“Could a multivitamin boost the health and resilience of coral reefs? Preliminary testing says yes! Like humans, these critical ecosystems rely on nutrients in the environment surrounding them. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have been lab testing nutrient-infused tiles to determine whether they would boost the immune system of corals, helping them withstand stressors like warming ocean temperatures that lead to coral bleaching, and better recover from extreme climate events such as hurricanes,” reports the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
Preliminary data collected during more than a year of lab experiments shows that corals that had the early benefit of multivitamins were more resistant and resilient to heat stress. The team plans to embed these nutrient-infused tiles in the concrete structure of a 20 sq. meter (216 sq. ft.) artificial reef, designed by experts at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). The structure will provide a solid foundation to plant juvenile corals and for coral larvae to settle on, while the tiles will disperse essential nutrients and vitamins into the surrounding waters for them to absorb.
“The artificial reef we’re building is going in next to a natural reef that has been severely impacted by marine heat waves and extreme storm events,” explained Marilyn Brandt, a coral disease ecologist. “The artificial reef will protect the shoreline from storm surge and erosion while providing habitat for corals struggling from climate change, as we work toward restoring natural reefs in the area.”
Field testing is still needed to ensure that additional nutrients in the environment don’t cater to one specific type of coral or promote the growth of undesired or invasive species. Brandt, Hansel, and their colleagues hope utilizing these nutrient tiles, alongside an artificial reef structure, will create a diverse environment for reefs and species that rely on them.
On the bright side, the world’s coral reefs are more plentiful than previously thought. “High-resolution satellite maps show that coral reefs cover an area of ocean larger than New Mexico,” reports Bloomberg News. That’s about twice the size of some prior estimates.
A very health coral reef is nestled among offshore oil platforms 150 miles from Houston.
Fish species are rebounding off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs:
According to a 2014 study…the rigs were some of the most “productive” ocean habitats in the world, a term that refers to biomass – or number of fish and other creatures and how much space they take up – per unit area. The research showed the rigs to be about 27 times more productive than the natural rocky reefs in California….Subsequent studies showed that some species of rockfish produce 10 to 100 times more eggs and larvae at these platforms than at natural reefs. That’s partly because many big adult fish are being caught by fishers at natural rocky reefs, but less so at rigs, where they have more protection.
In some cases, the platforms are actually important to the populations of fish as a whole. In 2000, Love found that in the slow-growing rockfish bocaccio, a commercially important but overfished species, the rigs were home to one-fifth of the average number of juvenile fish that survive each year….
Nature is doing well in other ways, too. Most of the world’s forests are growing. Last winter, Florida’s manatees rebounded to their highest number in years. Sea turtles are proliferating worldwide, such as island nations like the Seychelles and Cape Verde, and in the Mediterranean and Florida.
The amount of vegetation on the Earth has increased every year for the past 30 years.
