The long-term and comprehensive study of coral reef ecosystems improves understanding of how coral reefs respond to changes in the environment over time and predict how they will fare when exposed to increasing sea surface temperatures, ocean acidification, fishing, disease and pollution from land. AOML’s Coral Program has collected years of data and leads the in-situ climate change and ocean acidification monitoring for the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of America.

AOML’s Coral Program is an integrated and focused monitoring effort developing and maintaining strong partnerships with federal, state/territory, academic and other partners across the U.S. The program collaborates with partners such as NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Coral Reef Watch, NOAA National Centers for Ocean and Coastal Science, the University of Virgin Islands, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Moorings International, and and the National Park Service.

AOML’s Coral Program provides consistent, sustained, and long‐term measurements of key indicators that gauge the status and trends of coral reef health providing a greater understanding of how a changing climate is impacting the nation’s coral reef ecosystems.

AOML’s Coral Restoration and Resilience research has found that corals exposed to variable temperature treatment in the laboratory for 90 days were better able to withstand the warmer ocean temperatures caused by climate change. The temperature-treated corals were also less likely to succumb to bleaching, while untreated corals experienced more rapid tissue loss and necrosis. These findings offer coral restoration scientists with a new approach to potentially increase the success rate of planting nursery-raised staghorn coral onto degraded reefs. Currently, tens of thousands of acroporid colonies are raised and outplanted on Florida’s coral reef every year, with >70% survivorship observed one year after outplanting.

AOML’s coral scientists have led 16 National Coral Reef Monitoring Program cruises to six field sites in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf region gathering valuable data used to provide a comprehensive view of the effects of climate change on coral reef ecosystems. Over 3000 water samples have been processed. This data has been used to examine coral response to precise, controlled changes in environmental conditions and determine coral resilience to stressors such as rising temperatures, ocean acidification, and nutrient flux.