A plan to create a fertility clinic in order to breed endangered coral has been launched by scientists.
They want to harvest billions of sperm and eggs, and then freeze them, in an effort to save corals in the World Heritage-listed reef from extinction.
Impact of Warming To Be Measured By 'Blood Test' for Corals
A blood test for corals to measure how they are being affected by climate change and human activity is being developed by researchers.
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The world's largest living organism has shrunk by about half over the past 30 years as a result of climate change, ocean acidification, pollution and crown-of-thorns starfish, which prey on coral, the Independent reported.
Dr. Mary Hagedorn from the US's Smithsonian Institution, who perfected the techniques while working with coral in Hawaii, is liaising with Australian colleagues to deploy those techniques in the cause of conservation.
![Corals may Quit Warming Oceans: Marine Scientists]( "Corals may Quit Warming Oceans: Marine Scientists")
According to new evidence unearthed by marine scientists, corals could quit equitorial seas as the warming trend continues unabated.
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science helped to gather samples for the DNA bank, which has been set up at Western Plains Zoo in the town of Dubbo, in the New South Wales outback, 250 miles from the sea.
If all goes according to plan, the genetic material will be thawed and used to grow new coral which will then be reintroduced into the wild and transplanted back into the ocean to help restore and repopulate damaged reefs.
Some of the samples will be used for research aimed at improving coral's resilience and ability to adapt to changing conditions, while some will remain in storage indefinitely for many years.
According to Australia's ABC radio, Dr Hagedorn said that he has already cryogenically preserved coral sperm and embryonic cells in Hawaii and said that they put them into cryo-tubes, and then they float them on a little lake of liquid nitrogen that freezes them at about 20 degrees per minute, down to minus 196 Celsius.
He added that then they immerse them in liquid nitrogen and then put them in a dry shipper container.
Source: ANI
Corals may Quit Warming Oceans: Marine Scientists
According to new evidence unearthed by marine scientists, corals could quit equitorial seas as the warming trend continues unabated.
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Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science helped to gather samples for the DNA bank, which has been set up at Western Plains Zoo in the town of Dubbo, in the New South Wales outback, 250 miles from the sea.
If all goes according to plan, the genetic material will be thawed and used to grow new coral which will then be reintroduced into the wild and transplanted back into the ocean to help restore and repopulate damaged reefs.
Some of the samples will be used for research aimed at improving coral's resilience and ability to adapt to changing conditions, while some will remain in storage indefinitely for many years.
According to Australia's ABC radio, Dr Hagedorn said that he has already cryogenically preserved coral sperm and embryonic cells in Hawaii and said that they put them into cryo-tubes, and then they float them on a little lake of liquid nitrogen that freezes them at about 20 degrees per minute, down to minus 196 Celsius.
He added that then they immerse them in liquid nitrogen and then put them in a dry shipper container.
Source: ANI
Too Many Symbiotic Algae Make Corals More Vulnerable to Bleaching: Study
A new study reveals that corals may be more severely impacted by climate warming when they contain too many symbiotic algae.
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 Indonesia's Corals' New Life Sparked by ElectricityCyanide fishing and rising water heat causing the ruins of corals off Bali found hope until a diver inspired by a German scientist's facilitated in developing a project now simulated worldwide. | Advertisement
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