Dr. Cindy Lewis, director of Keys Marine Laboratory, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on at the lab.
The laboratory recently hosted Dr. James Douglass from the Florida Gulf Coast University and about 30 marine ecology students. The students have been visiting the facility during both the spring and fall semesters for about nine years.
“They explore all the different marine environments that we have accessible from KML: the seagrass beds, the mangroves, patch reefs, and then out to the actual reef on the ocean side,” Lewis said.
This year, the students arrived at a particularly important time because scientists were expecting to see the effects of another significant coral bleaching event.
“He knew he was coming down, and we were probably going to be in a bleaching event, so he was really focusing on coral bleaching with his students,” Lewis said.
The Florida Keys are currently under a bleach alert level five, the highest level in the monitoring system.
“They had never had such prolonged heat stress as we did that year, and we have matched it again this year,” Lewis said, referring to the severe bleaching event experienced in 2023. “So it’s been rough, it’s been tough.”
The students were able to see the effects firsthand while snorkeling and identifying different coral species.
“They had an opportunity to take his students snorkeling and show them what a bleached coral looks like,” Lewis said. “They were identifying the different species of coral that they were seeing and commenting on it. So it was a great opportunity for them to see it in action.”
At Alligator Reef, the students also swam over several coral restoration sites maintained by restoration partners.
The observations provided some reason for hope despite the widespread bleaching.
“Some of the branching corals looked very bleached. Maybe some of them were dead; they couldn’t tell,” Lewis said. “But they also saw areas where they were restoring some of our non-branching corals, our boulder corals, brain corals, and they could see these little pucks and patches of corals that were outplanted.”
Some of those corals appeared pale but were still alive.
“They’ve had some pretty good track records of making it through these bleaching events and recovering on the other side to continue growing,” Lewis said.
Researchers are continuing to collect information about conditions on the reef. Data from the Middle Keys is particularly important because there is not as much reporting from the area.
“We try to submit information. Data is really important for them, and especially in the Middle Keys, we’re kind of in a gap where there isn’t a lot of reporting done,” Lewis said.
The monitoring effort also provides an opportunity for trained members of the public and students to contribute observations.
“It’s sort of a citizen science-based reporting system,” Lewis said. “There’s training for it and everything else, which Dr. Douglas gave the students. But it’s a very easy online. If you’re seeing some coral bleaching and stuff, you can fill that out for them.”
The recent rain and overcast conditions could also provide some relief for the reef, although the cooling effect will not happen immediately.
“We’re expecting it to,” Lewis said when asked whether the rain could help lower water temperatures. “It takes a little while for it to really begin to roll back the temperatures.”
The combination of overcast skies, rain and wind can help mix the water and eventually lower temperatures.
“These overcast days, a little bit of rain, maybe a little wind associated with it, so it stirs the water up, is a good thing,” Lewis said. “We’ll begin to see some cooling on the reef, which we typically do by the end of September and into October.”
Cooler temperatures are important for the survival of stressed coral.
“The temperatures will roll back to more survivable temperatures, and for the rest of the winter,” Lewis said. “So this is actually a good thing. The corals need that. The reef needs it. Our lawns probably need it.”
The water temperatures have been building for months.
“We’ve been watching these temperatures rising since May,” Lewis said. “We’ve seen these elevated temperatures coming slowly.”
Because of the size of the ocean, changes in temperature take time.
“The ocean’s a big body of water. It takes a long time for it to warm up. So it takes a little while for it to cool down as well,” Lewis said.
The laboratory’s fall schedule remains busy, with additional student groups and researchers expected in the coming weeks.
“We have another big group from Florida Gulf Coast actually coming next weekend, and then after that, there’s another big group coming from Florida Southern University,” Lewis said.
Fall is particularly busy because college students are back in school and often visit the Keys on weekends for extended field experiences.
The laboratory also hosts researchers working on a wide range of marine science projects.
“We’re not all about coral either,” Lewis said. “We have researchers that come in and work on sharks, and they’re looking at different aspects of shark sensory stuff and everything that they’re studying.”
Other projects focus on coral disease, fish camouflage and aquaponics. One researcher is also working on growing long-spined sea urchins that can eventually be placed on the reef.
“So we kind of do whatever is needed that comes down the tubes,” Lewis said.
The laboratory also works closely with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and other organizations involved in restoration.
Lewis recently learned about a potentially important coral colony that researchers had not previously identified.
“Killer coral is one of my favorite corals, and we got a report of an unknown colony that we had not yet identified out in the middle of nowhere,” Lewis said.
Researchers were able to locate the colony and gather information about it. While there is not much of the colony remaining, there is hope that a sample could be preserved.
“They were asking us if possible if they could bring some samples in so that we could hold it and then get those samples out to a living genetic bank to Florida Aquarium and the Reef Institute,” Lewis said.
The goal would be to preserve the particular genetic material and potentially help protect it from being lost.
The effort is still awaiting the necessary permits because the coral is listed as endangered under federal law.
The laboratory is also expanding its ability to support coral restoration and emergency response. A new seawater system funded through state and federal support will add 20 tables to the laboratory’s existing systems.
“They helped fund another seawater system, add another 20 tables to our existing systems to increase land-based capacity for coral restoration,” Lewis said.
The additional space could also be used to protect corals during environmental emergencies.
“Any rescue that’s needed, either from a bleaching event or, God forbid, a hurricane,” Lewis said. “We had corals come down to KML to hunker down to get away from a hurricane, and that happens too. We’ve been very grateful to DEP for finding state and federal funding for us to help build this facility.”
The laboratory is also facing infrastructure needs, particularly with the arrival of king tide season.
“We’re coming into the king tide season, and we will see flooding at KML,” Lewis said. “Our shop usually goes underwater for a couple weeks every month from that November.”
A building fund has been established to help address those needs, while donations can also support coral restoration work at the laboratory.
Despite the challenges facing the reef and the laboratory itself, the educational mission of Keys Marine Laboratory remains one of its most important roles.
“We are just grateful to be here to be able to pass on knowledge, to get this experience for these students because they are the future of marine and oceanographic science,” Lewis said. “And for our— for the Keys, for Florida, for the country.”
For more information, click here: https://www.fio.usf.edu/keys-marine-lab/