The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) is the perfect location to study Caribbean coral reefs. The marine science campus on Virginia Key has a picturesque view of Biscayne Bay. Not only that, but the school has state-of-the-art facilities and resources to conduct both in-situ and ex-situ coral research.
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Research Diving
One of the classes I was really excited to take at RSMAS was the Research Diving course. The UM Dive Office is very dedicated in authorizing their divers to the standard of the American Academy for Underwater Sciences (AAUS) for scientific diving. I honed my diving skills, practicing buoyancy, good trim, multi-tasking, and research activities such as fish surveys and benthic assessments. |
Experiment 1: Stress-Hardening Using Temperature Variability
In October 2019, I collected corals from Dr. Diego Lirman's coral nursery in Biscayne National Park for my first experiment, which looked at stress-hardening of different genotypes used in coral restoration efforts. With the help of my lab mates, we collected many coral colonies to bring back to the lab for fragmenting.
In October 2019, I collected corals from Dr. Diego Lirman's coral nursery in Biscayne National Park for my first experiment, which looked at stress-hardening of different genotypes used in coral restoration efforts. With the help of my lab mates, we collected many coral colonies to bring back to the lab for fragmenting.
After collecting the coral colonies from the field, they were fragmented and then given time to acclimate to their tanks before the experiment began. The experiment involved a two month stress-hardening treatment. After this variable temperature treatment, all corals were put into a rapid bleaching assay, where the temperature rose to 32 degrees C. |
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