A trial is underway to restore damaged coral on the Great Barrier Reef using electricity.
The reef has been severely assaulted in recent years by cyclones and back-to-back heatwaves.
Nathan Cook at conservation group Reef Ecologic and his colleagues are attempting to regrow surviving coral fragments on steel frames. The frames are placed on damaged parts of the reef and stimulated with electricity to accelerate the coral’s growth (see video).
Electrified metal frames have previously been used to encourage coral growth on reefs in South-East Asia, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. They have been shown to attract mineral deposits that help corals grow 3 to 4 times faster than normal.
The technique is being trialed at a section of the reef 100 kilometres north of Cairns that was badly affected by the 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching events. Some coral is starting to grow back naturally, but it will take at least a decade for even the fastest-growing species to fully recover.
Cook hopes the artificial method of speeding up coral growth will help the reef survive future bleaching events, which are now predicted to strike at least every five years due to climate change.
noodlyjames on September 21st, 2018 at 15:08 UTC »
This was invented in 1974 and they’ve been doing this since the 1980’s. An experiment performed in 1998 showed not only regrowth of the coral but very significant increased survivability
http://www.globalcoral.org/biorock-coral-reef-restoration-in-the-maldives-on-the-bbc/#mobile-header-left-nav
boopmlem on September 21st, 2018 at 14:57 UTC »
How are they going to protect the new coral from the bleaching that is killing the old coral? It seems like an exercise in futility.
Ashton11614 on September 21st, 2018 at 14:06 UTC »
Cool. The Great Barrier Reef is on average 6,000-8,000 years old. All we need is 133,000 square miles of electrified metal frames and we will have a new one in about 2,000 years.