#coral morphologic

We are happy to announce the publication of a new research paper by University of Miami coral scientist Dr. Allyson DeMerlis in collaboration with Coral Morphologic. This paper studied the genetic changes staghorn corals (Acropora cervicornis aka ACER) underwent when transplanted from an offshore nursery to the inshore urban habitat at the Coral City Camera in PortMiami. Typically, staghorn corals are grown for restoration in offshore hanging ‘tree nurseries’ under stable, ideal water conditions. However, the reefs most in need of restoration are typically inshore of these nurseries and/or have suffered coral mortality due to deteriorating water quality. Understanding how endangered staghorn corals adapt to less-than-ideal conditions is the first step towards selecting strains that can survive long-term and restore Florida’s reefs. The paper, titled ‘Transcriptomic response of Acropora cervicornis following transplantation to a marginal, nearshore environment’ was published in the research journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

The Coral City Camera site at PortMiami offers an ideal location to study and monitor experimental coral transplants from offshore. By transplanting nursery-grown Acropora cervicornis into the highly urbanized, marginal habitat of the Port of Miami, Dermerlis’ research explores the frontier of urban coral resilience. Four months after outplanting, these staghorn corals demonstrated an impressive 92% survivorship. Despite facing greater thermal extremes and the dynamic stressors of a man-made waterway, the corals successfully persisted. This proves that the city’s coastal edges can serve as a vital real world laboratory for testing the acclimatization capacity of reef-building corals.

The secret to the staghorns’ survival appears to lie deep within their molecular biology. The transcriptomic data reveals that these urban outplants underwent a massive genetic shift, significantly upregulating 961 host and symbiont genes compared to their offshore nursery counterparts. The corals achieved this by maintaining a sustained activation of environmental stress response and innate immunity pathways, actively synthesizing heat shock proteins, managing unfolded proteins, and boosting cellular defense mechanisms. This persistent genetic plasticity suggests that they are actively acclimatizing to their novel environment. Ultimately, this research underscores that the future of marine conservation depends on leveraging this molecular flexibility, guiding us to select the most rugged, stress-tolerant genotypes to populate the resilient coral cities of tomorrow. We look forward to supporting further research and collaboration with Dr. Demerlis and the University of Miami’s Rescue a Reef restoration program to help rebuild Miami’s nearshore reef communities.

Cynarina coral goes by a simpler name — “cat’s eye coral”

Tangerine Reef - The Audiovisual Album by Animal Collective & Coral Morphologic

Tangerine Reef is a full-length audiovisual album by Animal Collective (Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist) in collaboration with Coral Morphologic, to commemorate the 2018 International Year of the Reef, out now on Domino. Tangerine Reef is a visual tone poem consisting of time-lapse and slow pans across surreal aquascapes of naturally fluorescent coral and cameos by alien-like reef creatures (note: no CGI or artificial enhancement was used in this film).

Tangerine Reef - an audiovisual album by Animal Collective & Coral Morphologic (Official Trailer)

Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2003. Its members and founders are Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin, and Geologist.

Coral Morphologic is an art-science duo formed by marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay in 2007 in Miami. Pioneers of avant-garde coral macro-videography, their work has been featured on the National Geographic Channel, the BBC.

Tangerine Reef is a full-length audiovisual album by Animal Collective (Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist) in collaboration with Coral Morphologic, to commemorate the 2018 International Year of the Reef, to be released Aug 17, 2018 on Domino. Tangerine Reef is a visual tone poem consisting of time-lapse and slow pans across surreal aquascapes of naturally fluorescent coral and cameos by alien-like reef creatures (note: no CGI or artificial enhancement was used in this film).

We are proud to reveal a 1,000 day coral bleaching and recovery timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running through January 28, 2026. This period covers summer 2023’s unprecedented coral bleaching mortality event, and indeed multiple corals can be seen bleaching, but then recovering and growing through 2024 and 2025 into 2026.

Watch 30fps and 60fps versions of the above 10fps timelapse here and here.

Of greatest interest to us is the success and proliferation of the urban strain of staghorn coral native to PortMiami (Acropora cervicornis aka ACER ‘Ventura’). Not only did it not bleach, but has grown swiftly. In just four years, a single branch of ACER ‘Ventura’ has increased thousands of times in biomass, to the point that we now have one of the densest thickets of this endangered coral in the State of Florida!

Just in the past six months, these corals have endured significant extremes in temperature. With our new Aqualink buoy, we recorded late summer temps reaching 90F (32.6C) and recent 2026 winter lows of 60F (15.5C). This represents a huge range of thermal tolerance for this strain of critically important reefbuilding coral, and a reminder that corals grown for nearshore reef restoration in Florida need cold-stress adaptation as well as heat-stress.

Working with our partners at NOAA AOML and University of Miami’s Rescue a Reef, we continue our scientific investigation into the mechanisms of the strain’s resilience, and continue to amplify it for the purpose of restoring Miami’s nearshore reefs.

Of particular interest is observing how dynamic the sediment is at the site. PortMiami is subject to intense currents, magnified by passing ships displacing huge volumes of water. Despite these unnatural conditions, the corals and fish have adapted well to this anthropogenic environment.

Our ability to timelapse the growth of PortMiami’s urban corals highlights the scientific value of the Coral City Camera and its ability to document what was previously undocumented. After 6 years of near-continuous recording, and nearly 220 species of fish cataloged, there is no underwater coral reef site anywhere in the world that has been as thoroughly recorded and archived!

If you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation to support the Coral City Camera you can do so here via our fund at the Key Biscayne Community Foundation: