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Coral reefs are dying everywhere. As the home to the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, that’s bad news. Coral reefs protect our coasts from waves and tropical storms, while hosting a large number of marine organisms. Its decline is the result of predominantly human actions such as pollution, overfishing, coral extraction and, of course, the effects of coral bleaching from climate change.
Can technology help mitigate or even reverse this tragic trend? Here are six cutting-edge technology examples that could help you with just that.
Robots against coral predators
Starfish can look cute and harmless, but certain types are surprisingly troublesome when it comes to coral reefs. Crown-of-thorns starfish take advantage of corals and secrete digestive enzymes to absorb their nutrients. One of these starfish can consume an amazing 65 square feet of live coral reef each year.
To stop them, researchers from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology, Google, and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation have developed an underwater drone called RangerBot. It is capable of autonomously navigating underwater, identifying starfish with 99.4% accuracy, and then sending them off initiating a fatal injection. The drone can also be used to monitor coral bleaching, water quality, and pollution, along with mapping large underwater areas.
“We believe it will be a very valuable tool for reefs around the world,” Professor Matthew Dunbabin, principal investigator of the project, previously told Digital Trends. “Having a small, easy-to-use underwater robot that can operate in coral reef environments fills a current technology gap to enable large-scale reef monitoring and management globally. We believe this is a first step in developing a range of visually guided robotic systems for environmental monitoring. “
Using robots to repopulate coral reefs
Robots can be used to protect coral reefs from potential predators, but they could also be useful in helping to plant them with coral babies. This tiny spawn of coral is collected from its hundreds of millions in places like the Great Barrier Reef. It then breeds on small corals in custom-built floating enclosures, before a robot named LarvalBot delivers them to the reef to ensure the survival and prosperity of coral reefs in the future. Think of it like underwater culture powder, only with a robot controlled via iPad instead of an airplane.
The robot, developed by researchers at Queensland University of Technology, can transport huge amounts of these tiny corals. Two or three robots can transport a combined total of 1.4 million larvae. They can then disperse them in an area of 1,500 square meters per hour for each robot.
“We need to step in to increase the efficiency of restoring coral communities because many of these impacted reefs now have too few adult corals that spawn alive to recover naturally,” said Professor Peter Harrison, director of the Center for Marine Ecology Research, who is working on the project, said Digital Trends. “By efficiently capturing coral spawning, we can maximize fertilization of the eggs with sperm and then breed millions of larvae that are then sent to damaged sections of the reef using LarvalBot, making this project an exciting combination of ecology and technology. “
NASA gamifies coral mapping
Can NASA and video games help save Earth’s coral reefs? A new project by the famous space agency seeks to discover it. For the past few years, NASA has been building tools to obtain 3D images of coral ecosystems from the air, through a special fluid lens system with NASA FluidCam, connected to drones or aircraft. However, although much data has been collected, coral images have yet to be properly classified before they can be used for research.
“The ultimate goal of the project is to produce the highest resolution coral reef habitat map worldwide and to help us understand the current and past state of coral reefs and shallow marine systems, in general, to better protect them in the future”. Ved Chirayath, the principal investigator involved in the project, told Digital Trends.
The initiative does not directly seek to make ecosystem changes like some of the others on this list. Instead, their goal is to use in-game data to rank and assess the health of the world’s coral reefs. The idea is that game players, available for both iOS and Mac, learn to identify the corals and then mark them with a brush within the game. This information is then transmitted back to NASA servers to assist their A.I. figure out how to identify the coral on its own. In part, this documentation of coral reefs around the world will allow more specific interventions to be initiated when necessary.
Repopulate reefs with … concrete pods?
As a more efficient alternative to coral transplants, whereby farmed coral is moved to other endangered reef communities, a project by Secore International marine ecology group uses concrete pods to replant reefs. These small, pointed, tetrapod-shaped concrete structures, which can be seeded with coral larvae, can be submerged in reef crevices. Unlike coral transplants, this can be done in large quantities in no time. It results in a cost reduction of up to 18 times. The researchers have been exploring the technology since 2014, primarily focused on smaller areas.
“We are … testing this technique in a variety of reef habitat types and with a variety of different coral species,” Valérie Chamberland, a research scientist at Curaçao-based Secore International, told Digital Trends. “In Curaçao, we have implemented around 12 pilot sites around the island, including reefs ranging from a healthy to a degraded state, where coral hatchlings of a total of seven species have been planted using the seeding technique. Although the success of this new technique varies depending on the coral species and the environmental quality of the restoration site, the results are promising. “
Electro-shock therapy for reefs
To restore the coral to its majestic glory in Granada, scientists are using Biorock to literally put the coral into action. Well more or less. Biorock reefs use an electrically conductive frame that is secured to the sea floor. A low current (so low that it will not harm any nearby life) is then passed through the water. This creates an electrolytic reaction, which causes calcium carbonate to form on the surface of the reef. Coral fragments are then transplanted, which flourish as a result of natural mineral crystals. Corals thrive on these substrates, where they can achieve growth rates five times faster than normal. Today, there are dozens of Biorock Electric Reef projects worldwide.
3D printed coral reefs
Real healthy coral shortage? Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of California at San Diego recently 3D-printed coral-inspired structures that are capable of cultivating dense populations of tiny microscopic algae. Corals and algae enjoy a symbiotic relationship, whereby coral houses algae, and algae supply sugars to the coral through photosynthesis. The printed coral matches the natural coral structures and its light gathering abilities. This creates an artificial host microenvironment that could one day be used to help plug gaps in real coral reefs.
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