Coral reefs are in global peril, but scientists around the world are working hard to find ways to help them survive the Anthropocene.
“We’ve lost 98 percent of our living coral cover,” says Muller, of the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla. While among the hardest hit, Florida isn’t alone. From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the Caribbean, coral reefs globally are in trouble.
Around the globe, coral biologists are trying everything from low-tech seaweed removal to high-tech artificial fog production to protect corals. Here’s a closer look at three projects that researchers are developing to help save coral reefs.In Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, it’s not crabs doing the weeding. It’s volunteers with Earthwatch Institute — an international environmental organization — snorkeling and diving underwater to pluck macroalgae, the weed of the sea.
Seaweed, however, takes up space and soaks up light that could otherwise be used by corals. If corals decline in number due to stressors like heat or disease, seaweed can quickly proliferate and take their place. David Vaughan discovered the restorative potential of coral microfragments through what he calls a “eureka mistake.” Vaughan, formerly executive director of Mote and now head of the nonprofitin Summerland Key, Fla., accidentally broke off shards of a branching coral while moving it to a new tank. Some coral polyps remained on the bottom of the tank. Vaughn assumed the tiny animals wouldn’t survive.
“Spawning after five years,” Spadaro says, “was definitely a game changer in terms of restoration.” Re-skinning with microfragments can give you functional reef ecosystems in a fraction of the time as previous methods. Mote scientists have since shared their knowledge with others working to restore corals around the world, such as in Hawaii and the Caribbean.
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