{"id":16986,"date":"2019-06-25T01:04:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T01:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16986"},"modified":"2019-06-26T04:37:28","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T04:37:28","slug":"biodiversity-helps-coral-reefs-thrive-and-could-be-part-of-strategies-to-save-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/biodiversity-helps-coral-reefs-thrive-and-could-be-part-of-strategies-to-save-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Biodiversity helps coral reefs thrive \u2013 and could be part of strategies to save them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cody Clements<\/a>, Georgia Institute of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Coral reefs are home to so many species that they often are called \u201cthe rainforests of the seas.\u201d Today they face a daunting range of threats, including ocean warming and acidification<\/a>, overfishing<\/a> and pollution<\/a>. Worldwide, more than one-third of all coral species are at risk of extinction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I am one of many scientists who are studying corals<\/a> to find ways of helping them survive and recover. As a recent report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows, researchers are exploring many different strategies<\/a>. Some, such as managed breeding to make corals more tolerant of stresses, are already being developed at small scales. Others, such as moving corals to colonize new areas, have not been tested yet.<\/p>\n

My own work examines whether greater diversity of coral species on reefs can help corals survive and thrive. In a study published earlier this year, my colleague Mark Hay<\/a> and I found evidence that the answer is yes<\/a>. This finding could help to inform broader strategies for making coral reefs more resilient in altered oceans.<\/p>\n

In nature, more is better<\/h2>\n

Are ecosystems healthier if they contain many species than if they harbor only a few? This is a central question in ecology. Generally, scientists have found that ecosystems with more diverse foundation species<\/a> \u2013 those that define a system and are inseparable from it<\/a>, such as trees in a forest \u2013 tend to be healthier and function better<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until recently, no one had applied this test to coral reefs. But we do know that healthy coral reefs are diverse, structurally complex ecosystems dominated by corals. In contrast, reefs that have been damaged by stresses such as coral bleaching events<\/a> tend to become simplified, less diverse landscapes, often dominated by seaweeds.<\/p>\n

For our study we chose a reef area on the southwestern coast of Fiji\u2019s main island, Viti Levu, in the South Pacific. Many reefs along this coast have been heavily degraded by overfishing and other human-related activities, reducing coral cover and allowing seaweeds to dominate.<\/p>\n

There are hundreds of coral species across the Pacific, but at smaller scales, we found just five species or fewer during preliminary surveys conducted on the degraded reef at our site. Since these conditions mirror what is happening to many reefs worldwide, we saw it as an ideal place to test whether coral diversity matters for the \u201cnew normal\u201d that we expect to see on reefs of the future.<\/p>\n