Researchers at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) and NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and partners found the corals within the highly urbanized environment around the Port of Miami show great resilience against unfavorable conditions, such as poor water quality, excess nutrients, high temperatures, high salinity, and low pH levels.
Researchers at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) and NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and partners found the corals within the highly urbanized environment around the Port of Miami show great resilience against unfavorable conditions, such as poor water quality, excess nutrients, high temperatures, high salinity, and low pH levels.
The Port of Miami is a bustling waterway with large cruise and cargo ships, ferries, fishing vessels, and recreational boats. These corals have built strong and diverse communities on human-made substrates, such as seawalls and discarded objects, according to the study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports.
“These corals are important because they are rare and threatened, but also because they demonstrate surprising resilience that can teach us about the future of coral reef ecosystems today,” said Michael Studivan, a co-author of the study and a scientist at the Rosenstiel School’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies. “Corals persist despite conditions that would harm many reef species, including extreme temperatures, acidification, and poor water quality.
Read more at: University of Miami
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