The life of corals after death

Is there future life for coral reefs? When you look at a coral reef what do you see? Do you see an amazing view of aquatic life and magical colors? These things are what you’re supposed to see when you look at the reefs. Coral reefs are among one of our many complex ecosystems and the home to so many other life forms. However, these corals are also in a lot of danger and need your help!

Corals reefs have such a tough life. :( They face many different stressors that are causing them to decline and die off. Some of these stressors consist of invasive species, acidity, elevated water temperatures, and even human impacts. As you can see, some of these stressors can be fixed. Humans may have a negative impact or coral reefs, but at the same time they can lend a helping hand. Over the last few centuries researchers have monitored the mortality of these coral reefs. After doing their research they began to figure out a solution. This lead to the recovery plan of coral restoration.           

   So what exactly is coral restoration? This idea has been around for many years, and allows marine scientists to observe how corals grow with healthy conditions. This research showed how favorable it would be to transplant fragments of coral, onto of the dead coral for it to begin its regrowth process. The fragments are gathered by taking a larger coral, and using saws to cut it down into 1cmx1cm pieces. This pieces are then placed in a nursery like structure and grown to a specific size before transplanting them into the ocean. Sounds cool right!?

Corals may now make a great comeback. Although it might take hundreds, maybe thousands of years. There has been proof that these regrown corals work and have around a 70-90% survival rate. Mote marine lab works to restore these reefs and educate its visitors about how they could help. The interest in saving these corals has become high among divers throughout the years. Those who care about our reefs volunteer and intern to help regrow and transplant corals to make the reefs great again. Participants in these recovery processes learn how to care for the site, as well as how to fragment and produce even more coral. TO find out more information about coral restoration and this process you can visit https://mote.org/research/program/coral-reef-science-monitoring.

#Coralreefs #restoration #regrowth #lifeafterdeath #Floridakeys