Memorials & Tributes
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Protect Our Reefs Grants Awarded in 2014 (from 2013 funding)
(alphabetical by project title):
Project: Can corals survive a 1-2 punch? Combined impacts of ocean acidification and macroalgae on coral health and recruitment
Organization & Principal Investigator: Smithsonian Marine Station, Dr. Jennifer Sneed
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This series of experiments will explore how corals already stressed by nuisance algae will fare amid ocean acidification predicted within this century. While corals need certain kinds of microscopic algae in their tissues to survive, certain macroalgae are overgrowing many reefs and competing with corals. In addition, the harmful chemistry change known as ocean acidification, due to increasing manmade carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, may weaken coral skeletons and cause other changes in their health and physiology. This study will assess the impacts of these threats separately and together on adult corals from the Florida Keys and coral larvae that are attempting to settle and begin growing. The study will also look for changes to the beneficial bacteria that protect and support corals.
Project: Changes in Physiology and Functionality of Two Western Atlantic Coral Species Due to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification
Organization & Principal Investigator: Mote Marine Laboratory, Dr. Emily Hall
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This project will investigate how the threats of climate change and ocean acidification may affect corals and the symbiotic algae, bacteria and other microscopic life forms associated with them. By looking for changes in each part of the coral, in each microscopic life form and in the interplay among them, the study will offer a unique, holistic look at the potential impacts of two of the greatest challenges facing reefs.
Project: Coral Reef Youth Education Program
Organization & Principal Investigator: Reef Relief, Dr. Millard McCleary
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: Reef Relief will lead the Discover Coral Reefs School Program and Coral Camp for Kids to help children develop a lasting connection to the marine world and become active environmental stewards now and as adults.
Project: Disruption of the Black Band Disease
Organization & Principal Investigator: Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Max Teplitski
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This project, entering its second year, seeks methods to fight black band disease — a major threat to corals. Project scientists are studying beneficial bacteria called Halomonas to see if they can help combat the disease. These “friendly” bacteria have been found on corals lacking signs of black band disease, and the research team hopes to learn how they might disrupt the disease and how their work is affected by ocean acidification — a harmful ocean chemistry change due to increased manmade carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Project: “Dive In” Lecture Series
Organization & Principal Investigator: Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dr. Richard Dodge
Grant amount: $ 5,680
Grant Summary: This grant will support the coral reef-focused, educational lecture series “Dive In,” in 2015. The series brings coral reef science, conservation and education to southeastern Florida and includes three lectures from distinguished scientists.
Project: Does Elevated pCO2 Interface with Other Abiotic Factors [Temperature, Light] to Modify the Recovery Trajectories of Algal Symbiont Communities in Bleached Corals From the Florida Keys?
Organization & Principal Investigator: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Dr. Andrew Baker
Grant Amount: $24,650
Grant Summary: Project scientists will investigate how corals recover from heat-driven bleaching under varied levels of light, heat and ocean acidification. In particular, they will study how a heat-tolerant group of algae found within corals can influence their recovery.
Project: Effects of Elevated pCO2 and Temperature on Larval Development and Survivorship of the Commercially Important Reef Tract Organism, The Florida Stone Crab
Organization & Principal Investigator: Florida Institute of Technology, Dr. Philip Gravinese
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This project will investigate how larval stone crabs will be affected by climate change and ocean acidification — two major threats driven by increases of manmade carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Project scientists will study newly hatched stone crab larvae in water adjusted to the temperature and acidity levels projected within this century by the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Results will be used in mathematical modeling to better assess potential impacts to stone crab populations in Florida, where the stone crab commercial fishery has an economic impact of $25 million per year.
Project: Exploration of Florida Blue Holes: Investigation of Chemical and Biological Characteristics of Potential in situ Ocean Acidification Testing Laboratory
Organization & Principal Investigator: Mote Marine Laboratory, Dr. Emily Hall
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: In this project, Mote scientists and collaborators plan to investigate offshore limestone sinkholes called blue holes as new sites for studying ocean acidification. Research on ocean acidification is advancing quickly in marine laboratories, but research in the sea is also critical. Could Florida’s offshore blue holes be a natural laboratory?
Project: Identification of Thermally Resilient Coral Genotypes for Use in Adaptive Breeding Programs
Organization & Principal Investigator: University of North Florida, Dr. Cliff Ross
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This study will seek new ways to identify heat-tolerant corals quickly, and it will investigate how much heat tolerance depends on inherited genes — vital knowledge for resource managers seeking to bolster reefs against the stress of climate change.
Project: Identifying Resilient Acropora Cervicornis (Staghorn Coral) Genotypes for Coral Reef Restoration
Organization & Principal Investigator: Mote Marine Laboratory, Dr. Erinn Muller
Grant amount: $25,000
Grant Summary: Mote scientists plan to test which genetic varieties of staghorn coral from our in-water coral nursery will be best able to withstand acidification using Mote’s innovative ocean acidification testing system on Summerland Key.
Project: New Techniques for the Settlement and Survival of New Hard Coral Recruits in Land Nurseries for the Hastening of Coral Reef Restoration
Organization & Principal Investigator: Mote Marine Laboratory, Chris Page
Grant amount: $10,000
Grant Summary: This project will advance techniques for growing large numbers of young coral colonies to restore Florida’s depleted reefs. Project scientists hope to improve the survival rates of young corals grown from sperm and eggs sampled at spawning events in the wild. In Mote’s land-based nursery, scientists test different substrates (growing surface) and develop anti-fouling protocols to see if they can improve larval survival and settlement, thereby creating a new source of corals that can be used to boost Florida’s reefs.
Project: Quantifying the Effects of Ocean Acidification on Microcalcification among Coral Life History Stages
Organization & Principal Investigator: NOVA Southeastern University, Dr. Nicole Fogarty
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This project will investigate how well corals can form their hard skeletons amid ocean acidification. Ocean acidification threatens to weaken or dissolve the calcium carbonate skeletons of corals, but science has yet to fully reveal how well corals can resist or adapt to this process and what microscopic changes their skeletons may undergo during each stage of life in acidic waters.
Project: Synergistic Effects of Eutrophication and Elevated Sea Surface Temperatures in the Early Life Stages of Two Caribbean Reef Corals
Organization & Principal Investigator: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Dr. Andrew Baker
Grant Amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: This project will investigate how warming water temperatures and nutrient pollution together affect two species of Caribbean corals during an early stage of life. Researchers will investigate how nutrient pollution affects the amount of symbiotic algae in young mountainous star coral and mustard hill coral, and they will examine how those changes relate to the corals’ heat tolerance. Results may help resource managers support healthy coral reefs by better understanding and addressing the effects of climate change and water quality.
Project: Why Does Ocean Acidification Reduce the Virulence of Black Band Disease: Insights from the Microbiome
Organization & Principal Investigator: Mote Marine Laboratory, Dr. Erinn Muller
Grant amount: $12,000
Grant Summary: This project aims to reveal how black band disease, could be affected by climate change and ocean acidification — two global changes expected due to increasing manmade carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Previous Mote studies found that more acidic water slowed the progress of black band disease on mountainous star coral, great star coral and symmetrical brain coral in the lab, but interestingly, the microbes associated with this disease grew faster under higher acidity and temperature in a nutrient broth without coral.
Project: Within-Patch Diversity and Growth of the Threatened Staghorn Coral Acropora Cervicornis in Florida
Organization & Principal Investigator: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Dr. Diego Lirman
Grant amount: $9,500
Grant Summary: Scientists will study thickets of threatened staghorn coral to determine their genetics, growth and other traits to support the restoration of these dense clusters. The study will focus on two wild thickets in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Findings will help coral restoration programs select promising sites for outplanting staghorn corals in the wild and structure restored thickets effectively.
Project: Upper Keys Coral Reef Classroom
Organization & Principal Investigator: Marine Resources Development Foundation, Dr. Jessica Pulfer
Grant amount: $4,000
Grant Summary: This grant will help students and teachers in the Upper Keys participate in a Coral Reef Classroom program and field excursion. This program will introduce and reinforce knowledge about the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem and the importance of water quality monitoring.
