, predictive tools for habitat suitability are increasingly needed to develop adaptive resource management plans. This research aims to describe the relationships and limits of physiological performance under different environmental conditions through manipulative experiments in Hawaiian marine species. Such data can be incorporated into species distribution models as a mechanistic link between species occurrence and environmental change to improve forecasts of potential habitat shifts under different environmental scenarios.