Climate change and disease have decimated the Keys’ coral reefs. But a lab has pioneered a process to accelerate their regrowth … and prioritize climate-resilient corals.
After feral lab monkeys had been confined for years to an uninhabited island in the Florida Keys and had eaten the leaves off all the island’s mangroves, a judge ordered the voracious primates removed in 1998. Researchers tasked with restoring the mangroves set up a facility and learned how to grow the trees quickly and on a large scale.
Why wouldn’t this work for corals? one of the researchers reportedly asked. Today, inside the Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration on Summerland Key (the first category five hurricane-proof building in the Florida Keys), scientists at the non-profit Mote Marine Lab are learning to grow indigenous corals at lightning speed. Their goal is to repopulate depleted coastal reefs as quickly as possible.
By the 2010s, the Florida Keys region had lost at least fifty percent of its reefs. Then, in 2018, a coral disease showed up in the Keys, reducing living coral to barely one percent of its original levels. This rendered it functionally extinct, meaning that it would be unable to recover naturally. Human intervention was necessary.
Taking me through Mote Labs, Allison Delashmit, Director of Regional Operations, hands me a disk of coral the size of a quarter. In a room filled with aquariums and shallow tabletop pools called raceways, a surprisingly young scientist shows me how to use a bandsaw to cut the disk into four pieces.
“Mote pioneered a process called micro-fragmentation,” Delashmit explains. “Cut coral acts similar to what happens when we cut ourselves. Our skin will go into overdrive and [rapidly] create brand new skin. Cut coral grows fifty to sixty times faster than it would naturally. It will grow in six months what would take five to twenty-five years [to grow] in the wild.”
Delashmit leads us outside, where rows of raceways are filled with corals in various stages of growth. My little pieces of cut coral will grow here until they are the size of pepperoni slices. Then they’ll be ready for planting in the wild.
“We find a dead coral head, scrub it down, drill holes in a pepperoni pizza pattern, and stick these plugs in the holes,” Delashmit says. The corals grow quickly, spreading from the plugs across the dead coral. When two pieces of new growth touch each other, they fuse to create a solid mass.
“We’re aiming for dinner plate size,” Delashmit says. “That’s the size it takes corals to become sexually reproductive. We can do that in about two years, when it would normally take twenty-five to a hundred years.”
Here’s where Mote’s second significant advance comes in. Scientists can outplant all the corals they want, but those corals will be just as vulnerable to the stressors that killed their predecessors, even if they do reach reproductive size. Mote scientists knew they had to propagate strains that would be resilient in the face of climate change. As Delashmit says, “Genetic diversity is essential to our success.”
Back inside, Delashmit takes us through the process of speeding up evolution, beginning in a special lab. “You’ve just entered my favorite room in the whole facility,” she says: “the coral baby nursery. Let’s talk coral sex.”
“Corals spawn at the same time once a year, usually in August around the full moon,” she says. During a seven-day window, Mote scientists don red headlamps (bright light interferes with the reproduction cycle) and wait for the moment when captive corals release bundles of polyps that rise to the water’s surface.
“It looks like reverse snow in the water,” Delashmit says. “As soon as they hit air, they break open to reveal eggs and sperm, which have twenty minutes to an hour to find another egg or sperm.” Mote scientists already know which corals they want as parents, because they’ve tested them in their Climate and Acidification Ocean Simulator (CAOS), or selected them from earlier outplanted parents that have survived hurricanes, disease, and bleaching. When the corals spawn, eggs and sperm from the selected parents are placed in the same tank.
When the larvae hatch, Delaschmit explains, “We sprinkle them with what I call pixie dust, a coral friendly algae vital to growth.” She says the success of this breeding process has made Mote a beacon of hope for the reef. Last year, Mote outplanted 40,000 climate-change-resilient corals — bringing the total to about 200,000 with a survival rate of over ninety percent — and they’re expanding to two other locations in the Keys.
“We continue to scale up,” she explains. “The reef doesn’t have enough time, so we’ve got to go as fast as we can.” Of Florida’s seventeen coral species, Mote currently works mainly with six, but they hope to learn how to propagate all of them.
