MIAMI, Fla. (AP) – This week, scientists and students from the University of Miami went into the inky dark waters a few miles off the coast of Miami in an attempt to build hybrid reefs.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science team was on a mission to collect eggs and sperm from spawning staghorn coral to fertilize other variants of staghorn coral in the lab.
It’s all part of a $7.5 million federal award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to assist address security risks to military and civilian facilities in Florida and the Caribbean.
The Miami-based initiative intends to use hybrid reefs to defend coastal bases from devastating hurricane storm surge.
“Our mission is to develop hybrid reefs that combine the wave-protection benefits of artificial structures with the ecological benefits of coral reefs,” said Andrew Baker, a professor and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab at the Rosenstiel School. “We will be working on next generation structural designs and concrete materials, and integrating them with novel ecological engineering approaches to help foster the growth of corals on these structures.”
the scientists of Miami university
He also stated that they would be investigating novel adaptive biology techniques to create corals that are quicker growing and more tolerant to climate change.
Coral spawns just some few nights a year, based on the warmth and lunar cycle. Coral colonies simultaneously release their eggs and sperm into the water column, where they fertilise each other to make baby coral.
image credits: University of Miami
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