Tag Archives: Coral Reef

Webinar of the Week: Reef Restoration through Coral Gardening in the Caribbean

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This week’s webinar is from Rosenstiel School student Christina Vilmar. Christina presented “Reef Restoration through Coral Gardening in the Caribbean,” in Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s Conservation Biology class.

Recently, coral gardening has been gaining attention as an effective tool for reef restoration to enhance natural coral recovery and rehabilitate degraded reefs. Coral gardening is the process of collecting coral biomass (generally by breaking off fragments), growing fragments in a nursery, and outplanting the reared corals on reefs. One study showed 1.4-1.8 times more coral produced from coral gardening than undisturbed control colonies and demonstrated that collection of fragments did not significantly damage the donor.

Watch Christina’s presentation on Acropora, a Caribbean coral that serves as a major reef builder providing essential habitats. Since the 1980′s, Acropora has experienced a 80-90% decline.

- Andrew DeChellis
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RSMAS Science Highlights of 2011

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RSMAS was a busy place for cutting-edge science this year. Here’s a look back at the top research studies that made headlines in 2011 and the latest science and education from Virginia Key and beyond.

Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s study of one hammerhead shark’s lone journey to New Jersey made headlines in early 2011 as did Dr. Lisa Beal’s ongoing research on the Agulhas Current and its link to global change change.

Coral reefs made news this year, including from a newly published study by Dr. Diego Lirman that showed Florida’s reefs cannot endure a ‘cold snap’ and from a study of Papua New Guinea reefs by Dr. Chris Langdon that suggests ocean acidification may reduce reef diversity.

 

Before the year closed, Dr. Shimon Wdowinski presented a new study at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco that showed tropical cyclones could trigger earthquakes.

RSMAS scientists and student were part of many new and ongoing research expeditions. Researchers and students from RSMAS joined an international team on a six-month field campaign in the Indian Ocean, known as DYNAMO. They are studying how tropical weather brews over the region and moves eastward along the equator, with reverberating effects around the entire globe. Follow the ongoing work from the scientists.

Meanwhile, it was a busy end of the year for Lisa Beal and her research team who embarked on a month-long expedition to the waters off of South Africa to understand how one of the world’s strongest ocean currents – the Agulhas Current – is both affected by climate change and also has an effect on climate change.

On the academic side of RSMAS life, the Masters of Professional Science program was in full swing this year and the newly acquired Broad Key Research Station welcomed its first cohort of students to study the coral reef ecosystems of the Florida Keys. Finally, joint degrees in law and marine affairs was launched at UM to provide students with a unique educational opportunity to tackle environmental issues.

As 2011 comes to a close, RSMAS faculty, researchers and students are looking forward to another busy and exciting year in 2012 filled with new scientific discoveries and educational opportunities.

Tell us about your research plans for 2012.

Take a Dive with DAMSL

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When was the last time you got up close and personal with a manta ray or a porcelain anenome crab in the Seychelles or set your sight on a spiny flower coral in Roatan?

It’s now possible to travel to distant underwater worlds and immerse yourself in a tropical ocean landscape to explore its diverse sealife without leaving your computer. RSMAS is home to the only digital atlas of marine species, a collection of over 5,000 stunning underwater photos designed to educate and inspire greater understanding of the rich underwater ecosystems that exist around the world.

The Digital Atlas of Marine Species and Locations (DAMSL) Project is a collaboration between award-winning photographer Myron Wang and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

DAMSL is now making its way on to Google Earth in a series of photos slideshows and fishy tales, as part of Mission Blue’s Explore the Ocean project. So, the next time you are exploring the ocean in Google Earth take a dive with DAMSL.

 

– Annie Reisewitz

Follow Annie on Twitter @annelore

Coral Gardeners at RSMAS

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Around the world, coral reefs have drastically declined due to coastal development, increased water temperatures and storm frequency, global climate change, disease, pollution, and overfishing. In particular, populations of the threatened staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) have declined by up to 95% in the Caribbean. To help combat the continuing decline of staghorn coral and assist in their recovery, the Benthic Ecology Lab at the Rosenstiel School is growing corals at an in-water coral nursery to use in restoration activities. The coral nursery is located just east of Boca Chita Key within Biscayne National Park, about a 45-minute boat ride south from the RSMAS dock.

Staghorn coral reproduces naturally through the process of fragmentation, so we collect small pieces of coral called fragments from wild colonies and place them in a coral nursery. The nursery is constructed of cinderblock platforms with 10 pedestals where coral fragments are secured with underwater epoxy. Once secured in the nursery, staghorn fragments can grow up to 15 cm per year. When the fragments have grown to about 30 cm, they can be fragmented again to create more fragments without needing to collect more from wild colonies.

Currently, there are 542 small staghorn coral colonies at the RSMAS coral nursery totaling over 250 meters of healthy coral tissue. The coral nursery attracts many fish and invertebrate species such as snapper, grunts, urchins, lobster, and squid. SCUBA divers regularly clean the nursery with wire brushes to prevent algae and other encrusting organisms like sponges from overgrowing the corals. This process, known as “coral gardening” produces a sustainable, healthy stock of corals which can be transplanted to local coral reefs to help replenish declining staghorn populations. Corals from the RSMAS coral nursery are planned to be outplanted in Spring 2012.

-Stephanie A. Schopmeyer
Senior Research Associate

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Can Corals Adapt to a Warming World?

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In the Coral Reef Conservation Research Lab at RSMAS we are conducting experiments on coral bleaching and recovery. Coral bleaching is the breakdown of the relationship between corals and the symbiotic algae that live inside their tissues and provide them with energy through photosynthesis. As the corals lose the algae they also lose their color, hence the term, ‘bleaching.’

In our study, over 600 small coral ‘cores’ were drilled out of larger coral colonies and then experimentally ‘bleached’ by exposure to seawater at 32°C. The different coral cores were bleached to different levels of severity to simulate mild and severe bleaching events in nature.

The corals were then allowed to recover at two different cooler temperatures (24°C and 29°C) for several months, where they regained their algae and their color. As corals recovered, the photosynthetic performance and density of their symbiotic algae was monitored in order to see how both bleaching severity and recovery temperature might affect the speed of recovery, and the types of symbiotic algae they recover with. Some of the corals recovered after the first bleaching experiment with different kinds of symbiotic algae known to be more tolerant to high heat. Now they are being exposed to high heat again to observe how past bleaching history and changes in symbiont communities affect bleaching sensitivity.

– Ross Cunning, RSMAS graduate student

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