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Reposted by Coral Morphologic

Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 12h

Our first banded butterflyfish in four years hung out with us all morning a few days ago 🥳🦋🐠 #bandedbutterflyfish #butterflyfish #closeup #coralcitycamera

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A view in the Coral Morphologic coral museum 🪸

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

🪸Hi, Friends!🪸 A great way to support CM *and* beautify your home is through the purchase of our photographic prints 📸 Below is a close-up of a Portuguese Man O War 🪼 Browse this print and many more selections @ coralmorphologic.bigcartel.com/category/pho...

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

These observations continue to support our hypothesis: coral strains naturally recruiting to urban habitats are more resilient to thermal stress than their offshore counterparts, providing scientists with a uniquely valuable population to research coral evolution in the Anthropocene.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We are hopeful that the condition of the corals will begin to improve as water temperatures have declined due to increased rain and overcast skies. Thankfully we are not seeing significant bleaching in the urban staghorn (ACER ‘Ventura’) or elkhorn (APAL) that are growing robustly around the CCC.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The knobby brain coral featured above, which lives in the intertidal zone appears about 70% bleached. This is on the higher end of the spectrum, but makes sense since it faces directly toward the sky with minimal water to protect it from the sun.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

At the Coral City Camera site we are observing partial bleaching on some of the brain corals, particularly those receiving direct sunlight and UV exposure in shallow water.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The summer of 2023 wiped out many less thermally-tolerant strains of coral and gorgonians locally, so it makes sense that we are seeing less mortality overall this year.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

According to NOAA we are now at 7.5 DHW (degree heating weeks) this summer. Last year saw 6.85 DHW, 2024 saw 2.6 DHW, while 2023 saw a whopping 10.9 DHW as of September 7th.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

🚨Coral City Bleaching Report🚨 The Summer of 2026 is on track to have the warmest local sea surface temperatures since the bleaching event of 2023. However, the impacts on coral health appear to be considerably less severe compared to the devastating impact 2023 had on our reefs.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Happy Birthday to Her Deepness Dr. Sylvia Earle! 🪸🐠🙌🐠🪸 Looking forward to more underwater adventures 😎

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Thanks again to Dr. Diego Lirman, Dr. Allyson Demerlis, and the entire Rescue a Reef team for making this time-sensitive trip possible!

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Hopefully these corals can withstand the summer in these nearshore environments, but it is relieving to know that in a worst-case scenario, the University of Miami has banked them in different locations to preserve their lineages for future outplanting and research.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Collectively, we want to ensure that these genetics can be amplified, studied, and hopefully outplanted in a manner that restores functional habitat to Miami's nearshore reefs in the future. The real test comes in August when our summer heat peaks.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

We are grateful for the Neon Reef shore diver community, especially Ashley Schmidt, who provided GPS coordinates to locate several small colonies of staghorn corals just a few hundred feet offshore one of the busiest beaches on the planet.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

While the genotype native to Port of Miami (aka ACER 'Ventura') did not bleach in the heartbreaking summer of 2023, we don't want to risk losing this extremely resilient strain to the global heat building in 2026's unfolding Super El Niño.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

By banking clones of these corals offshore, the aim is to increase their chance of survival by moving them to an environment where they will hopefully avoid bleaching later this summer.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Before hanging them from a new coral tree anchored in 60' of clear blue water, we preserved small tissue samples for lab analysis by Dr. Steve Vollmer at Florida Atlantic University to investigate the genetic and microbial basis of their resilience.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The fragments were then brought several miles offshore to UM's deeper-water nursery, where the water is cooler and UV radiation less intense.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

With surface temperatures rising rapidly amidst rafts of sargassum seaweed, a special mission took place on July 10th with the University of Miami's Lirman Lab and Rescue a Reef to collect staghorn coral fragments from the Coral City Camera site and Miami Beach's nearshore Neon Reef 🪸🔥🪸

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Reposted by Coral Morphologic

bioGraphic @biographic.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Stay tuned for our forthcoming story by @cgeib.bsky.social on Miami's urban corals and the underwater feed that gets called "the happiest place on the internet" 🪸🐠🐡🤿

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Reposted by Coral Morphologic

Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

On this World Oceans Day we are proud to unveil the latest extension of the world’s longest underwater timelapse, starting May 1, 2023, and running for three years through May 1, 2026 🪸🌎🪸

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Reposted by Coral Morphologic

Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Check out a new research paper on transplanted staghorn corals to the CCC site 🪸📑🪸

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

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 was published in the research journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

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.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

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.

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Coral Morphologic @coralmorphologic.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

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 🪸

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