The new recruits continue to grow

Now that the new coral recruits are taking up the algal symbionts, our next step is to sample these corals and determine the type of symbionts that they are initially acquiring. Our goal is to determine if these are the same types of symbionts that the adult corals harbor and if not, to ascertain (1) when the assemblage that is found within the adult is established and (2) what is the basis for the type of symbiont that the the coral acquires doing its ontogeny. Here are photos taken by the staff at the UM Hatchery while they were doing the first sampling of the recruits. As you can see - the recruits look great!

And the recruits are infected!!!

We just received word today that the M. faveolata recruits that we left at the Univ. of Miami Experimental Hatchery (see below) have acquired algal symbionts. In this species, as with most hard corals, the newly settled coral acquire its symbionts anew each generation. Our next step will be to sample these corals to determine what symbiont type that they initially take up - which is one of the goals of this study.



Three week old recruit with algal symbionts - note the greenish-brown specs in the tentacles

The remaining recruits are returned to the field

Although we have high hopes of rearing the coral recruits at the Miami Hatchery, we are also experimenting with techniques to rear them in the field. Together with the staff of the Keys Marine Lab (Cindy Lewis and Andrew Crowder), a frame was installed on the reef to hold a series of our settlement tiles.

Cindy Lewis and Mary Alice Coffroth pounding in the rebar to anchor the frame in place.


Positioning the settlement tiles with new recruits in the frame






The frame completed and in place

Up close and personal

Several photos of our coral (M. faveolata) recruits that were transported to the University of Miami's Experimental Hatchery. We will periodically post pictures as the grow.

Coral "babies" are moved to their "new" home (Phase 1)

After about two weeks, the corals have settled and metamorphosed and are ready to be returned to the field or moved to the Miami Experimental Hatchery.


Corals were transported in a cooler to the Hatchery (a two hour ride) and once the water temperature had equilibrated, they were transferred into a holding tank. The recruits will acclimate here for several days and then be divided between several treatments as we work with Tom Capo and the staff of the hatchery to design the optimum rearing conditions.

Phillip Gillette placing the settlement tile with coral recruits into the holding tank.

And we have settlers!

We introduced ceramic tiles as a substrate for the larvae to settle on. These tiles had been on the reef about three months and had developed a partial covering of crustose coralline algae (a settlement cue for coral larvae). The tiles were placed in the coolers on Saturday evening (below) and by Sunday morning, many larvae had settled onto the tiles (left). So, now the next step is metamorphosis where the newly settled larvae develops tentacles and becomes a coral polyp - so stay tune!

The next step....

The larvae are now swimming planulae and we plan to introduce settlement tiles into the containers today. Our goal is to rear hundreds of coral recruits and follow the establishment of the coral –algal symbiosis (see more of the Coffroth lab’s research at the BURR web page http://www.nsm.buffalo.edu/Bio/burr/)

Rearing the coral larvae

The team is now busy keeping the developing corals alive. We typically completely change the water in each of our 6-7 coolers two times each day. We are also monitoring the water temperature in each cooler as work by Szmant and colleagues has demonstrated that development is affected at temperatures of 30 degrees centigrade or greater.

Wednesday –More spawning!

Happily we were able to collect more spawn from M. faveolata on Wednesday. Again, this was not a massive spawn, but 13 of the 14 colonies that we tented did release gametes enabling us to collect approximately 800,000 eggs.

The magic is in the wand (The “spawning” wand, that is)

Prior to sunset each night that M. faveolata spawned, volunteers waved our magical spawning wand over the reef…..no spawning was observed on nights we didn’t use it, so who knows (Vinny Cordero, NOVA Southeastern University performing the honors prior to spawning, Wed. 8/12)





Pictured waving the wand on Keys Marine Lab employees and boat captains par excellent, Bill Ferrell (top) and Cindy Lewis (Bottom) – Thanks to them and the entire KML staff for awesome support throughout our expedition

The Team

The Team (from left to right)

Vinny Cordero (NOVA Southeastern Univ),Maia Mukherjee (Florida Atlantic Univ), Gabi Jackson (Central Washington Univ), Daniel Poland (Univ at Buffalo) Ewelina Rubin (NOVA Southeastern Univ), Atsushi Fujimora (NOVA Southeastern Univ), Zach Ostroff (NOVA Southeastern Univ). Not pictured Ann Liu (Univ at Buffalo),Chris Lapoint (NOVA Southeastern Univ), Harmony Hancock (NOVA Southeastern Univ), Steve Hancock (Temple Univ), Sarah Briggs (NOVA Southeastern Univ)

First signs of spawning Tues Night

Coral divers changing out air cylinders as the sun sets, preparing for the second dive of the night.

Divers entering the water at 10:30pm to check for spawning

After 3 days of diligent monitoring, the first of the coral spawn was announced at 11:30 pm Tues night. Divers tended the tented coral heads and snorkelers shuttled cups with gamete bundles to the boat.Dr. Mary Alice Coffroth (SUNY at Buffalo) sorting the collected gamete bundles

Positively-buoyant pinkish bundles breaking apart for fertilization

Ring-side seat for star-gazers

Spawning trips to Cheeca Rocks coincided with peak viewing for the Perseids Meteor Shower. The coral divers had ring-side seats in between dives to watch the star-filled skies.Ann Lui and Daniel Poland (SUNY at Buffalo)........and Atsushi Fujimura (NOVA Southeastern University)
relaxed on the boat searching for shooting stars. Clear skies and the late moon-rise made the show spectacular.

Here's a few more pictures of the site preparation. Tents are set up around 7-8PM each night.

Collection video

We have a video of spawning collection! It isn't consistently focused, but you can still see what's going on. The buoyant gamete bundles, trapped within the mesh tent, rise and are funneled into an inverted plastic jar suspended by a tethered float.



-Zach Ostroff: volunteer dive member, Nova Southeastern University

First night out

Spawning is not expected until Monday, but on Saturday the team went to Chica Rocks for a "practice" run of the spawning drill. This is a site with abundant heads of Montastreae faveolata. We arrived on the site at about 7 pm and jumped in the water to deploy the spawning tents. Then we returned to the boat to wait until dark. We enjoyed the evening breeze, watch the moon rise and discussed protocols on the boat until 10:00 to 10:30 and then return to the reef to check for spawning. The divers swam around for about an hour and then collected the tents and returned to the boat at 11:30. After an hour ride back to the lab, we quickly cleared up all of a gear and headed to bed. A great first night out and now we are ready!

Preparations underway

We arrived at Keys Marine Lab on Wednesday, Aug 5 and are now busy with the final preparations for the spawn. M. faveolata is predicted to spawn on the nights of Aug 10, 11 and 12. The past two days we have been busy buying supplies, setting up the lab and finishing off the "tents" that we will use to collect the egg/sperm bundles. Today was spent adding lead-core line to the bottom of our spawning tents to anchor them over the reef and floats at the top to keep the tents upright. Jars will the attached at the top of the tent to collect the spawned gametes.