Jenna Fairchild (UR) - These Coral Enthusiasts Ventured 300 ft Under Water!

Oculina varicosa, a native species to eastern Florida, is important to the biodiversity and functioning of the underwater world - but there is still much to learn about this unique species. Oculina (varicosa) form natural structures in deep water (70-100 m) and they also inhabit shallow-water limestone ledges.

Deepwater Oculina consist of many pinnacles and ridges, 3-35 m in height, with average growth rates of 16.1 mm yr^-1 and rich biodiversity similar to that of tropical reefs (Reed, 2002). Extensive areas of Oculina rubble may be caused by humans from fishing, dredging, anchoring, and bottom longlines. The combination of human induced destruction and natural causes like bioerosion have made a clear distinction between what was once an environment teeming with life, to evidence of a decline in reef fish such as grouper and snapper.

Follow this link to watch these two researchers go down 300 ft to document deep water Oculina!
https://vosslab.weebly.com/news/baseline-explorer-sub-dives

Much less is known about shallow-water Oculina, this is likely due to the fact that deepwater Oculina are azooxanthellae, meaning that they lack symbiotic algae. This makes deep water Oculina an intriguing coral to study - but what about shallow water Oculina? Can they survive in shallow water without zooxanthellae, making them resistant to coral bleaching from climate change? Can these coral resist coral diseases because of their high tolerance of turbidity, sedimentation, temperatures, and salinity? In order to find out the answer to these scientific questions about a very important, but rare species, we must first have a scope of where shallow water Oculina like to live, where they thrive most, and how they grow in different shallow water environments.

This spring I will be laying the foundation of what will be a long-term study of Oculina varicosa. By collecting background data and identifying gaps in knowledge of shallow water Oculina, I will be teaching people why Oculina is a species to keep an eye out for. The rational of my study will be to gather information about a species we know little about in order to protect a local species that has a high tolerance to environmental and human induced factors that otherwise cause coral to die off. In order to do this, we must first understand the habits of these coral.

I will be using my GoPro to take photos of coral colonies on the Ponce Inlet jetty and compare these photos to coral colonies living in the estuary (I have reached out to Mike McCue, coral expert at the MSC for coordinates to locate Oculina). I will use the PVC half meter square pipe as a tool to show scale of the colonies - this should be big enough since shallow water Oculina grow in small colonies. The PVC square pipe will also have tick marks representing centimeters in order to scale colony size. With this information, we will be able to have an idea of where Oculina prefer to live in Ponce Inlet and their growing habits at each site.

My scientific question is: What are the growing habits and formations of shallow water Oculina coral in Ponce Inlet, Florida? 

My objectives for this research are to locate and document Oculina in Ponce Inlet, Florida because they're an important species to monitor and understand in order to protect our local reefs. 


References

John K. Reed. Deep-water Oculina coral reefs of Florida: biology, impacts, and management. 2002

Sandra Brooke, Craig M. Young. Reproductive ecology of a deep-water scleractinian coral, Oculina      varicosa, from the southeast Florida shelf. January 7, 2003.