As the tour wraps up, Delashmit concludes: “I hope the takeaway is that our reef is in trouble, and it’s going to take everyone working together to save it, but we can save it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every scientist here is young. They come here every day in the belief that they’re going to make a difference not in their lifetimes, but for their grandchildren in their lifetimes.”
Read more dispatches from around our pale blue dot:
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The invasive hyacinth — the scourge of Africa’s Lake Victoria — offers an affordable way to feed livestock and provide local employment. Read the story.
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On Cape Cod, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Gills Club inspires the next generation of female shark and ocean advocates. Read the story.
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In India, cultivating millets can protect farmers from losing crops to climate catastrophes. Read the story.
Gardeners and seed savers like Shirley Bellows rise to the challenge of safeguarding heirloom seeds before they are extinct. Read the story.
These new firefighters wear wooly jackets year-round. Read the story.
Climate change and disease have decimated the Keys’ coral reefs. But a lab has pioneered a process to accelerate their regrowth … and prioritize climate-resilient corals. Read the story.
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In 2019, the Riverside Park Conservancy decided to try a new approach to its Woodland Restoration Initiative by bringing in goats to help tame invasives. Read the story.
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A program in Burlington, Vermont trains volunteers to maintain wild spaces. Read the story.
A lake stewardship program enlists those who love their lake to participate in its protection. Read the story.
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Volunteers protect all that makes Mitlenatch Island special — the breeding birds, the unusual fauna, and the sea stars. Read the story.
Black soldier flies help reduce food waste and then become a key ingredient in Insekt, a new Canadian skincare line. Read the story.
An unorthodox but effective non-lethal strategy keeps coyotes at bay — even those hungry for the farm’s sheep. Read the story.
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A job training program gives unemployed or underemployed people the opportunity to tackle environmental issues. Read the story.
Can Cross-Fostering Save This Once-Technically-Extinct Species? Read the story.
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A three-word slogan — Keep Tahoe Blue — has become the rallying cry of the League to Save Lake Tahoe and offers a blueprint for others around the world. Read the story.
On Kauai, it takes a village to ensure the protection of a beloved seabird. Read the story.
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Ecuador’s Seymour Airport, constructed of recycled materials and running on solar and wind energy, offers not just a place for planes to land and take off but a home for birds, lizards, and plants. Read the story.
In conversation with Bluedot reporter Victoria Thomas, the filmmakers behind a stunning documentary discuss the species they honed in on, and defend the sometimes extreme conservationists fighting to protect them. Read story here.
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A unique collaboration between First Nations and various partners restores a stream for salmon.
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Los Angeles, CAI pick up a struggling bee with no hesitation, knowing full well that it can sting me, but likely won’t. If it’s living out its last days, it’ll be happier on my flowering basil. The basil, which grows alongside the peppers, lettuce, and other members of my little garden family growing outside the door of my Los Angeles apartment, feeds me — not just when I want a salad, but also when I can no longer take this life of rushing, panicking, and worrying about an unsure future. Read the story.
A protected old growth forest protects us all. Read the story.
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Make Food Not Waste Executive Director Danielle Tod enlisted an international certification program to push Michigan toward its carbon neutral goals — one restaurant at a time. Read the story.
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At a September exhibition in Paris at a private home, artist Morgane Porcheron showed me a faded Converse shoe spilling with seashells, rubble, and seaweed. This small work of art pulled me into a scene of forgotten belongings sloshing in the waves. I asked Porcheron what inspired this piece, and she launched into how she came up with the idea while strolling down the beach in Normandy. She accidentally knocked over a wooden board, causing the debris resting on it to spill into her old shoes. This piece was a tribute, Porcheron said, to what is rejected by the sea. Read the story.
Behind a house in sunny San Diego sits a 70 square-foot shed. If passersby were to take notice, they’d likely assume it stores the usual things that go into a shed: tools, lawn equipment, cardboard boxes filled with items that are simultaneously unimportant and irreplaceable. No one would suspect that those four little walls contain a solar-powered coffee roastery for keeping local residents happily caffeinated. Read the story.
Newtown Creek’s dirty history and restoration inspires art. Read the story.
A couple opens their Arizona-based net-zero home to guest speakers, vegan potluck, and conversation to help others discover the abundance of a plant-based diet. Read the story.
