Coral Spawning Event in the Keys

Professor Mary Alice Coffroth, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a team of scientists, will be using KML as the base of operations in anticipation of the annual Montastrea faveolata (mountainous star coral) spawning event.
Each year these reef-building boulder coral sychronize their reproductive efforts, releasing gametes 4 to 7 days after the full moon in August and September. Follow the event at the Buffalo Underseas Reef Research (BURR) coral spawning blog.

The symbiosis between corals and photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts provides the foundation and structure of the coral reef ecosystem. Given the importance of this symbiosis to the coral-algal holobiont and the reef ecosystem, understanding the mechanism governing the establishment and long-term maintenance of this symbiosis is essential.
The over-all purpose of this project is to identify the mechanisms and selective processes that lead to the final assemblage of algal symbionts harbored by the adult coral.