December 5, 2016
…of algae-eating herbivores on coral reefs to learn more about how they help keep corals from being overgrown by seaweeds. To find out, Scripps marine ecologist Emily Kelly and her research team recorded the feeding behaviors of 15 of the most common species of algae-eating fish, such as parrotfish and…
June 3, 2015
…way, which suggests that coral reefs could be subject to stressful conditions more often than scientists previously thought. “Corals are being exposed to environmental stressors at different times, which could allow a reef some recovery time between stress events, such as a warm-water bleaching event,” said David Kline, project scientist…
June 21, 2022
…(DARPA) to build artificial coral reefs to protect coastal areas in Hawai’i against flooding, erosion and storm damage. The artificial reefs will be designed to work with local ecology to create a living, growing and self-healing system. The reefs will provide a natural defense that can keep pace with sea-level…
February 2, 2012
…Acropora corals dominate shallow-water coral reefs such as those pictured here from the Central Pacific. Because reef-building corals are sensitive to changes in temperature, climate change threatens the stability of coral reefs. Credit: Melissa Roth Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts…
May 15, 2017
…curbing overfishing to protect coral reefs, which are in decline worldwide. Threespot Damselfish populations have exploded in recent years due to overfishing of predatory fish such as groupers and snappers. Long-spined sea urchins, known as Diadema antillarum, were once found everywhere on Caribbean reefs, until 1983, when an unknown pathogen…
January 10, 2017
…images from the world’s coral reefs anywhere between 10 to 100 times faster than processing the data by hand. This is possible because the new version of the system, dubbed CoralNet Beta, includes deep learning technology, which uses vast networks of artificial neurons to learn to interpret image content and…
March 12, 2013
…Photo credit: Melissa Roth Coral reefs not only provide the world with rich, productive ecosystems and photogenic undersea settings, they also contribute an economic boost valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. But their decline in recent years due to a variety of threats—from pollution to climate warming—has lent urgency…
December 3, 2013
…protect the health of coral reefs. The report, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), offers key data for setting management and conservation targets to protect and preserve fragile coral reefs. Beyond their natural beauty and tourist-attraction qualities, coral reefs offer economic value estimated at…
April 9, 2020
…to repair and restore coral reefs. In tests, the printed coral structures grew a commercial strain of microalgae, Marinichlorella kaistiae, up to 100 times more densely than natural corals. “Corals are one of the most efficient organisms at using, capturing and converting light to generate energy. And they do so…
October 1, 2015
…line after oil spill Coral reefs in the Caribbean have been declining for decades, largely as a result of development, overfishing, and disease. An April 2012 oil spill threatened to further harm this fragile ecosystem on the island of Curaçao, as oil blanketed an area roughly the size of thirty…
