Sound Used to Improve Reef Complexity

 

A speaker is installed on the seafloor to play the sounds of a healthy reef ecosystem in the hopes of encouraging coral larvae settlement. (Photo by Dan Mele, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Aran Mooney has found that by recording the sounds of a healthy reef and playing them back to coral larvae, the larvae may settle where they normally wouldn’t—on a damaged reef in need of restoration.

Larvae placed in acoustically transparent cups and isolated from all other environmental cues were more likely to settle onto the reef and grow when the cups were placed on a vibrant, noisy reef than on a degraded one lacking a complex soundscape.

Although that seems like bad news for damaged reefs, coral larvae’s attraction to healthy reef sounds could prove to be a powerful tool in reef restoration efforts.

Read more here.