Shubhangi Dua of Interesting Engineering reports on a new method of growing coral reefs.
- Coral reefs, which are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, are essential for the ocean’s ecosystem and provide a habitat for a quarter of marine life.
- Taryn Foster, an Australian marine biologist, has developed a new way to restore coral reefs by grafting coral fragments into small plugs and inserting them into a molded base on the sea bed.
- Foster is partnering with Autodesk to employ robots that will automate and speed up this restoration process.
- The world is currently restoring 1 hectare of coral reefs per year, but Foster believes that further developing her system with Autodesk’s automation will allow the world to restore 100 hectares per year.
“‘We wanted it to be something we could mass produce at a reasonable price. And easy for a diver or a remotely-operated vehicle to deploy,” said Foster. ‘We’ve deployed several different prototypes of our coral skeletons. And we’ve also tested this on four different species.'”
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