Bioeroders and calcifying organisms can have significant impacts on coral reefs, especially under changing climate conditions. Using incubation chambers designed and built in AOML’s Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab, scientists are able to directly measure short-term calcification/dissolution rates of various calcifying and bioeroding organisms. Alkalinity of seawater changes based on the amount of calcification/ dissolution that occurs throughout an incubation period. This means that by analyzing the seawater chemistry at the start and end of an incubation, they use the change in total alkalinity to measure calcification/dissolution that occurred during that period. In addition, the upper chamber can be swapped with a dark-chamber to further quantify day vs night calcification/dissolution rates. These chambers have been successfully used with multiple reef organisms, including coral (Orbicella faveolata), endolithic algae substrate, and bioeroding sponges (Cliona delitrix and Pione lampa).

A sub-surface automated dual water sampler (SAS) for sampling water and analyzing the changes in carbonate chemistry on coral reefs at finer temporal and spatial scales. To lean more about this project, visit its page here.

Subsurface Automated Water Samplers allow scientists to detect nuanced variations on the reef at certain times to better understand the ecosystem. Keep reading to visit the blog post or build your own with instructions below.

Florida’s coral reefs are currently experiencing a multi-year mortality of corals. This die-off is disease related and has affected 21 species of corals, including both endangered species and primary reef-building corals. These diseases cause tissue losses that affect a whole colony of coral. This phenomenon was first observed in 2014 on Virginia Key, and has since moved to the Lower Florida Keys. Given the rapid spread and widespread mortality, it is imperative to find solutions and minimize the damage to our coral reefs.

In May 2018, an experiment with the University of Miami applied UVC light to diseased coral and subsequently monitored disease progression. Ten parent colonies from two species (four Pseudodiploria strigosa, six Colpophyllia natans) were collected from three sites at Cheeca Rocks. Corals were transported back to the Experimental Reef Lab where they were divided into fragments with a thin margin of diseased tissue at one end. A custom UVC dosing device was engineered and built at the AOML Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab that delivered a measured dosage of 7100 microwatts cm-2 to submerged coral colonies.

Bioeroders and calcifying organisms can have significant impacts on coral reefs, especially under changing climate conditions. Using incubation chambers designed and built in AOML’s Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab, scientists are able to directly measure short-term calcification/dissolution rates of various calcifying and bioeroding organisms. Alkalinity of seawater changes based on the amount of calcification/ dissolution that occurs throughout an incubation period. This means that by analyzing the seawater chemistry at the start and end of an incubation, the change in total alkalinity can be used to measure calcification/dissolution that occurred during that period. In addition, the upper chamber can be swapped with a dark-chamber to further quantify day versus night calcification/dissolution rates. These chambers have been successfully used with multiple reef organisms, including coral (Orbicella faveolata), endolithic algae substrate, and bioeroding sponges (Cliona delitrix and Pione lampa). View Image

Florida’s coral reefs are currently experiencing a multi-year mortality of corals due to a new disease called Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). This die-off has affected 21 species of scleractinian corals, including both endangered species and primary reef-building corals. This disease causes tissue losses that can rapidly spread across a whole coral colony. This phenomenon was first observed in 2014 on Virginia Key, and has since moved to the Lower Florida Keys and the greater Caribbean. Given the rapid spread and widespread mortality, it is imperative to find solutions and minimize the damage to our coral reefs.

Scientists conducting research in ERL have developed a system designed for housing coral disease transmission experiments. Precise temperature control is achieved by regulating the water around the chambers, and a seawater manifold system directs fresh seawater into every unit. Each chamber is completely independent of the others, and as a result this system enables a degree of replication which is not often seen in coral disease experiments. View Image

CAD Design of the Coral Rapid Assessment of Net Growth (CRANG) system for rapid evaluation of coral genotype performance. The system includes real-time measurement of pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and automates water sampling for carbonate chemistry analysis. View Image

To investigate applied methods for coral restoration, Florida genotypes of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) were collected from the University of Miami Rescue a Reef in situ coral nursery and brought back to ERL to apply a long-term variable temperature treatment using the automated and independently-controlled tank system. After the three-month temperature treatment, the coral fragments were run through a 32 ºC heat-stress assay in order to assess the efficacy of the prior variable temperature treatment in enhancing their thermal resilience. Researchers found that this prior treatment did indeed enhance their thermal tolerance, allowing corals to persist significantly longer in the heat-stress assay than their control counterparts. Additionally, the corals that had been temperature-treated were more likely to succumb to bleaching, while untreated corals more rapidly succumbed to rapid tissue loss and necrosis. The results of this experiment indicate that thermal stress-hardening is effective for staghorn corals, however more experimentation is necessary to understand how long this thermal resilience is retained. View Image of fragments of staghorn coral introduced to the 32 ºC heat-stress assay after their three-month variable temperature treatment to observe if prior treatment enhanced their thermal tolerance. View Image of average temperature measurements taken at 15-minute intervals over the three month variable temperature regime, demonstrating the capabilities of the automated temperature monitoring system over time. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.