Coral

Recent severe bleaching events to strike the Great Barrier Reef have led to widespread death of the corals making up world’s largest living structure, but scientists are coming up with increasingly inventive ways to repair the damage.

Scientists are looking into replacing dead and crumbling coral heads with plastic replicas, and some fish prefer them to the genuine article.

Three species of Caribbean coral are hardy enough to survive the rising levels of ocean acidification expected to take place over the next century. Whilst the corals were able to live in the unusually hostile environment, their skeletons were seriously affected, leaving them vulnerable to erosion.

In these times of coral reef die-offs, it's vitally important to monitor the abundance and variety of corals on the reefs that remain. This is currently performed visually by scuba divers, but there may soon be a quicker, cheaper and easier method – just check the water for coral DNA.

A Queensland University of Technology (QUT) team has developed the "LarvalBot" underwater robot that, for the first time, has succeeded in reseeding damaged areas of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with heat tolerant baby coral polyps to help combat the effects of predators and climate change.

​It's no secret that the world's coral reefs are in trouble, and unfortunately scuba divers can only do so much in the way of monitoring or protecting them. Scientists in Australia, however, have developed an autonomous underwater drone that could be of great help.

The ultimate fate of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is looking pretty dire. Now, researchers from the University of Queensland have outlined a plan to recycle dead coral into structures that can help protect the remaining reef and promote new growth.

Artist and environmental sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor has just completed his most remarkable work to date, a semi-submerged tidal gallery exhibiting a number of artworks designed to evolve over time as they are colonized by algae and weathered by the environment.

As the fate of the Great Barrier Reef remains uncertain, a new study has examined the health of the reef over the last 30,000 years, and found that it has suffered five “death events” in the past – but its current woes could be the last straw.

We've recently seen a number of proposals for protecting coral reefs from the dangers of climate change, and now it turns out that corals already have a self-defense mechanism. They can release aerosols into the atmosphere to create a protective "cloud umbrella."

​As if the world's coral reefs weren't already in enough danger due to bleaching, a new study indicates that plastic trash is also killing them off. According to the study, when such debris comes into contact with corals, the likelihood of disease increases from 4 to 89 percent.

​Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in a bit of trouble. The Australian government has announced a AU$60 million plan to preserve the world's largest living structure, but environmental experts are wondering whether it is simply a way of avoiding a larger, more complex issue.