The Experimental Reef Lab
Impacts of Ocean Acidification, Rising Temperatures, and Changing Conditions on Reef Ecosystems
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Who We Are
The Experimental Reef Lab at the University of Miami was designed and built as a state-of-the-art system for conducting research on coral response to changing environmental conditions to determine their resilience to stressors such as rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and nutrient flux.
Together with the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science, we use custom-built technology to control conditions with a precision up to an order of magnitude higher than other contemporary systems.
Top News
Characterizing Coral Resilience in the Anthropocene: A Reef in the “New Normal”
August 16, 2021
It can be hard to stay upbeat as a marine biologist, especially with the onslaught of existential threats like climate change facing the planet. Coral reefs are arguably the ecosystem that stands to lose the most with respect to climate change, namely because the resident organisms are highly sensitive to elevated temperatures. Furthermore, the limestone-based reef framework itself is diminishing before our eyes due to the accompanying rise in carbon dioxide levels (which decreases oceanic pH, leading to ocean acidification). That being said, there are corals out there that display resilience, continuing to thrive in habitats that would appear decidedly marginalized to even the untrained eye.
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Virtual Tour
Imagined and Built in 3D
Independent Tank Systems Custom Built with 3D Printers
3D Scanning Lab
The Experimental Reef Lab group has two high-tech CT scanners to aid research on corals. With this technology, we can track:
- How corals grow over time by looking at surface area
- Bioerosion and stress responses
- Response to change at the reef level by stitching together coral mosaics
Driving Innovative Science
With Experimental Design
AOML’s Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division has taken a visionary approach to answering our most pressing questions about coral reef health by stepping outside of science and embracing new technology to engineer in-house solutions. This lab was built with in-house materials and technology from the Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab. Visit the lab page.
We are leading stewards of a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable ocean.
We are using state of the art techniques for measuring coral growth and calcification. This video shows how we can assemble hundreds of x-ray images into a 3D model of endangered staghorn coral. This type of analysis allows us to look at skeletal density, structure, and coral growth in very high detail. These aspects of the coral will be influenced by ocean acidification and are important characteristics to consider when establishing management and restoration strategies.
Featured Publication
Marked annual coral bleaching resilience of an inshore patch reef in the Florida Keys: A nugget of hope, aberrance, or last man standing?
Annual coral bleaching events, which are predicted to occur as early as the next decade in the Florida Keys, are expected to cause catastrophic coral mortality. Despite this, there is little field data on how Caribbean coral communities respond to annual thermal stress events. At Cheeca Rocks, an inshore patch reef near Islamorada, FL, the condition of 4234 coral colonies was followed over 2 yr of subsequent bleaching in 2014 and 2015, the two hottest summers on record for the Florida Keys. In 2014, this site experienced 7.7 degree heating weeks (DHW) and as a result 38.0% of corals bleached and an additional 36.6% were pale or partially bleached. In situ temperatures in summer of 2015 were even warmer, with the site experiencing 9.5 DHW. Despite the increased thermal stress in 2015, only 12.1% of corals were bleached in 2015, which was 3.1 times less than 2014./p>
Partial mortality dropped from 17.6% of surveyed corals to 4.3% between 2014 and 2015, and total colony mortality declined from 3.4 to 1.9% between years. Total colony mortality was low over both years of coral bleaching with 94.7% of colonies surviving from 2014 to 2016. The reduction in bleaching severity and coral mortality associated with a second stronger thermal anomaly provides evidence that the response of Caribbean coral communities to annual bleaching is not strictly temperature dose dependent and that acclimatization responses may be possible even with short recovery periods. Whether the results from Cheeca Rocks represent an aberration or a true resilience potential is the subject of ongoing research.
Bleached Reef (Oct 9)
Recovered Reef (Nov 6)
Gintert, B. E., Manzello, D. P., Enochs, I. C., Kolodziej, G., Carlton, R., Gleason, A. C., & Gracias, N. (2018). Marked annual coral bleaching resilience of an inshore patch reef in the Florida Keys: A nugget of hope, aberrance, or last man standing?. Coral Reefs, 1-15.