Save the Great Barrier Reef! Scientists transplant corals on the seabed to rebuild coral colonies

According to Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po, global warming has led to the warming of the sea, the corals on the seabed have been seriously bleached in recent years, and the 2,300-kilometer-long Great Barrier Reef in Australia is facing extinction. Recently, Australian scientists plan to sow the seabed on the Great Barrier Reef, starting the largest reconstruction operation in history.

Infographic: Accelerated bleaching of corals in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The experiment, called the Juvenile Coral Recovery Programme, was conducted by scientists from James Cook University in Australia, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Southern Cross University in Australia. It is reported that scientists plan to try to take advantage of the coral breeding season, collect millions of coral eggs and sperm, and then transplant them into the damaged area of the coral, hoping to allow the coral to grow again.

Harrison, director of the Marine Ecology Centre at Southern Cross University in Australia, who participated in the project, said that this is the first time that scientists have carried out large-scale juvenile coral transplantation directly on the Great Barrier Reef. They will first conduct experiments on hundreds of square meters of seabed, and if successful, the scope will expand, which will become the largest area of its kind in history.

It is reported that the spawning time of corals is only about 48 to 72 hours, and its breeding season has begun a few days ago, and scientists need to cooperate with the relevant time. In addition, because corals coexist with algae on the seabed, UTS Marine Biology Assistant Professor Suckett said that it will study the transplantation of coral larvae and small algae at the same time, so that corals can absorb more nutrients to accelerate their growth.

Scientists expect the plan to reverse coral bleaching, but believe that it will not completely rebuild the coral ecology of the Great Barrier Reef, so the plan only buys time for coral reefs before humans successfully reduce carbon emissions and stabilize the climate

Harrison said only by controlling climate change can coral reefs continue to exist.