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Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
Corals keep cooking in climate-heated seas. These crossbreeds may keep hope alive
The first-in-the-world experiment began not with a splash, but with a gasp from a respirator. Neoprene-clad scientists sank to the shallow bottom of Flamingo Reef off Key Biscayne, clutching black milk cartons filled with precious cargo. Inside were a few dozen contraptions that looked like fancy desk toys — round pucks of concrete shielded by a spinning piece of metal resembling the ribs of an umbrella. Underneath the rotating spines were four thumbnail-sized chunks of coral. Two were the usual suspects for South Florida, hunks of elkhorn coral, and two were newcomers, a crossbreed of Florida elkhorns with their Honduran siblings. These 'Flonduran' corals are the first ever corals with parents from different countries to be planted in the wild, according to the University of Miami and Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which approved the experiment. It's a revolutionary new strategy to save corals as human-caused climate change cranks up the temperature of oceans worldwide. The shallow, turquoise waters of the Caribbean have been hit particularly hard. A 2023 marine heat wave was devastating to the Florida reef tract and many neighboring island nations. Only about 1 in 5 staghorn corals on five major Keys reefs survived the event, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found. This pilot project, to share corals throughout the Caribbean and potentially breed new, more resilient varieties that have a chance of surviving the next heat wave, could be a step toward a world where more — but not all — corals survive. And while the scientific tide appears to have turned on the idea of breaking up corals into smaller pieces, growing them rapidly and planting them on reefs, new research suggests that genetically selecting for stronger coral might still give scientists a chance at restoring some reefs. 'We don't have to plant every single coral on the reef. We just have to plant the next generation. That is the goal of restoration, making these systems self-sustaining,' said Andrew Baker, lead scientist on the experiment and a professor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. 'We're scattering the seeds. We have to wait for the oaks to grow up.' Baker and his team suited up earlier this month and slipped under the waters of Biscayne Bay to deliver these baby corals to their new home. Twenty feet under, they'll be neighbors with other coral experiments from UM, as well as a forest of colorful soft corals and sponges. They'll live here for at least a year, with regular checkups from an army of researchers, before they'll get yanked back to the surface for a round of stress tests. The big question for these tiny animals: Can they take the heat? From Tela Bay to Biscayne Bay Climate change is warming the whole planet, but the ocean is absorbing most of that heat. That's bad news for creatures that are sensitive to temperature changes, like corals. When waters get too toasty, corals spit out the algae that live within their skeletons, the stuff they rely on for food and protection from the sun's rays. Scientists call the ghostly white coral — starving and sunburning — bleached. If a coral stays bleached for too long, it dies. The oceans are always warming unevenly, with some hot spots turning into coral graveyards and others remaining resilient. That's where Baker and his team got the idea to find the sturdiest survivors and interbreed them with their Florida siblings. Over the last few years, Baker tried to scoop up corals from Mexico, Belize, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and even Cuba, where a massive amount of wild corals perished in 2023 when waters reached 95 degrees. He finally found success in Honduras, where waters are 2 degrees warmer than Florida and soupy with pollution from nearby coastal cities. And yet, Baker said, the corals in Tela Bay were 'remarkably resilient.' After a year and a half of permitting delays, Baker and his team managed to successfully airlift a handful of those resilient corals back to Florida. It was a 14-hour journey from sea to lab aquarium, featuring a small plane, a crate of seawater and plenty of bubble wrap. Once safely in the Sunshine State, the Florida Aquarium interbred the Honduras parents with a stock of Florida elkhorns, creating an army of 'Flonduran' children. Scientists call this assisted gene flow. In a commentary published Thursday in the journal Science, a team of leading coral scientists argued it may be the best way to save at least some corals. A reckoning in 2023 In Florida, elkhorn corals in particular are struggling to survive. Only 23 distinct genetic species, out of 153 cataloged before 2023, remain in the wild. The few remaining wild species have all but stopped reproducing in the Keys, scientists say. Some research suggests that, if temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, they could be locally extinct in a decade or two. 'The question is, how do we rescue those corals? They could withstand decades of additional heat stress in other places in the Caribbean,' Baker said. 'If we leave them where they are, they will potentially die off in the next big bleaching event.' Florida approved the outplanting of the new crossbred coral, but it denied an opportunity to outplant another hybrid coral — Florida corals mixed with corals from Curaçao — a few years back. Those offspring are still stored at a research aquarium in Florida. That's because the Honduras corals are genetic siblings to Florida corals, while Curaçao corals are further removed, like cousins once or twice removed. Corals from other locations, like Hawaii, are essentially strangers, scientists say. That leaves an increasingly shrinking pot of corals for Florida to choose from, if this is a strategy the state continues to pursue. While some may look at this strategy of swapping corals around a small region as the whole ocean cooks more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, Baker said he prefers to see it as buying time. 