By Megan Sam
What happens to a coral reef after it dies? For University of Florida marine ecologist Andrew Altieri, Ph.D., the answer is revealing an unexpected story of resilience. Supported by a National Science Foundation Early Career Award, Altieri’s team is discovering that even after corals die their skeletons still provide critical habitat for sponges, algae and other marine life – offering hope that dead reefs can still sustain life and support future recovery.
Building on more than a decade of research in Bocas del Toro, Panama, Altieri and his students Andrew McInnis and Julie Fernandez captured high resolution images across 13 reef sites to document how reef communities are changing. Using specialized software, they will stitch together hundreds of images to build detailed 3D models, revealing how species diversity and reef structure evolve over time.
Back in Florida, Altieri, McInnis and graduate student Britney Hay worked with the UF Center for Precollegiate Training to bring their research methods to local educators. In hands-on workshops, teachers learned about decomposition using everyday materials like Spanish moss, tea bags and stockings.
A month before the workshop, Altieri and McInnis buried the moss and tea bags at different sites in UF’s Natural Area Teaching Laboratory — from shady patches to waterlogged soils. During the training, teachers dug up and weighed the samples to see how much they had broken down, offering a clear look at how long dead foundation species can persist in different environments.
Because tea bags are available worldwide, teachers anywhere can repeat the experiment and upload their results to a shared database, helping build a global picture of decomposition rates.
“We wanted something that teachers could do back at their own schools with the time and resources available to them,” Altieri explained. “On a shoestring budget, anyone can participate and connect their data to the bigger picture.”
That commitment to broadening participation extends beyond the classroom. The project hasn’t just advanced coral research — it’s also helping inspire the next generation of marine scientists. At the North Florida Marine Science Symposium in January, UF alumnus Leighton Levering presented his work on how ocean deoxygenation affects coral growth, while Postdoctoral Research Associate Patrick Saldaña, Ph.D., brought reef science to new audiences through a series of marine-themed pub trivia nights.
Meanwhile, Altieri’s team is deep into data analysis, preparing manuscripts, and planning their next research trip to Panama in 2026. Despite the immense challenges reefs face, Altieri says the ecosystems are offering signs of resilience.
“Some of the small coral recruits we spotted in earlier surveys have survived and grown,” he said. “Many of the species now surviving are those known to withstand stress from low oxygen or high temperatures. That gives me hope these sites have the potential for resilience.”
