A team of researchers from NOAA’s Mission: Iconic Reefs program and partners from Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and the Coral Restoration Foundation completed a scientific mission yesterday to quantify the impact of 2023’s marine heat wave on corals in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
A team of researchers from NOAA’s Mission: Iconic Reefs program and partners from Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and the Coral Restoration Foundation completed a scientific mission yesterday to quantify the impact of 2023’s marine heat wave on corals in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Data from the research cruise will help NOAA and partners understand the extent of the record-high marine temperatures from the summer of 2023 on restored corals — which are nursery-raised and out-planted on the reef — and inform future restoration strategies to increase coral resilience.
Researchers aboard the contracted vessel M/V Makai surveyed 64 locations at five of the seven Mission: Iconic Reef sites — Carysfort Reef, Horseshoe Reef, Sombrero Reef, Looe Key Reef and Eastern Dry Rocks — to examine the reef-building stony acroporid corals out-planted by the Coral Restoration Foundation, Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and Reef Renewal.
This research follows a mission in August that assessed coral health during the height of the marine heat wave and incorporates data about how eight additional weeks of high temperatures affected corals.
Read more at NOAA
Photo Credit: gshoptw via Pixabay