Food waste thrown out with general waste has plummeted to less than three percent. How did South Korea become a world leader in managing food waste? Donghyuk Jang, a resident of Goyang city in South Korea’s capital area, takes a bag of food waste twice every week to the apartment block garbage bin. This is no ordinary trash can, however. When Jang scans his residential card, the lid opens. He dumps the bag’s contents into the bin, and pushes the ‘close’ button. A friendly voice says, “You have thrown out 2,350 grams. 148 won [11 US cents] has been deducted.” Read the story.
Most of us don’t consider disposable menstrual products, such as pads and tampons, when we think about plastic pollution. But in Europe alone, an estimated 590,000 tons of menstrual waste is generated annually. And a culture of shame around menstruation is, in part, responsible for the dramatic increase in disposable, plastic-based menstrual products. Plastic tampon applicators were introduced because early 20th-century doctors and society were squeamish about girls and women having to come into contact with their menstrual blood during insertion. Read the story.
Despite seeing it everywhere and using it on a daily basis, most of us give little thought to signage. These details on the landscape of our lives — the signs that glow above storefronts, or guide us to our train platform, or let us know we’re at the door of Conference Room II — have such ubiquitous influence that we notice them as markers of a destination rather than standalone objects. Read the story.
Downtown Pittsburgh, often called the Golden Triangle, borders the confluence of three major rivers: the Ohio River from the west, the Allegheny River from the northeast, and the Monongahela River from the southeast. Read the story.
“What he’s doing there is called wallowing,” says Craig Thoms, one arm slung over the steering wheel of his truck as we watch a bison roll around on the ground, hooves flailing, dust rising in small clouds. Read the story.
It’s 5 a.m. and the sun is rising over thousands of sea turtles on the beach at Playa Ostional in Costa Rica. Read the story.
When we heard about Playa Viva’s turtle sanctuary and learned that we could participate in the collection and transfer of turtle eggs, we hardly believed that anything could safely emerge from those waves. Read the story.
Costume-reared chicks are key to establishing a self-sufficient non-migratory flock of the endangered species. Read the story.
An agrovoltaic test facility in Longmont, Colorado gives a family farm a prized microclimate and the financing to grow. Read the story.
The Repair Café and Thing Library deliver the tools a local community needs to fix our throwaway culture. Read the story.
The Ridges Sanctuary began as one botanist’s initiative to protect orchids. Nearly a century later, the land trust remains one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the entire Midwest. Read the story.
A group of righteous neighbors in a New York suburb is on a mission to protect a historic forest. Read the story.
Millions of pounds of textiles from across Southwestern Ontario are being recycled in innovative ways. Read the story.
Raíz de Fondo in Baja California Sur’s capital city of La Paz is planting gardens, one mind at a time. Read the story.
New edible spray gives Canadian cucumber producers the chance to ditch plastic wrap. Read the story.
These weaponized 3D-printed fake tortoises spray out noxious methyl anthranilate when pecked. Read the story.
Two Canadians help bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities together. Read the story.
The collection in Forks, Washington, showcases forty years of beachcombing finds, from beautiful glass floats to parts of a jet engine. Read the Story.
Can recreation replace the state's traditionally coal-powered economy? Read the story.
The South Portland, Maine retailer is part of the ‘refill revolution’ around the country. Read the story.
A former oil drilling site, Banning Ranch is nearing transformation into a nature preserve. Read the story.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles return to the ocean after being cold-stranded and undergoing specialized rehabilitation. Read the story.
As the Western United States and other arid climates around the world face increased wildfire activity, many civilians are forced to flee. Wildland firefighters run toward the flames. Read the story.
A new facility in Santa Barbara hopes to divert over 85% of the county’s organic waste. Is there still a place for community composting programs? Read the story.
How university students re-imagined parking spaces in the heart of downtown Toronto. Read the story.
What you didn’t know about ladybugs, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, and how you can be a good global citizen by planting for them. Read the story.
The iconic park celebrates its 150th birthday this year with plans to protect it for another 150 years. Read the story.
An ambitious (and replicable) program in Vermont turns surplus food into delicious meals for the hungry, ensuring that nothing goes to waste. Read the story.
Once considered unswimmable, the Willamette has found new life as a popular swimming and kayaking destination. Read the story.
