Earlier during my week in Florida, my class and I visited the Mote Marine Laboratory for coral restoration in Key West. This lab is solely dedicated to the study and restoration of Florida's coral reefs, and reefs around the world. At the laboratory, the team of scientist and college interns work together in order breed and grow new coral so that they can study new genetic adaptations to things like rising water temperatures and decreasing pH. But the thing is its not as easy a stork delivering some new coral babies to their doorstep. Coral reproduces through a process called spawning. Meaning that they reales sperm and eggs into the water column and hope that they can find a match in time and then settle again somewhere suitable on the sea floor. To make this process even more difficult coral usually only spawns once a year, and that time tends to be on a summer after water temperatures have reached warm enough conditions, and sometime during or soon after a full moon. In order to help this process along and improve the odds of new coral successfully growing mote marine labs goes out to several coral reef locations on the night of spawning each year. And by scooping up eggs and sperm from several different sites and relocating them they help increase the odds of sperm and egg fertilizing and also increasing the genetic diversity during the spawning event. The research that is being conducted at motes marine lab is extremely important because coral reefs are some the must important ecosystems in our world. Coral reefs serve has habitat for so many oceanic species that without them our ocean may loose almost, if not all, of its life as we know it. Some ways that you can help keep our corals safe and healthy is by reducing your carbon footprint and the amount of pollution you allow into our environment. By simply walking or riding a bike a little more often, and choosing a reusable water bottle over a disposable plastic bottle you can help save our coral reefs and oceans.
http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/corals/coral-reproduction
https://mote.org/research/program/coral-reef-restoration
I am so amazed at how low the chances are for a single coral head to form through coral's reproductive process. I thought that it was amazing how the Mote scientists go out and collect the eggs and sperm to help the process along. Our guide at Mote said that this process is very hard and involved, and just over simplified it by saying that they just go out and scoop up the eggs and sperm. I wonder what the actual steps of this process is/
ReplyDelete^^ That was me... forgot to log in lol.
ReplyDeleteI am so amazed at how low the chances are for a single coral head to form through coral's reproductive process. I thought that it was amazing how the Mote scientists go out and collect the eggs and sperm to help the process along. Our guide at Mote said that this process is very hard and involved, and just over simplified it by saying that they just go out and scoop up the eggs and sperm. I wonder what the actual steps of this process is.
wow okay 3rd times a charm:
ReplyDeleteI am so amazed at how low the chances are for a single coral head to form through coral's reproductive process. I thought that it was amazing how the Mote scientists go out and collect the eggs and sperm to help the process along. Our guide at Mote said that this process is very hard and involved, and just over simplified it by saying that they just go out and scoop up the eggs and sperm. I wonder what the actual steps of this process is.