Playing Thriving Reef Sounds On Underwater Speakers 'Could Save Damaged Corals' 31
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Underwater speakers that broadcast the hustle and bustle of thriving coral could bring life back to more damaged and degraded reefs that are in danger of becoming ocean graveyards, researchers say. Scientists working off the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean found that coral larvae were up to seven times more likely to settle at a struggling reef where they played recordings of the snaps, groans, grunts and scratches that form the symphony of a healthy ecosystem. "We're hoping this may be something we can combine with other efforts to put the good stuff back on the reef," said Nadeege Aoki at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "You could leave a speaker out for a certain amount of time and it could be attracting not just coral larvae but fish back to the reef."
The world has lost half its coral reefs since the 1950s through the devastating impact of global heating, overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and outbreaks of disease. The hefty declines have fueled efforts to protect remaining reefs through approaches that range from replanting with nursery-raised corals to developing resilient strains that can withstand warming waters. Aoki and her colleagues took another tack, building on previous research which showed that coral larvae swim towards reef sounds. They set up underwater speakers at three reefs off St John, the smallest of the US Virgin Islands, and measured how many coral larvae, held in sealed containers of filtered sea water, settled on to pieces of rock-like ceramic in the containers up to 30 meters from the speakers.
While the researchers installed speakers at all three sites, they only played sounds from a thriving reef at one: the degraded Salt Pond reef, which was bathed in the marine soundscape for three nights. The other two sites, the degraded Cocoloba and the healthier Tektite reefs were included for comparison. When coral larvae are released into the water column they are carried on the currents, and swim freely, before finding a spot to settle. Once they drop to the ocean floor, they become fixed to the spot and -- if they survive -- mature into adults. Writing in the Royal Society Open Science journal, the researchers describe how, on average, 1.7 times more coral larvae settled at the Salt Pond reef than at the other sites where no reef sounds were played. The settlement rates at Salt Pond dropped with distance from the speaker, suggesting the broadcasts were responsible. While the results are promising, Aoki said more work is afoot to understand whether other coral species respond to reef sounds in the same way, and whether the corals thrive after settling. "You have to be very thoughtful about the application of this technology," Aoki added. "You don't want to encourage them to settle where they will die. It really has to be a multi-pronged effort with steps in place to ensure the survival of these corals and their growth over time."
The world has lost half its coral reefs since the 1950s through the devastating impact of global heating, overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and outbreaks of disease. The hefty declines have fueled efforts to protect remaining reefs through approaches that range from replanting with nursery-raised corals to developing resilient strains that can withstand warming waters. Aoki and her colleagues took another tack, building on previous research which showed that coral larvae swim towards reef sounds. They set up underwater speakers at three reefs off St John, the smallest of the US Virgin Islands, and measured how many coral larvae, held in sealed containers of filtered sea water, settled on to pieces of rock-like ceramic in the containers up to 30 meters from the speakers.
While the researchers installed speakers at all three sites, they only played sounds from a thriving reef at one: the degraded Salt Pond reef, which was bathed in the marine soundscape for three nights. The other two sites, the degraded Cocoloba and the healthier Tektite reefs were included for comparison. When coral larvae are released into the water column they are carried on the currents, and swim freely, before finding a spot to settle. Once they drop to the ocean floor, they become fixed to the spot and -- if they survive -- mature into adults. Writing in the Royal Society Open Science journal, the researchers describe how, on average, 1.7 times more coral larvae settled at the Salt Pond reef than at the other sites where no reef sounds were played. The settlement rates at Salt Pond dropped with distance from the speaker, suggesting the broadcasts were responsible. While the results are promising, Aoki said more work is afoot to understand whether other coral species respond to reef sounds in the same way, and whether the corals thrive after settling. "You have to be very thoughtful about the application of this technology," Aoki added. "You don't want to encourage them to settle where they will die. It really has to be a multi-pronged effort with steps in place to ensure the survival of these corals and their growth over time."
