The Corals and Climate Change Laboratory is located at the UM Rosenstiel School’s Experimental Hatchery, across the street from Virginia Key campus.
The great advantage of the shadehouse accommodating the lab is to let inside the adequate natural light for the corals while offering protection and keeping the equipment in like-new condition. The lab contains 12 seawater tanks (75 cm long x 40 cm wide x 30 cm deep). The high quality seawater supply for the tanks comes from intakes in nearby Bear Cut. The temperature and CO2 concentration of the seawater in each tank is individually controllable to -0.3°C and -40-70 ppm, respectively. The CO2 concentration is controlled by bubbling the tanks with a CO2-enriched air mixture. The actual CO2 level in the tanks is monitored using an equilibrator-infrared gas analyzer system similar to those used to monitor pCO2 on ships.
South Florida Corals and Climate Change Laboratory showing the 12 tanks and the apparatus used to control and monitor the temperature and CO2 conditions.
