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Florida Reef Resilience Program © Bill Keogh

Intensive scientific monitoring along the entire Florida reef tract has revealed the need for this protection – and many scientists and users are already willing to support our strategies.

Will you help us continue our work?

The Conservancy-led Florida Reef Resilience Program (FRRP) brings scientists, reef managers and resource user groups together to develop strategies to improve the health of Florida’s reefs and enhance the economic sustainability of reef-dependent commercial enterprises.

Coral Bleaching Monitoring

Corals often respond to stress by expelling the colorful algae that live within their otherwise clear tissues. This phenomenon is called "coral bleaching" because it reveals the stark white coral skeleton.

Surveying reefs that experience coral bleaching can provide clues to a given coral species' or a given reef area's resilience by determining which corals and reefs resist bleaching and which "bleach" but then recover rather than perish.

During the hottest, sunniest months of the summer, when bleaching is most likely to occur, the Conservancy coordinates a network of scientific divers from public agencies, universities and other non-governmental organizations spanning the region from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie Inlet on Florida's east coast.

Read an interview with Conservancy Scientist Meaghan Johnson about diving among disturbed coral reefs. 

Data from these surveys allow scientists to zero in on which corals and reefs have been more or less resilient in years past by measuring coral species diversity, abundance, size and condition. 

Since 2005, intensive scientific monitoring along the entire Florida reef tract has revealed the need for protection strategies that many scientists and users are already willing to support.

No reef zones from Key West to Martin County are immune to bleaching, the Conservancy’s initial three years of analysis showed. While none of the three years monitored — 2005, 2006 and 2007 — was considered a severe coral bleaching year for South Florida, every zone experienced some bleaching each year.

Staghorn Coral Restoration Project

Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) was once one of the most abundant corals on Caribbean and Floridian reefs. Today, after severe losses due to coral bleaching and disease, it is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. 

The Conservancy is working with a Key Largo-based "live rock farmer" to grow this species in his underwater nursery to restore staghorn coral to its former abundance. By comparing the survival and growth rates of multiple coral genotypes at different positions along the reef, Conservancy scientists are learning about genetic and geographic aspects of reef resilience.

The restoration project includes sites in the Florida Keys, Biscayne Bay off Miami and the reef off Fort Lauderdale. Further expansion into the Caribbean is in the planning stages.

Human Dimensions of Reef Resilience

The Florida Reef Resilience Program compares results from the bleaching monitoring project and other biological science studies with results from studies of social psychology and natural resource economics. 

This enables the development of management strategies that account not only for the health of the reefs, but for the recreational satisfaction and commercial success of the people that depend on them.  

Florida Reef Resilience Program Partners

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The Nature Conservancy
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
University of South Florida
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative
World Wildlife Fund
Florida Institute of Technology
Mote Marine Laboratory
Nova Southeastern University
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary