Corals monitored in NSU’s lab
Researchers live, breathe, and literally breed corals on Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Campus in Dania Beach. In its labs and nurseries, NSU has mastered a way to mimic every stage of a coral’s development – from sperm and egg development to corals mature enough to be planted on Florida’s Coral Reef.
Recreating these life stages is no simple task, but coral propagation is crucial to survival of the world’s reefs. Their impact is extensive: protecting coastlines from storms and erosion, providing jobs, creating recreational and tourism opportunities, and providing a source of food and new medicines. Florida’s Coral Reef is the only reef system in the continental United States, spanning almost 350 miles, from south of the Dry Tortugas northward to the St. Lucie Inlet.
Through support and funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, NSU recently offered a workshop on coral propagation training, led by NSU coral research professors Joanna Figueiredo, Abby Renegar, and David Gilliam. The session attracted institutions interested in learning from NSU’s coral researchers and using that knowledge to join in the effort to scale up coral breeding and out-planting. The workshop was just one example of the many ways that NSU connects with the community in its conservation efforts.
“We were one of the first groups doing this type of propagation in South Florida,” said NSU Professor Joana Figueiredo, the executive director of the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). “This is our sixth year. We have expertise in all the stages of the restoration pipeline. Not only do we do the sexual propagation, we work with at least five species of coral every year.”
Among the participants at the workshop were The Reef Institute, Coral Restoration Foundation, Reef Renewal USA, the Florida Aquarium, I.CARE (Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education), Keys Marine Laboratory, Mote Marine Lab-Coral Gene Bank (Sarasota), SeaWorld, Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium-Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration (Florida Keys), University of Miami, and Florida International University. Additionally, through its partnerships with U.S. territories, NCRI provided funding for a coral restoration technician from the University of the Virgin Islands.
“We have accumulated a lot of experience that other institutions don’t have yet,” Figueiredo said. “We hope to pass the information that we have learned throughout the years to others so that they don’t have to start from scratch. They can start from where we are, and we will then progress together.”
The coral workshop covered such topics as coral feeding, coral fertilization, larval care, water chemistry, aquarium system design, and biosecurity.
One of the highlights of the week was the rare opportunity for workshop participants to witness firsthand the actual spawning – or the release of eggs – by some of the corals in Professor Figueiredo’s lab. In highly regulated conditions that imitate the seasonal and temperature cycles that corals experience on the ocean floor, several brain corals – which are among to larger reef-building corals – spawned under many watchful eyes . Spawning only happens once a year and witnessing the event was a treat for the marine enthusiasts.
“With spawning, the best way I can describe it to my friends and family is just magical,” said Kate Etter, a researcher in attendance from the University of Miami. “It’s such a special experience. I’m always so grateful to be able to be a part of it.”
With continuing threats to Florida’s coral reef system – such as ocean warming and acidification, pollution, and habitat destruction – it will take a growing unified effort to ensure the livelihood of the coral reef’s important ecosystem, Figueiredo says.
“Restoration of Florida’s Coral Reef will only happen if we can produce a very large amount of corals, and that is only possible if multiple institutions are doing it,” she said.