'We need to buy time for as many species to thrive while we as a society figure out whatever the solution is going to be to climate change,' he said. 'It's an inconvenient truth that while this method can be used to help corals in some parts of the region, it's not a solution for all.' The science backs him up. An increasing amount of research has soured on the once very popular idea of rescuing dying reefs by choosing fast-growing species, breaking them up into tiny fragments and planting those regrown pieces on reefs. 'Coral restoration has been a very hot and sexy topic for years. Because of the growing recognition in the coral reef science community that restoring coral is difficult, the research is losing a little bit of momentum,' said Giovanni Strona, a researcher at the European Commission who has studied tropical reefs since 2008. In a paper published in April, Strona and his team argued that restoration only works under narrow circumstances. Replanting a huge number of genetic copies of one type of coral is like building an entire city with only one-bedroom apartments. It's not enough to attract the diverse, healthy ecosystem needed to survive disease, predators or climate change. 'You need to create a reef that's as diverse as the original one. Of course, having something is better than having nothing,' Strona said. It's also simply not happening fast enough. He compared replanting new corals to reforestation projects happening all around the world; they're not keeping up with the global loss of forests — at all. In total, he found, only a few square meters of reef around the world have been restored in recent years. 'It's not about restoring even three soccer fields. We're really talking about very tiny islands,' he said. However, the newest wave of coral research suggests that genetically selecting for stronger, better corals — including interbreeding via assisted gene flow — could still be a visible solution to keep some reefs in selected areas viable. A paper published last year found that lab-reared corals survived the 2023 Caribbean marine heat wave better than nursery-grown or native corals. But in some places, it may already be too late. 'Elkhorn and staghorn corals in some of the region's warmest areas, off the south coast of Cuba, were exposed to unprecedented heat stress during the 2023 bleaching event and have experienced major losses. It is not clear whether these reefs can recover through immigration of even more thermally tolerant genets from elsewhere because these reefs are among the warmest in the region,' the authors wrote in the Science commentary.
Leader Live
21-07-2025
- Business
- Leader Live
Two wins for Flintshire garden furniture company Zest
Zest, part of the P&A Group, had two wins at Solex 2025, a UK trade exhibition for the outdoor living industry. The company proudly took home Best New Furniture Product for its Terraza Outdoor Kitchen Island Set, and Best New Individual Product for the elegant Ludlow Corner Pergola. Terraza Outdoor Kitchen Island Set - Award winning Terraza Outdoor Kitchen Island Set with matching high chairs. Simon Davison, head of commercial development at Zest, said: "Winning in the furniture and new product category was an incredible honour. The show offered a fantastic opportunity to connect with retail customers, unveil our latest products, and share our exciting plans for the company's 20th anniversary." Read more: 'Full revamp' announced for award-winning farm shop department in Wrexham The award-winning Terraza Outdoor Kitchen Island Set complete with two matching high chairs, features brushed stainless-steel countertops, adaptable shelving, and robust construction for long-lasting performance. Alongside, Zest won the Best New Individual Product for the Ludlow Corner Pergola ideal for creating a stylish, sheltered area in a garden. Both will be available in garden centres nationwide and from online retailers in 2026. Read more: Readers crown 'Best Barbers 2025' as title awarded to business in Wrexham Andrew Baker, managing director of Zest and the P&A Group, added: "The trade show was a fantastic success for Zest, and our achievements are a true testament to the passion and dedication of our team in delivering what today's garden and outdoor living customers want. We were proud to receive two industry-recognised awards, an incredible endorsement of our products, which are designed by Zest's in-house team in collaboration with specialists from across the business. These awards are a genuine accolade for the entire company." Ludlow Corner Pergola - Award winning Ludlow Corner Pergola. Zest is a British designer and manufacturer of quality timber garden furniture, decorative garden structures and grow your own products. Zest is deeply respectful of the planets resources and products are made from sustainable slow grown softwood sourced from certified forests. The award winning Terraza Outdoor Kitchen Island Set and the Ludlow Pergola, can be purchased at The Woodworks Garden Centre from early 2026 or visit for your nearest alternative stockist. Zest is part of the P&A Group, established in Mold in 1985 and is currently celebrating its 40th year in business. The Group comprises of Zest Outdoor Living, The Woodworks Garden Centre and Café in Mold, which sells Zest products and P&A Pallets & Packaging.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Crossbreeding corals from Honduras could help protect Florida's coast
Miami — Marine scientists in Miami are hoping to restore Florida's coral reef by taking coral from Honduras and crossbreeding it. Warming ocean waters have had a devastating impact on the coral reefs of the Sunshine State. Efforts are underway to save the third-largest barrier reef system in the world, including the use of lab-grown corals and the removal of healthy corals, but scientists are now trying a method that they say has never been done before. "It's the first time ever in the world that an international cross of corals from different countries have been permitted for outplanting on wild reefs," Dr. Andrew Baker, a marine biologist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, told CBS News on a boat ride near Miami. There are dozens of stony coral species along Florida's 350 miles of reefs, from the Florida Keys up to the St. Lucie Inlet. Two of them are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, one of which is the Elkhorn coral. The Elkhorn species helps form the skeleton of a healthy reef, but according to Baker, more than 95% of the Elkhorn coral off Florida has been wiped out by a combination of factors, including rising temperatures fueled by climate change, increased coastal development and disease outbreaks "Over the last 50 years or so, we've lost more of these Elkhorn corals, culminating in 2023 when we had this really warm summer," Baker said. "And in order for that population to recover, it was determined that we need more diversity from outside the Florida population." So, scientists and conservationists started looking off the Caribbean coast in Honduras, specifically Tela Bay, where Elkhorn coral live in "the kind of conditions where corals have to be really tough to survive," Baker said. To crossbreed the Elkhorns, scientists with Tela Marine, a Honduras-based aquarium and marine research center, carefully plucked coral from the reef in Honduras. Permits were then needed to transport the coral fragments into the U.S. Once they arrived in Florida, scientists with the University of Miami and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa worked to create the "Flonduran" Elkhorn, as it was nicknamed by Baker. Earlier this month, the crossbred species were planted for the first time in Florida, underneath protective umbrellas to deter predators. "And if these corals can live through the next marine heat wave, then that is critical for our coastal protection on the coast of Florida," said Keri O'Neil, the director of coral conservation at the Florida Aquarium. With robust and healthy corals, South Florida's coastal communities are better protected from flooding because the reefs help break up hurricane-fueled waves. The planting of the first Flondurans is just the start of what's needed to rebuild. "We need to now scale this up and be out planting hundreds of thousands of baby corals all throughout the reef," Baker said. "And there are ways to do that, but we've got to gear up and get going." Trump pushes senators to make $9.4 trillion in spending cuts L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says National Guard deployment in city was "a misuse" of soldiers Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files
CBS News
16-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Crossbreeding corals from Honduras could help protect Florida's coast. Here's how it was done.
Miami — Marine scientists in Miami are hoping to restore Florida's coral reef by taking coral from Honduras and crossbreeding it. Warming ocean waters have had a devastating impact on the coral reefs of the Sunshine State. Efforts are underway to save the third-largest barrier reef system in the world, including the use of lab-grown corals and the removal of healthy corals, but scientists are now trying a method that they say has never been done before. "It's the first time ever in the world that an international cross of corals from different countries have been permitted for outplanting on wild reefs," Dr. Andrew Baker, a marine biologist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, told CBS News on a boat ride near Miami. There are dozens of stony coral species along Florida's 350 miles of reefs, from the Florida Keys up to the St. Lucie Inlet. Two of them are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, one of which is the Elkhorn coral. The Elkhorn species helps form the skeleton of a healthy reef, but according to Baker, more than 95% of the Elkhorn coral off Florida has been wiped out by a combination of factors, including rising temperatures fueled by climate change, increased coastal development and disease outbreaks "Over the last 50 years or so, we've lost more of these Elkhorn corals, culminating in 2023 when we had this really warm summer," Baker said. "And in order for that population to recover, it was determined that we need more diversity from outside the Florida population." So, scientists and conservationists started looking off the Caribbean coast in Honduras, specifically Tela Bay, where Elkhorn coral live in "the kind of conditions where corals have to be really tough to survive," Baker said. To crossbreed the Elkhorns, scientists with Tela Marine, a Honduras-based aquarium and marine research center, carefully plucked coral from the reef in Honduras. Permits were then needed to transport the coral fragments into the U.S. Once they arrived in Florida, scientists with the University of Miami and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa worked to create the "Flonduran" Elkhorn, as it was nicknamed by Baker. Earlier this month, the crossbred species were planted for the first time in Florida, underneath protective umbrellas to deter predators. "And if these corals can live through the next marine heat wave, then that is critical for our coastal protection on the coast of Florida," said Keri O'Neil, the director of coral conservation at the Florida Aquarium. With robust and healthy corals, South Florida's coastal communities are better protected from flooding because the reefs help break up hurricane-fueled waves. The planting of the first Flondurans is just the start of what's needed to rebuild. "We need to now scale this up and be out planting hundreds of thousands of baby corals all throughout the reef," Baker said. "And there are ways to do that, but we've got to gear up and get going."
