Today at Mote Marine Laboratory we learned about their coral reef restoration process. Our tour guide was very informative on the entire coral restoration process. The coral larvae are grown and then attached to cement plugs. As the coral begin to grow and get larger on the cement plugs, they are lacerated by the Mote technicians. By doing so, this triggers the coral piece to grow very fast because it is much like our skin when we get a cut. When we get a cut, our skin works very hard to grow fast and cover the wound in order to heal as fast as possible. In the first steps of the restoration process, coral are grown on these cement plugs that will eventually be covered entirely in coral from being cut constantly. Once these plugs are completely covered with the growing coral, they can then be introduced into the ocean and attached to dead or dying reefs in order to grow and restore the coral reefs.
Coral reef bleaching and die-offs are a huge problem not only in the Florida Keys, but also around the world. Two main stressors that are causing the corals to die off are rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. In one part of the Mote laboratories, stress tests are actually performed on coral specimens to find the most extreme conditions that the corals can actually survive in. Pictured below are chambers that the coral specimens are held in in order for the stress tests to be performed.
These tests include exposing the corals to high and low water temperature and pH levels to see how they react. This data can then be taken to understand corals all over the word and the conditions that they might be able to survive in. Another test that is done that was very interesting to me is that the corals are subjected to bright flashing lights. The goal is to create a very stressful environment in order to find the corals’ tipping point. Our guide had mentioned that the corals are left in these chambers for about 3 months, and the technicians at the lab can adjust the conditions that the corals are being exposed to.
Check out the Mote Marine Laboratory’s webpage to find out all that they have to offer:
And if you would like to learn more about how ocean acidification affects coral reefs, check out this website:
Perhaps these stress tests can be used to create coral reefs that are more resistant to bleaching events. The tour guide mentioned that, whenever there's a coral spawning event, they take some gametes back so they can breed some coral themselves; if they created a genotype that was found to be very resistant to these stress tests, they could implant plugs of this coral genotype into damaged reefs, potentially making them more resistant to bleaching and more likely to recover. They could even use this genotype to breed more genotypes that could be even more resistant to stress, which would also increase genetic diversity. The problem with this is that coral is very hard to breed; the tour guide also mentioned that not only is the chance of the egg getting fertilized extremely low, so is the likelihood of the zygote surviving. Still, it's a possibility.
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