Miami, FL

Scientists transplant crossbred corals to help save Miami’s reefs from climate change

Published

6 months ago

July 4, 2025

Scientists transplant crossbred corals to help save Miami’s reefs from climate change

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — A team of scientists from the University of Miami, the Florida Aquarium and Tela Coral in Honduras is working together to transplant crossbred coral fragments onto a reef off Miami’s coastline that was devastated by coral bleaching two years ago.

They’re looking for ways to help reefs survive increased ocean temperatures caused by global warming and climate change.

“It’s the end of a very long process,” Andrew Baker, professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab, said Tuesday as divers planted the corals off Miami.

The plan of introducing corals from the Caribbean evolved over the past few years.

“We had this idea that we really needed to try to help Florida’s coral reef by introducing more diversity from around the Caribbean, recognizing that some of the biggest threats to corals, like climate change, are really global phenomena and if you try to have Florida’s reefs save themselves on their own, we could give them some outside help,” Baker said.

Coral breeding has also been done in Hawaii, where in 2021, scientists were working to speed up the coral’s evolutionary clock to breed “super corals” that can better withstand the impacts of global warming.

Baker’s group teamed with the Florida Aquarium and Tela Coral, bringing in fragments of corals from a warm reef off of Tela, Honduras, which spawned in tanks at the aquarium.

“We were able to cross the spawn from those corals, the sperm and the eggs, to produce babies. One parent from Florida, one parent from Honduras,” Baker said.

They chose the reef off of Tela because the water is about 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the water off the coast of Florida.

“And yet the corals in those environments, and especially the Elkhorn corals, are really thriving,” Baker said.

He noted that there are extensive beds that are hundreds of meters long, full of flourishing Elkhorn.

“And yet they survive there despite really warm conditions and also quite nutrient-polluted waters,” Baker said.

The conditions are similar to those Florida will face over the next century, Baker said.

It’s also the first time international crossbreeding of corals has been permitted for planting onto wild reefs.

“So we’re really excited to see how these do,” he said.

The hope is the corals will be more “thermally tolerant,” which Baker and the team will be testing throughout the summer.

Elkhorn corals are some of Florida’s most iconic species and are valuable because they form the crest of the reef, Baker said.

“And the reef is what protects shorelines from storms and flooding. So if you have healthy Elkhorn coral populations, you have a great reef that is acting almost like a speed bump over which waves and storms pass and dissipate their energy before they hit the coast,” he said.

Elkhorn corals are in serious decline, thanks in part to the coral bleaching in 2023 and warming sea temperatures, Baker said.

While coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them, prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds. The coral ejects them, and a stark white skeleton — referred to as coral bleaching — is left behind, and the weakened coral is at risk of dying.

“We’ve lost maybe more than 95% of the Elkhorn corals that were on Florida’s reefs at that point,” Baker said.

Some of the corals spawned in the Florida Aquarium’s laboratory arrived there in 2020, said Keri O’Neil, director and senior scientist with the aquarium’s Coral Conservation Program.

She said more fragments from Honduras and Florida will continue to live at the center.

“We hope that every year in the future we can make more and more crosses and continue to figure out which parents produce the best offspring,” O’Neil said.

The tiny Elkhorn coral fragments were placed onto small concrete bases along the reef on Tuesday.

“We’ve arranged them in a certain way that we can compare the performance of each of corals,” Baker said.

The team will study how the corals that have a Honduran parent compare to the ones that are entirely from Florida.

“But it’s really the future that we’re looking to and in particular, a warming future and a warming summer, how these corals do and do they have more thermal tolerance than the native Florida population, because that’s really what the goal of the whole project is,” he said.

Baker said it’s the most exciting project he’s worked on during his 20-year stint at the University of Miami.

If the corals thrive, it could provide a blueprint for working across the Caribbean to share corals.

“This is a project about international collaboration, about the fact that our environment really doesn’t have closed borders, that we can work together to make things better in the world,” said Juli Berwald, co-founder of Tela Cora. “And it shows that when we talk to each other, when we work together, we can really do something that might be life-changing, not just for us but for the corals and the reefs and all the animals that rely on the reefs.”

___

Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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Miami, FL

Miami Heat-Minnesota Timberwolves Final Injury Update: Anthony Edwards’ status divulged

Published

1 day ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

Miami Heat-Minnesota Timberwolves Final Injury Update: Anthony Edwards’ status divulged

The Minnesota Timberwolves announced that guard Anthony Edwards is now available to play in Tuesday night’s game against the Miami Heat after originally being listed as questionable with right foot injury maintenance.

