A new approach to treating damaged coral reefs could hold the key to restoring declining coral populations.
By World Israel News Staff
Research conducted jointly by scientists in Israel and Australia has revealed that damaged or dying coral reefs may be restored through the transplanting of healthy reefs, offering hope for reviving coral populations in decline around the world.
The new study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Communications, was led by Dr. Natalie Levy and Prof. Oren Levy from Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with Prof. Ezri Tarazi of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Prof. David Bourne of James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
The study introduced a method known as “a coral reef ecosystem transplant” (aCRET), where researchers transferred biomimetic terracotta tiles embedded with a diverse community of organisms—including invertebrates and beneficial microorganisms—from a healthy reef to a nearby damaged reef.
The corals from the damaged reef were then attached to these tiles.
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