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Thanks for posting your uninformed opinion. We'll give it the appropriate attention it deserves.
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Thanks I appreciate your inclusion of my input as you make life or death decisions.
Re:Sounds like bullshit to me (Score:4, Interesting)
I know it sounds crazy, but fish communicate a lot by sounds. They were able to use this method to repair spawning grounds of other ocean schools in other places that had been damaged by shipping traffic, so it's not completely crack-pot science.
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I know it sounds crazy, but fish communicate a lot by sounds. They were able to use this method to repair spawning grounds of other ocean schools in other places that had been damaged by shipping traffic, so it's not completely crack-pot science.
The problem is scale, do you even comprehend the scale of the problem because it sure seems as if you and many others do not
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Of course I understand the scale of the problem. It's not a whole solution, it's a novel minor possible component of a necessary repair process that will have to be preceded by massive sweeping changes to all sorts of commercial and industrial economic sectors globally to have any hope of even being relevant outside a few isolated test cases. But that isn't the same thing as bullshit.
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sorry but it is, it's exactly the sort of bullshit that keeps us from making real changes
our collective greed and irresponsibility is destroying everything and the last thing people will admit to is being greedy and irresponsible
but there it is
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Well, I don't doubt that some people will hope to use it as such despite that it would clearly be wholly inadequate on its own, but the fact of the matter is that this research will have to be carried out sooner or later either way, and there's no evidence these researchers are guilty of anything worse than wishful thinking.
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the point is even if it works, it's not possible to use this solution to solve the larger problem because this solution cannot be scaled up to that degree. Can you imagine a global network of underwater speakers? Nor can I. Easier to just switch to rooftop solar, reverse smart power meters, heat pumps and heat exchangers, more insulation, shallow geothermal, passive solar, EVs, mass and battery walls, and develop orbital space platforms with solar panels which can provide shade to the areas getting the most
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To be honest, that doesn't really sound like any less work, but what I'm saying is that even after doing all of that, we would probably discover that we still have to do this too.
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however, it's what we really need to do
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ya, much better than just not wrecking our planet in the first place
greed is going to be the death of us
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download (Score:2)
Where can I download this "Thriving Reef" game, and I wonder how you play it underwater? How does the coral even know what you're doing?
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Where can I download this "Thriving Reef" game, and I wonder how you play it underwater? How does the coral even know what you're doing?
You play it on Steam. This is another global warming article.
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Right here [youtube.com].
Too little... (Score:3)
Nothing can reverse the ocean acidification at this point. If Spongebob Squarepants didn't convince the youth to care about crustacean life, nothing well. Better document it while you can.
Re:Too little... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's simple. Simply remove carbon dioxide from the ocean equivalent to two centuries worth of burning fossil fuels. (yes, 19th century England's coal burning does count)
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I once saved a man from drowning, only to have killed him with thirst. Such is my sad robot life, only operating in the binary extremes.
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Nothing can reverse the ocean acidification at this point. If Spongebob Squarepants didn't convince the youth to care about crustacean life, nothing well. Better document it while you can.
This. and yes, we're doomed and clearly it was greed that did the dirty deed.
Fish Advertising (Score:2)
If people hear that other people are having a great time and doing well, other people show up. Advertising 101; ergo... Corals react identically and you'll get growth in the sector.
If you take this one step further, its a well known fact in the Coral world that the Rolling Limestones are all the rage.
--
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. - Arthur Conan Doyle
Not going to make a difference (Score:3)
If we keep burning fossil fuels and cooking the coral.
painted-over blood spatter (Score:2)
Okay, but if this is even real, it means that the corals have evolved some way of listening to see if a certain neighborhood is a good place to settle. It's not, though. It's dead. If they settle there, they'll die too, right?
I mean, I guess if there's NO good place to settle, then we might as well put them out of their misery. But...
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