Community Coral Chronicles: Our Garden Beneath the Waves

By Massima Ponce

Just a few miles offshore, beneath the crystal blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, lies an underwater forest. Its trees sway along with the ebb and flow of the tides. These trees are not the ones you imagine; no rough bark with large and leafy branches. Instead, composed of PVC trunks and branches, suspended above the seafloor by buoys and anchors, these trees are home to some of the most endangered animals in the ocean: coral.

We call this underwater PVC forest a coral nursery. These coral nurseries are one of the ways Dr. Diego Lirman's Coral Restoration Lab here at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School is working to grow these threatened corals on a scale large enough to, hopefully, one day, restore the natural reef. Coral restoration efforts have been ramping up in the last few decades to combat the steep declines in reef-building species due to disease, storms, and heat waves driving mass bleaching events, to name a few. (1)

Supporting over 25% of all marine life in the ocean, coral reefs are crucial to having a diverse and resilient ocean, even though they only cover 1% of the sea floor. Locally, coral reefs play a vital role in shoreline protection and provide billions of dollars annually to industries such as ecotourism and fishing (2). Without reefs, our lives would be much different. That’s why coral restoration efforts are so important, both around the globe and here in South Florida. Along the city’s urbanized shores, Miami’s reef system is rapidly deteriorating due to a myriad of stressors. With the vital role coral reefs play in shoreline protection, there is a need to restore these nearshore reef sites and foster long-term resilience within the coastal ecosystem. (3) A way in which public engagement can be merged with scientific research is through the establishment of a reef restoration site in which both members of the community and marine scientists have a stake.

Many of you have likely heard of a community garden. Community gardens help build a sense of community, support biodiversity, promote community well-being, provide educational opportunities, and increase environmental stewardship. Thus, the idea for the “Community Coral Garden Project”, Miami’s coral garden beneath the waves, was born.

Though many restoration techniques are used in the field of coral science, the method being utilized by the University of Miami is dubbed “coral gardening.” This method of coral recovery, created and popularized by B. Rinkevich, is based on two ideals. The first is collecting and maintaining coral fragments within in-situ and ex-situ sites or “gardens “. The second is outplanting nursery corals onto reefs to rebuild and restore them. (4)

In 2023, the Dr. Diego Lirman’s Coral Restoration Lab received a 2-year EPA grant to merge coral restoration with citizen science. This led to the creation of a showcase reef restoration site, the ”Community Coral Garden”, that uses cuttingedge processes and routine monitoring work to maintain an exhibition reef. The site, Paradise Reef, is adjacent to the underwater coral nursery where the trees are kept, streamlining efficiency with the outplanting process. Because the site is so close to the nursery, coral fragments can be harvested and outplanted without moving the boat! Focusing on one site allows the team to combine best practices at an ecologically significant level in hopes of creating a blueprint for reef restoration.

One of the ambitious goals of this project is to plant 10,000 staghorn and elkhorn corals from 80 different genotypes and 4,000 juveniles from 5 boulder coral species. Staghorn and elkhorn, known as branching corals, have a fast growth rate after fragmentation, growing almost ten times faster than through natural asexual reproduction. By increasing the coral cover of the restoration site, the reef will have more coral diversity, habitat complexity, and be able to support larger fish populations.

These goals would not be reached without the help of citizen scientists through the Rescue a Reef program. Through offshore expeditions with the coral restoration team, community members can contribute to restoration efforts by cleaning nursery trees, collecting coral fragments, and outplanting them at the Community Coral Garden site.

Citizen scientists are an integral part of the plan on land and in the water. More than 25% of all corals outplanted to the showcase reef will be done by citizen scientists. After their day on the water learning how to become ocean stewards, the hope is that they will share the knowledge they gained and help promote our mission to the rest of the community.

In addition to coral restoration expeditions, community members also have the opportunity to participate in expeditions hosted by Debris Free Oceans, a sub-awardee of the EPA grant. Divers can conduct further monitoring of the reef site while partaking in debris cleanups to keep the site clean and healthy.

Another goal of the Community Coral Garden project is to remain accessible beyond Rescue a Reef expeditions. Mooring buoys have been deployed so that people can continue to enjoy the reef site while also helping with monitoring efforts. Visitors will be able to assist with data collection through the Southeast Florida Action Network (SEAFAN) program, filling out surveys regarding any damage, bleaching, or disease they see on the reef.

Through periodic dives both at the nursery and Paradise Reef site, restoration success is being monitored by our scientific dive team using a variety of different metrics, including both coral colony-based and ecosystem-based metrics. Colony-based metrics, or data regarding individual coral colonies, such as growth and survivorship, are crucial for monitoring individual corals and their respective health. Ecosystem-based metrics, or data about the ecological interactions and the habitat, include coral predation and recruitment, herbivory, and reef fish populations. These metrics are essential for assessing the site's overall health so it can continue to support our restoration efforts in the long term. This data will then be compared to similar restoration sites near the Community Coral Garden to measure the site's success.

To share the information collected through the research studies and expeditions conducted at this site, a public webpage under the Rescue a Reef’s website has been created. Here you can find a summary of the restoration plan, the tenets of our Community Coral Garden project, information about how you can help, and more! You can follow this link to learn more.

Coral reefs are invaluable assets to our local coastal communities. The symbiotic relationship we share with reefs is crucial to balance life on land and in the sea. Through the Community Coral Garden project, we can highlight the importance of reef health and restoration efforts by allowing the public to gain hands-on experience alongside coral scientists, proving that individuals can make a difference in the fight to save the reefs.

Images shot by Massima Ponce on a Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II