Unravelling the real estate choices of corals and sponges to restore degraded reefs

A growing human population and a changing global environment expose the fragility of coral reef ecosystems. A Southern Cross University marine expert has found that while the deterioration of coral reefs is a concern worldwide, our reliance on coral reefs for cultural, economic and social values continues to place enormous pressure on the functioning of these remarkable ecosystems.

Determining how the corals and sponges of the Great Barrier Reef seek out their homes is the focus of the paper ‘Larval Settlement: The Role of Surface Topography for Sessile Coral Reef Invertebrates’ published in the journal PLoS ONE led by Dr Steve Whalan, a Research Fellow in Southern Cross University’s Marine Ecology Research Centre.

Watch videos of coral larvae as they explore experimental settlement surfaces containing small holes: