Data Type: Sponsored Research

Two research cruises were conducted in 2012 and 2013 to the region of Pulley Ridge and Dry Tortugas to study and survey the mesophotic reef communities and fish populations. The University of Miami’s R/V Walton Smith Cruise No. WS1213 was conducted from August 14 to 25, 2012 and Cruise No. WS1312 was conducted from August … Read more

The University of Miami’s R/V Walton Smith Cruise No. WS1213 was conducted from August 14 to 25, 2012 on Pulley Ridge, a mesophotic reef in the Gulf of Mexico off southwestern Florida. This cruise was funded in part by the NOAA-NOS-NCCOS grant titled ‘Connectivity of the Pulley Ridge – South Florida Coral Reef Ecosystem: Processes … Read more

This cruise is the first of four planned for this project. The intent of this preliminary report is to provide information on sampling and other activities of this first cruise, so that processing of data and samples can quickly begin and planning for future cruises can be optimized; a final cruise report will be submitted … Read more

The deep reef refugia hypothesis proposes that deep reefs can act as local recruitment sources for shallow reefs following disturbance. To test this hypothesis, nine polymorphic DNA microsatellite loci were developed and used to assess vertical connectivity in 583 coral colonies of the Caribbean depth-generalist coral Montastraea cavernosa. Samples were collected from three depth zones … Read more

The shedding sequence of the Loop Current (LC) inside the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is strongly influenced by cyclonic frontal eddies around its edge. Along-track altimetry data, analyzed based on a wavelet decomposition to provide estimates of individual cyclones’ diameter, amplitude and relative vorticity, and in situ surface drifter data from the Global Drifter Program, … Read more

Recruitment, or the entry, of young coral reef fishes into benthic populations is essential to population survival, but because larvae typically spend several weeks in the plankton away from the reef environment, understanding the entire process encompassing adult spawning, larval dispersal, and final settlement to the reef has been challenging. Sampling late-stage larvae during settlement … Read more

Mesophotic coral reef ecosystems are remote from coastal stressors, but are still vulnerable to over-exploitation, and remain mostly unprotected. They may be the key to coral reefs resilience, yet little is known about the pattern of larval subsidies from deeper to shallower coral reef habitats. Here we use a biophysical modeling approach to test the … Read more

To date, most assessments of coral connectivity have emphasized long-distance horizontal dispersal of propagules from one shallow reef to another. The extent of vertical connectivity, however, remains largely understudied. Here, we used newly-developed and existing DNA microsatellite loci for the brooding coral Porites astreoides to assess patterns of horizontal and vertical connectivity in 590 colonies … Read more

Sponges are one of the dominant fauna on Florida and Caribbean coral reefs, with species diversity often exceeding that of scleractinian corals. Despite the key role of sponges as structural components, habitat providers, and nutrient recyclers in reef ecosystems, their dispersal dynamics are little understood. We used ten microsatellite markers to study the population structure … Read more

MCEs are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical waters. The existence of corals at mesophotic depths has been known since at least 1889, when Darwin reported the discovery of corals at depths of 128 m (Darwin 1889). However, it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that direct observation of MCEs began in earnest (Starck and … Read more