Here’s the rest of the injury report and game preview:

INJURY REPORT

HEAT

Tyler Herro: Available – Toe

Jaime Jaquez Jr.: Out – Ankle

Nikola Jovic: Available – Groin

Terry Rozier: Out – Not with team

TIMBERWOLVES

Anthony Edwards: Available – Foot

Terrence Shannon Jr.: Out – Foot

Joan Beringer: Out – G League

Game date, time and location: Tuesday, Jan. 6, 8:00 p.m. EST, Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

TV: TV: Peacock,

Radio: 104.3 FM (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale), ESPN 106.3 FM, (West Palm Beach), FOX Sports Radio 105.9 FM (Ft. Myers/Naples), 1450 AM (Suart), 97.7 FM (Florida Keys), WAQI 710 AM (Spanish-language broadcast, South Florida) 100.3 FM (Minnesota)

VITALS: The Miami Heat (20-16) and Minnesota Timberwolves (23-13) meet for the second and final regular season matchup after just facing off three days ago with Minnesota recording a, 125-115, win in Miami on January 3. The teams split the series, 1-1, last season with each squad winning on the road. The Heat are 36-35 all-time versus Minnesota during the regular season,
including 19-16 in home games and 17-19 in road games.

PROJECTED STARTERS

HEAT

G Davion Mitchell

G Tyler Herro

C Bam Adebayo

F Norman Powell

F Andrew Wiggins

TIMBERWOLVES

G Donte DiVincenzo

G Anthony Edwards

C Rudy Gobert

F Jaden McDaniels

F Julius Randle

Spread: Heat +5.5 (-112), Timberwolves -5.5 (-108)

Moneyline: Heat +166, Timberwolves -198

Total points scored: 239.5 (over -106, under -114)

QUOTABLE

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra on the forced turnovers: “That is and has to be our identity. We have to play with a recklessness and activity level that exceeds our opponent, and thats not to put down our talent level or anything like that, it’s more about we look different when we’re flying around and making plays and making it tough for the opponent.”

For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket

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Miami, FL

Man shot during $22,000 gold chain robbery at Supreme store in Miami’s Design District; Atlanta suspects arrested

Published

2 days ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

Man shot during ,000 gold chain robbery at Supreme store in Miami’s Design District; Atlanta suspects arrested

Three men were arrested Saturday after a robbery inside a Miami clothing store left a man shot and hospitalized, according to Miami police and arrest affidavits.

The incident happened Friday afternoon in Miami’s popular Design District neighborhood.

Police said officers were dispatched around 4:20 p.m. Friday to the area of Miami Avenue and Northeast 41st Street after receiving reports of a man who had been shot. Officers found the victim, who told them he had been robbed and shot while shopping inside a Supreme store located at 45 NE 41st Street.

According to investigators, the victim said he was approached by three suspects inside the store, including one person with whom he had a prior conflict originating from the Atlanta area. Police said an argument broke out, and one suspect forcibly removed a gold chain from the victim’s neck. The chain was valued at approximately $22,000, according to police.

As the suspect ran out of the store, the victim attempted to chase him, police said. During the pursuit, an unidentified male shot the victim once in the stomach. The suspects then fled the area in a white Mercedes-Benz, according to the arrest affidavits.

Miami Police detectives later located the suspect vehicle parked near Northeast 10th Avenue and Northeast 91st Terrace. Police said they conducted surveillance and observed the suspects abandon the vehicle and walk through a nearby residential area before entering a home in the 800 block of Northeast 90th Street.

A residential search warrant was executed, resulting in the arrest of three suspects. During the search, detectives recovered the victim’s gold chain, keys to the suspect vehicle, and clothing believed to have been worn during the robbery, police said.

The suspects were identified as Jamar McKay, 25, Omarion Phillips, 20, and Kevieon Smith, 21. McKay was charged with armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon. Phillips and Smith were charged as accessories after the fact, with Smith also facing an additional firearms-related charge, according to court records.

“This arrest sends a clear message: violent crime will not be tolerated in the City of Miami,” Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales said in a statement. “Individuals who commit acts of violence in our city will be identified, located, and held fully accountable.”

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Miami, FL

Miami Hurricanes arrive in Phoenix to continue Fiesta Bowl preparations

Published

2 days ago

January 5, 2026

Press Room

Miami Hurricanes arrive in Phoenix to continue Fiesta Bowl preparations

The Miami Hurricanes are looking to buck a bad trend. They’re 0-4 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Coach Mario Cristobal’s team gets its fifth shot this week as Miami (12-2) squares off against Mississippi (13-1) in the Fiesta Bowl at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 at State Farm Stadium. The school may be 0-4 historically, but there is plenty at stake. This Fiesta Bowl is serving as a College Football Playoff semifinal.

The Hurricanes, the No. 10 seed in the 12-team playoff field, arrived at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 5, at the Ragsdale Executive Terminal of Sky Harbor Airport. The opposing team is expected 24 hours later.

The gathered crowd of 100 or so was made of members of the Fiesta Bowl Committee, easily identifiable in their yellow jackets, and their families.

In the past, there had been a welcome event in a tent adjacent to the runway. The coach typically made an opening statement, but players and coaches walked off the plane and straight to their buses parked nearby.

Players, dressed in white sweatsuits, filed off their American Airlines flight in single file on a blue carpet.

The players will take part in a media day on Jan. 6 at a Scottsdale hotel, with the coaches talking to the media the following day, the eve of the contest.

The Hurricanes enter on the heels of a six-game winning streak. Their last loss came on Nov. 1 against SMU, a game decided in double overtime 26-20. They have surrendered just 17 points in their two postseason games.

The winner advances to the national championship game on Jan. 19 against the winner of the other semifinal, the Peach Bowl between Oregon and Indiana.

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