The substance, applied to surfaces as a coating, improved coral larvae settlement by up to 20 times compared with untreated surfaces.
Researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Jacobs School of Engineering have developed a gel to promote self-healing in coral reefs, as coral larvae are selective about where they attach and settle down.
Coral are animals, and once the larvae attach, they remain there.
The gel uses nano-particles that slowly release some of coral larvae’s favorite “smells,” which is one method the larvae decide where to settle by deducing through chemical cues the location is a good one.
When the researchers applied the gel, called SNAP-X, to surfaces in lab experiments it increased coral larvae settlement by up to 20 times compared to untreated surfaces.
SNAP-X could help overcome a major obstacle in reef restoration efforts at a time when climate change is challenging the health of coral habitats, the scientists found.
The research, published May 14 in Trends in Biotechnology, was conducted with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Reefense program, which aimed to develop self-healing, hybrid biological and engineered reef-mimicking structures for coastal protection.
Coral reefs are severely threatened by ocean warming caused by climate change and are projected to decline by 70 to 90 percent at 2.7 degrees of warming and 99 percent at 3.6 degrees warmer.
A significant hurdle for scientists working on coral reef restoration is getting coral larvae to settle on degraded reefs or to attach to human-created structures that might not “smell” like home to the larvae.
Another obstacle is ensuring that reefs become self-sustaining and can reproduce naturally. Degraded reefs often lack suitable settlement substrates and instead of providing the chemical signals that encourage coral larvae to settle and grow, these damaged environments frequently emit deterrent cues that inhibit coral recruitment.
The newly-developed gel releases the chemicals that encourage coral larvae settlement for up to one month, long enough to give coral restoration practitioners an excellent chance of timing its application with a coral spawning event.
© lajolla.ca
