COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new tool has emerged to help protect coral reefs by increasing their food supply.
This innovative device, called the Underwater Zooplankton Enhancement Light Array (UZELA), is an underwater light that attracts zooplankton—tiny organisms that corals eat.
In a six-month study involving two coral species from Hawaii, researchers found that UZELA significantly boosted the local zooplankton numbers. This led to higher feeding rates in both healthy and bleached corals. By providing more food, corals become stronger, making them better able to withstand environmental challenges like heat stress and ocean acidification.
“Coral reefs contain one-third of all marine species but cover less than 1% of the ocean,” said Andrea Grottoli, the study’s lead author and professor at The Ohio State University. “Losing them would be a huge loss for ocean health.”
Published in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods, this study highlights the alarming state of coral reefs. Climate models suggest that, at the current warming rate, many reefs could disappear by 2050. This would endanger the ecosystems relying on them and the millions of people who depend on them for fishing and coastal protection.
While UZELA might not solve all coral reef problems, it can aid restoration efforts. Grottoli refers to it as a short-term “band-aid” that could protect corals for about two decades. Furthermore, with a single battery, the device can work for six months and optimize feeding by operating just for one hour after sunset.
Even though artificial light can affect marine life behavior, the research shows that using UZELA does not harm the surrounding zooplankton flow. “UZELA doesn’t take away from the other corals nearby; it just pulls them closer to where the corals can feed,” Grottoli explained. With this setup, feeding rates can increase by 10 to 50 times.
This increase means corals can meet a significant portion of their metabolic needs through zooplankton, boosting their chances of survival. “Our goal is to introduce new technology for coral restoration,” said Grottoli. “It’s a handy tool for valuable reefs and investments already made.”
UZELA is versatile and can be easily maintained by divers after it’s installed in optimal spots underwater. While today’s UZELAs are built by hand, the team is collaborating with an Ohio engineering firm to make a more manufacturable version, expected within the next three years.
“We aren’t addressing climate change quickly enough to save coral reefs, but UZELA offers a promising way to buy time,” Grottoli further noted.
Other contributors to the study include Shannon Dixon and Ann Marie Hulver from Ohio State, as well as Claire Bardin, Claire Lewis, Christopher Suchocki, and Rob Toonen from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. The research was made possible by support from the University of Hawai’i Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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Contact: Andrea Grottoli, [email protected]
Written by: Tatyana Woodall, [email protected]
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Newswise, Coral Reefs;Environment;Climate Change;technology development;coral reef conservation;marine ecosystems;Zooplankton;Marine animals;Coral Recovery;Global Warming, Ohio State University
