Audio recordings of healthy reefs—an underwater chorus of fish songs and crackles from snapping shrimp—may help efforts to restore coral ecosystems harmed by climate and human impacts, scientists said Wednesday.
Audio recordings of healthy reefs—an underwater chorus of fish songs and crackles from snapping shrimp—may help efforts to restore coral ecosystems harmed by climate and human impacts, scientists said Wednesday.
With the future of the world’s biodiversity-rich coral reefs threatened by climate change, some experts are looking for rehabilitation strategies to go alongside broader efforts to slash planet-heating pollution.
Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say one such method to help reefs rebuild could be sound, after they broadcast audio from a healthy reef to entice coral larvae to settle on the seabed at a degraded reef.
Coral larvae use a range of signals from reefs, including chemical cues, as they swim through the open water in their first stage of life looking for a permanent home, said Nadege Aoki, lead author of the study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