Nahar Net
04-07-2025
- Science
- Nahar Net
Scientists transplant crossbred corals to help save Miami's reefs from climate change
by Naharnet Newsdesk 04 July 2025, 15:20 A team of scientists from the University of Miami, the Florida Aquarium and Tela Coral in Honduras is working together to transplant crossbred coral fragments onto a reef off Miami's coastline that was devastated by coral bleaching two years ago. They're looking for ways to help reefs survive increased ocean temperatures caused by global warming and climate change. "It's the end of a very long process," Andrew Baker, professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab, said Tuesday as divers planted the corals off Miami. The plan of introducing corals from the Caribbean evolved over the past few years. "We had this idea that we really needed to try to help Florida's coral reef by introducing more diversity from around the Caribbean, recognizing that some of the biggest threats to corals, like climate change, are really global phenomena and if you try to have Florida's reefs save themselves on their own, we could give them some outside help," Baker said. Coral breeding has also been done in Hawaii, where in 2021, scientists were working to speed up the coral's evolutionary clock to breed "super corals" that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. Why crossbreed with corals from Honduras? Baker's group teamed with the Florida Aquarium and Tela Coral, bringing in fragments of corals from a warm reef off of Tela, Honduras, which spawned in tanks at the aquarium. "We were able to cross the spawn from those corals, the sperm and the eggs, to produce babies. One parent from Florida, one parent from Honduras," Baker said. They chose the reef off of Tela because the water is about 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the water off the coast of Florida. "And yet the corals in those environments, and especially the Elkhorn corals, are really thriving," Baker said. He noted that there are extensive beds that are hundreds of meters long, full of flourishing Elkhorn. "And yet they survive there despite really warm conditions and also quite nutrient-polluted waters," Baker said. The conditions are similar to those Florida will face over the next century, Baker said. It's also the first time international crossbreeding of corals has been permitted for planting onto wild reefs. "So we're really excited to see how these do," he said. The hope is the corals will be more "thermally tolerant," which Baker and the team will be testing throughout the summer. What are Elkhorn corals? Elkhorn corals are some of Florida's most iconic species and are valuable because they form the crest of the reef, Baker said. "And the reef is what protects shorelines from storms and flooding. So if you have healthy Elkhorn coral populations, you have a great reef that is acting almost like a speed bump over which waves and storms pass and dissipate their energy before they hit the coast," he said. Elkhorn corals are in serious decline, thanks in part to the coral bleaching in 2023 and warming sea temperatures, Baker said. While coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them, prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds. The coral ejects them, and a stark white skeleton — referred to as coral bleaching — is left behind, and the weakened coral is at risk of dying. "We've lost maybe more than 95% of the Elkhorn corals that were on Florida's reefs at that point," Baker said. Some of the corals spawned in the Florida Aquarium's laboratory arrived there in 2020, said Keri O'Neil, director and senior scientist with the aquarium's Coral Conservation Program. She said more fragments from Honduras and Florida will continue to live at the center. "We hope that every year in the future we can make more and more crosses and continue to figure out which parents produce the best offspring," O'Neil said. How do they plant the corals on the reef? The tiny Elkhorn coral fragments were placed onto small concrete bases along the reef on Tuesday. "We've arranged them in a certain way that we can compare the performance of each of corals," Baker said. The team will study how the corals that have a Honduran parent compare to the ones that are entirely from Florida. "But it's really the future that we're looking to and in particular, a warming future and a warming summer, how these corals do and do they have more thermal tolerance than the native Florida population, because that's really what the goal of the whole project is,'' he said. Baker said it's the most exciting project he's worked on during his 20-year stint at the University of Miami. Hope for the future If the corals thrive, it could provide a blueprint for working across the Caribbean to share corals. "This is a project about international collaboration, about the fact that our environment really doesn't have closed borders, that we can work together to make things better in the world," said Juli Berwald, co-founder of Tela Cora. "And it shows that when we talk to each other, when we work together, we can really do something that might be life-changing, not just for us but for the corals and the reefs and all the animals that rely on the reefs."
