marine science

Coral reefs are one of the most important marine ecosystems in the world, but climate change and other stressors are pushing on their wellbeing and leading to degradation. That’s where reef restoration comes in, where scientists and volunteers work to reproduce tiny corals and transplant them onto degraded reefs—but this restoration mostly focused on survivability, and not variety. In a new approach, a group of scientists have constituted what they call “Reef Carpets”, which are patches of restoration efforts filled with biodiversity. They found that these “Carpets” jumpstart a whole reef ecosystem, leading to better outcomes in the long run.